History Main / GivingRadioToTheRomans

* You can literally give radio (technology) to the Romans in the versions of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' that permit technology trading (and feature radio as an available technology).

* ''[[RomeSweetRome Rome, Sweet Rome]]'' examines whether a modern U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit could overthrow the Roman Empire in the reign of Augustus (23 B.C.).

* Mateo from ''WebOriginal/DriftlessWormhole'' has a similar problem to Paul Twister's listed above. He can describe science and technology from his own society in broad strokes, but he has has trouble nailing down the details that would allow anyone to actually build any of it.

* In ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'' the main character Maine slowly rises up from a poor commoner as she begins selling knowledge/products from her original world. Thing is, this isn't even what she's trying to do: Inventing paper, mass producing ink and making shampoo are only so that she can make books more accessible and not feel so totally disgusting while living in poverty, the other stuff came when she needed the money to [[spoiler:get access to Magic Tools and stave off the [[PentUpPowerPeril Devouring]]]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'', a {{Nerd}} from 1994 gains the power to travel through time and attempts to use modern technology in the ancient past to TakeOverTheWorld. His nearest success was to get people in the past addicted to video games and then bribe their servitude with batteries.

* ''Series/{{Timecop}}'': In "Rocket Science", a German yuppie travels to the '40s and introduces enhancements to Nazi technology. Slightly justified in that he had already done all the research he needs in order to improve their tech. When Logan goes back ([[ItMakesSenseInContext again]]) to stop him, he walks into his lab, where a German scientist is trying to figure out how to work the yuppie's laptop. The Nazi is obviously having trouble with a concept such as a portable computer. Logan simply smashes the laptop and leaves. Of course, he leaves all the pieces in the past, which means there should still be a potential for reverse-engineering it.

* Subverted in the ''Series/QuantumLeap'' episode "The Leap Back." Ziggy's handlink accidentally travels back to 1945 with Al after the simo-leap, but it doesn't work because Ziggy doesn't exist yet so there's nothing for the device to link up with. Indeed, when that episode's love interest is seen punching buttons on the dead handlink, Al comments that the device probably won't work again until 1999.

* Subverted in the ''Series/QuantumLeap'' episode "The Leap Back." Ziggy's handlink accidentally travels back to 1945 with Al after the simo-leap, but it doesn't work because Ziggy doesn't exist yet. Indeed, when that episode's love interest is seen punching buttons on the dead handlink, Al comments that the device probably won't work again until 1999.

* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': Each faction of time travelers is trying to shape the development of technology in their own way. The resistance is assassinating developers of A.I. that they think could lead to [=SkyNet=] and the various machine factions trying to either pre-stage resources for the war and facilitate [=SkyNet=]'s creation, or in the case of the rebel machines [[spoiler:led by the T-1001/"Catherine Weaver"]] to develop their own A.I. to oppose [=SkyNet=].

* ''The Last Day of Creation'' by Wolfgang Jeschke. The protagonists are stranded five millions years in the past, and while Neaderthal man proves willing and able to learn to use [=20th=] century jeeps and firearms, the protagonists conclude that none of this will amount to anything given the millenia to come. One reason they're stranded however is because alternate timelines have been created; it's suggested by a more effective version of this trope in which a small team of military advisors with modern weapons time travel to a crucial point in history, ensuring that Cortez is ambushed by machine guns or Columbus gets roasted with napalm.

* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Life of Brian" begins in a present-day America ruled by the Native Americans thanks to Stewie traveling back in time and giving them automatic weapons.

* {{Averted}} in the sense that no time travelers have gone back to change things... [[PlausibleDeniability as far as we know]].

** Also his contribution to Creator/HarlanEllison's ''Literature/DangerousVisions'', "Eutopia", is about an alternate world where Alexander the Great solidified his Empire and the Greeks are still ruling the world in 1960 AD (or thereabouts).

* ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'': Two factions from the far future, one attempting to make a future hostile to transhumans, the other trying to save a tolerant future, attempt to change the past by introducing gunpowder and the knowledge of its use to certain factions of late antiquity, sparking an arms race in which the Eastern Roman Empire (and allies) and the Malwa empire of India blitz past several centuries’ worth of advances in firearms, rocketry, and explosives technology in a handful of years. Towards the end of the war, the Romans do, in fact, get radio. Neither the future that was, nor the future if TheBadGuysWin happen, as a new GoldenEnding happens significantly different than ours.

* In a crossover story between the ''Franchise/{{JLA}}'', the ''ComicBook/{{JSA}}'' and the ''ComicBook/AllStarSquadron'', time-travelling villain Per Degaton attempts to acquire weapons and technology from the future to conquer the world of the 1940s, but discovers he can travel between alternate Earths after accidentally traveling to Earth Prime and then to the Limbo between universes, where he gets the Crime Syndicate of America (formerly of Earth-Three), to steal nuclear missiles from Earth-Prime's Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which he brings to Earth-Two's 1942.

* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Life of Brian" begins in a present day America ruled by the Native Americans thanks to Stewie traveling back in time and giving them automatic weapons.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'', a {{Nerd}} from 1994 gains the power to travel through time and attempts to use modern technology in the ancient past to TakeOverTheWorld. His nearest success was to get people in the past addicted to video games and then bribe their servitude with [[BatteriesNotIncluded batteries]].

[[caption-width-right:350:"Cross the river and go to Rome! [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Alea Iacta Est]]!" Hey, wait a minute. Something here does not seem right... [[note]]A-ha! [[ComicallyMissingThePoint That stenciling is using Arabic numbers, not Roman numerals!]][[/note]]]]

In a crossover story between the ''Franchise/{{JLA}}'', the ''ComicBook/{{JSA}}'' and the ''ComicBook/AllStarSquadron'', time-travelling villain Per Degaton attempts to acquire weapons and technology from the future to conquer the world of the 1940s, but discovers he can travel between alternate Earths after accidentally traveling to Earth Prime and then to the Limbo between universes, where he gets the Crime Syndicate of America (formerly of Earth-Three), to steal nuclear missiles from Earth-Prime's Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which he brings to Earth-Two's 1942.

* In the ''Literature/SchooledInMagic'' series, Emily has a long term goal and plan to bring her new world into the modern era. Throughout the series she slowly introduces the populace to new ideas, inventions and way of doing things. She knows the risks and possible wars that will come from this, but she feels that the benefits it will bring to the common people will be worth it.

* The plot for ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft's'' fifth expansion, ''Warlords of Draenor'', is kicked off by Garrosh going back in time 35 years to Draenor (the world the orcs come from) and introducing Azeroth's modern vaguely steampunk technology to the hunter-gatherer orcs.

** And he later tries to modernize the Lamuellans. The only invention he succeeds in introducing is the sandwich. They take it very seriously, though, and Arthur's position of divine sandwichmaker gets him even more respect than the village chieftain.
*** A bit of a Deconstruction: Arthur doesn't know ''how'' to make anything but sandwiches. Because Arthur is the consummate average man, he doesn't understand most of the technology he's familiar with. If you were in Roman times, could ''you'' make a digital camera? Thought not.