The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass

by Frederik Pohl

Release: June 1962
Format: Short Story
Genres: Science Fiction, Comedy
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

This cautionary tale about Snodgras—time traveler who brought modern-day healthcare back to the Roman Empire—originally appeared as an essay in the editorial pages of Pohl’s Galaxy[/em] along with a nod to L. Sprague de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall, but it’s since made its way into more than one story compilation.

— Michael Main

Snodgrass decided to make the Roman world healthy and to keep its people alive through 20th century medicine.

DEBUT

“The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass,” Galaxy Magazine, June 1962.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

PRIOR WORKS: inspired by Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprage de Camp (1939)

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Middle Ages (AD 476 to 1454): about the time of the birth of Christ
Circa AD 2000 to 2099: went back some two thousand years

Timeline Models

Multiple Naive Timelines

Time Travel Methods

Generic Time Machine

Themes

Fix Someone Else’s Timeline Wreckage!: Those 900 trillion future beings must fix Snodgrass’s screw-up.
Technology and Science from the Future: mostly healthcare

Real-World Tags

Roman Empire

Groupings

Galaxy Science Fiction (periodical): June 1962
Cited in Time Machines by Paul J. Nahin ()
Urania (periodical): #851, 23 December 1979

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From the 20th century ⋙ to the Roman Empire, circa AD 1. Note: Snodgrass embarks on his mission.
From the 20th century ⋙ to the Roman Empire, AD 1. Round trip. Note: a volunteer with a gun, presumably roundtrip.