"Well, Mithradates was a soldier, too." (p. 216)
- reminds us of:
"Tene Mithra etiam miles..." (Scroll down)
"[Mithradtes] sat in the canton chief's high seat, which was shaped like the lap of stag-horned Cernunnos." (ibid.)
"Eodan remembered the king, motionless on the knees of a conquered god." (p. 218)
To conquer a people was to conquer their gods.
"Around the room gleamed [Mithradates'] unmoving hoplites..." (p. 217)
We have had hoplites before. See here and here.
That is all for now unless anyone wants to reread this chapter and tell me what I have missed? Flavius returns by the way but I am not presenting a mere plot summary. The next chapter has an interesting discussion about the relationship between civilization and barbarism.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Or a religion could "conquer" a nations or nations despite them not being conquered by other powers. As Christianity did to the Roman Empire and, later, to the Scandinavian countries.
Ad asta! Sean
Hoplites:
IIRC in the Poul Anderson story in the shared world collection "Medea: Harlan's World"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea:_Harlan%27s_World
Humans early in the exploration of Medea find some animals that are heavily armored & the humans name the 'hoplites' after the heavily armored soldiers of ancient Greece.
Kaor, Jim!
I also thought of our Terrestrial porcupines, whose armor of sharp quills tends to discourage attack from far larger predatory animals.
Ad astra! Sean
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