Across Empires and Eternities: Conversations I Wish I Could Have

Across Empires and Eternities: Conversations I Wish I Could Have

If destiny ever granted me a ticket through time—a golden pass to meet minds who shaped civilisation—I would choose three giants whose thoughts, triumphs, and temperaments still ripple across history: Julius Caesar, Leonardo da Vinci, and Leo Tolstoy. Each of them belongs to a different world, yet their influence journeys far beyond their own eras. To sit with them would be to sip from the fountains of power, genius, and moral truth.

Julius Caesar: The Architect of Ambition

If history ever produced a man who walked with fate at his side, it was Julius Caesar. To meet him would be to encounter the very embodiment of ambition—steady, strategic, and unstoppable.

I would ask him:
“What gave you the nerve to cross the Rubicon?”
Was it confidence? Calculation? Or the quiet whisper of destiny?

His life reads like a theatre of impossibilities—captured by pirates as a young man, he demanded they double his ransom; declared war when scorned; returned to Rome as a hero, a reformer, and ultimately a martyr to his own greatness.

His story still teaches us that courage often comes disguised as risk, and that progress demands a willingness to step into the unknown. In an age where hesitation often beats conviction, I would ask Caesar how he silenced doubt and marched forward with such magnificent audacity.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Man Who Dreamed in Blueprints

Da Vinci is not merely a historical figure—he is a galaxy unto himself. To meet him would be to watch thunder think.

The man who could paint the faintest smile in human history also imagined flying machines centuries before humanity touched the skies. His notebooks were worlds, scribbled with inventions, observations, and questions—always questions.

I would love to ask him:
“How did your mind travel so effortlessly between art and science?”

He would perhaps smile, tilt his head, and sketch something mid-conversation—a bird’s wing, a mechanical limb, the curvature of light.

Leonardo teaches us that imagination is not luxury—it is a responsibility. The world moves forward only when someone dares to dream for it. His curiosity was not a trait but a flame, one that burned through the boundaries of disciplines, languages, and eras.

Leo Tolstoy: The Conscience of Humanity

Where Caesar mastered empires and da Vinci mastered ideas, Tolstoy mastered the human soul.

To meet Tolstoy would be to sit with a philosopher dressed as a novelist. His words peel back the layers of life—war, peace, love, guilt, kindness, suffering, redemption. He understood humanity not through crowns or canvases but through hearts.

I would ask him:
“What does it truly mean to live a moral life?”

Tolstoy’s later years, spent in simplicity and reflection, reveal a man in search of spiritual clarity. In a world of speed, distraction, and noise, I would want to hear him speak about compassion, conscience, and how one finds peace while living amidst the storms of existence.

Three Eras, Three Minds, One Timeless Lesson

What unites these giants?
They each remind me that greatness is not a destination but a pursuit.

– Caesar teaches boldness.

– Da Vinci teaches curiosity.

– Tolstoy teaches conscience.

Their lives whisper that the world is shaped by those who refuse to stop asking, Why not?

If I could meet them, I would not only listen to their stories—I would carry back their spirit. A spirit that tells us to rise beyond the ordinary, to question our limits, and to live a life richer in courage, imagination, and meaning.

Across the corridors of time I’d walk,
To hear three legends think and talk.
A ruler, a dreamer, a sage so wise—
Each holding truth that never dies.

From Caesar’s roar to Leo’s pen,
And Da Vinci’s worlds beyond our ken—
I’d gather lessons, bold and bright,
To guide my days and guard my night.