Background information / previous post available here: Need to try to install a specific package version -- however apt-cache madison, apt-cache policy only seem to list the latest version, though I don't think it'll be particularly necessary or helpful to read.
I was trying to run rdiff-backup, which failed as shown here. The issue seems to be that Security Onion (I'm told) runs on an older version of Ubuntu, limiting it's rdiff-backup version / repo available to 1.2.8, whereas the latest version of Ubuntu is running 2.0.0 (if I recall the exact version number correctly, which I think I do.)
Now I pretty much got the answers I was hoping for as far as playing with apt-get install and being able to download a specific version -- but somebody recommended I post this as it's own question, so I wanted to follow suit in case it yielded any helpful answers.
As of now, my workaround is just to install an older Ubuntu version; since for my strictly homework purposes, it doesn't matter what OS I rdiff-backup to, just that I backup to a different box with it.