You select a cheap single-format reader and what appears to be a very basic grade school level introduction to "world history". The reader costs a denarius and the book a dupondius. You hand them one of your "X" bills and receive back a handful of coins: 4 Antoniniani (silver), 1 Quinarius Denarius (silver), 1 Sestertius (bronze), and 1 Dupondius (bronze).
You are able to get bread baked with meat and/or cheese and/or vegetables cheaply, getting two such loaves for a Dupondius; each makes a satisfactory meal. There are fountains with fresh water throughout the city, and people drink from the spray; you can also buy wine or beer cheap if you prefer, fruit juice or milk at a higher price.
It appears that the Roman Empire is still run by a rather powerful emperor and a rather impotent senate, but that it has advanced in great strides, ruling the entire civilized world. This entire "civilized" world, though, ends somewhere around India and the Ural Mountains, does not include Antartica, and reaches Iceland but not Greenland. Otherwise Rome holds sway over all of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, all of it by right of conquest.
There are various religions represented, most of the what we would call pagan polytheisms or mystery religions or gnostic religions. The spiritual power within these religions is recognized, and priests of many faiths are called upon to work with the government and the armies as a matter of course. Some of the emperors have been recognized as gods, but the current one makes no such claim despite having divine ancestors.
There is some history of wars on the borders, which appear to be ongoing in the present. Of course, everyone outside Roma is a barbarian, but there appear to be two distinct kinds of barbarians. To the east are the Mongol-chin. From all appearances, their science is extremely limited--they have gunpowder, but there is no evidence of electrical generation or motor vehicles. Even modern satelite imaging has not found any trace of technology. Further, Roman priests claim that their land is so barbaric that not even the gods are welcome there, and there is almost no magical energy beyond the eastern boundaries of Rome. Yet somehow these Orientals have found ways of traveling in space, without space ships or suits, orbiting the planet on simple wooden platforms.
To the west, meanwhile, are the Azmayincans. These people are somewhat easier to understand. They excel at magical powers, being able to work wonders beyond anything ever seen in Roma and even using their magic to travel through the vacuum of space. However, they seem to have no concepts of the lever or the wheel, and it is thought that they still start fires by prayer.
Both barbarian groups seem to have some power that renders Roman technology ineffective, and thus it has not yet been possible to bring these barbarians under the proper authority of the Roman Emperor.
There are more details concerning the succession of emperors and the conquest of the civilized world, but the conquest was over centuries ago. Latin, or a modern version thereof, is the only language spoken throughout Roma at this point, although there are a few scholars who can read Greek and so study the Greek philosophers in their original language, and a few other ancient languages including Egyptian heiroglyphs and sanskrit are still studied as scholarly pursuits. The barbarians have their own languages.
--M. J. Young
