Wednesday 13 April 2016

A Little Latin

Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling, The Prince (New York, 2002).

We have found quite a lot of Latin in Poul Anderson. Here is a little more from Pournelle and Stirling -

p. 624: Legio Patria Nostra, The Legion is our Fatherland;

p. 1151: AVE. AVE LYSANDER, IMPERATOR!", HAIL. HAIL LYSANDER, EMPEROR!

There may be more. There are over a thousand pages here.

"Imperator" meant "commander" but was applied as a title to Augustus and became the basis of the English word, "Emperor." Clearly, the First Empire of Man looks back to its Roman roots as does Anderson's Terran Empire.

Poul Anderson gave us not only a future empire modeled on the Roman Empire but also the Roman Republic and Empire in several works. Thus, Anderson's complete works, incorporating both historical fiction and hard sf, present a unique perspective on history as a single process, both past and future.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

While I agree that both Anderson's Terran Empire and Pournelle's First Empire of Man were inspired, in part, by Rome, the empires should not be thought to be modeled too closely on Rome. For example, for centuries at least, Anderson and Pournelle's empires were politically far more stable. I would suggest the Medieval stress on dynastic legitimacy played a role here, enabling the descendants of Manuel Argos and Lysander I to rule with undoubted legitimacy.

Sean