The famous
Hadrian's Wall is just one county north from where I am now in Lancaster. This Wall is the starting point of Poul and Karen Anderson's
The King Of Ys, set during the decline of the Roman Empire. A recent TV program highlighted the lesser known
Antonine Wall, further north, which has not survived.
Finally, there is an Antonine Seabed on the planet Aeneas in Sector Alpha Crucis of the Terran Empire in Poul Anderson's main future history series. The name of this dead seabed is unexplained although it is consistent with other local nomenclature: the star Virgil, the planet Aeneas, the city Nova Roma etc.
Both images show Hadrian's Wall. An interstellar empire must at least be free of walls.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course readers of THE REBEL WORLDS and THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN should be familiar with the Antonine Seabed, but many might not think of how that name was probably meant by Anderson to refer to the Antonine Emperors of Rome in the second century AD. I recall how Sandra Miesel thought of the Antonines as being analogous to Terra's Wang Dynasty.
And any kind of interstellar domain would defend its frontiers using space fleets.
Ad astra! Sean
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