Distant Mirrors

See here.

I said in that post that we value imaginative fiction both because of its exotic, unfamiliar settings and because it reflects our reality in the mirror of fiction. Thus, I almost word for word reproduced Neil Gaiman's title, Distant Mirrors, without realizing that that was what I was doing.

Gaiman's Distant Mirrors tetralogy contains much of interest to readers of Poul Anderson -

"Thermidor" about Robespierre with a cameo appearance by Tom Paine;

"August" about Augustus with flashbacks to Julius;

"Three Septembers And A January" about Emperor Norton of the United States with cameos of Samuel Clemens;

"Ramadan" about Harun al-Rashid.

There is a particular parallel between Anderson and "August." See here.