In Poul Anderson's The Boat Of A Million Years, Hanno, the oldest immortal, trades with the court of the British warlord, Artorius, who resists English invaders after the Romans have withdrawn.
In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Dominic Flandry defends the Terran Empire and also makes provision for the survival of several civilized planets after the inevitable Fall of the Empire.
Two observations:
historical continuity through three works set in different timelines;
contemporary relevance - we now live at the end of an age and do not know what will come next.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I agree with what you said on what Gratillonius was doing or trying to do. In the LONG letter I wrote to the Andersons about THE KING OF YS, I stated Gratillonius activities in Armorica was the beginning of Gallo-Roman warlordism, characterized by local strong men taking over power from the regular authorities as Roman rule waned. That does not mean all warlords were bad men, most were simply trying to cope as times worsened.
There were rallies as well as retreats. The last ten years of the reign of Honorius (d. 423) were marked by a determined and reasonably successful effort to regain control of central and northern Gaul. Even Britannia seems to have been reoccupied. I can see Gratillonius coming to terms with the Imperium and seeking to have his position legalized and regularized. The final decline in the Roman west came after Honorius died.
I agree with what you said about Flandry: both defending the Terran Empire and striving to make some of the worlds he visited more able to survive its fall. I did wonder if some remnant of the Empire analogous to our real Eastern Roman Empire might have held longer. An idea which seems to have intrigued Anderson.
Our "age" or historical period might well be coming to an end. For one thing, I don't know how much more folly and bungling the US can tolerate before something fatally breaks. For another, and more hopeful "sign," SpaceX's recent successful testing of the prototype space ship it wants to use for getting to the Moon and Mars could mean, at long last, the beginning of a TRUE Space Age.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that the YS series is very well researched, but the historiography is old fashioned. Current scholarly thinking is that there was very little holdover from Late Roman to medieval times, particularly away from the Mediterranean and in the west; and that classic feudalism and manorialism were developed -de novo- centuries later.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Actually, I agree! The situation seen in Late Roman and at least Early Merovingian Gaul was nothing like what we saw after the collapse of the Carolingian Empire following the death of Louis the Pious. The feudalism we are familiar with took form during the anarchy and chaos of the two centuries after Charlemagne died in 814.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: also, the Roman estate system broke down thoroughly — it was dependent on Roman law and administrative bureaucracy.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
In St. Gregory's HISTORY OF THE FRANKS, I think we still see some remnants of that Roman estate system and legal system being used. Villas, rather than manors, etc. And that was in early Merovingian Gaul.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, it didn’t happen immediately or universally... but close enough for government work. The Roman system only made sense in a world with a money economy and production for the market. By 700, Europe was back to kings traveling from place to place because the food wouldn’t come to them.
Kaor, Mr. Stirlng!
I agree, it took time for post Roman Europe to regress to the situation seen after AD 700, with kings being compelled to make circuits of their realms.
I think early Merovingian Gaul still had SOMETHING of an economy using cash fairly widely. I recall rather frequent mentions by St. Gregory of large sums of coined money being used.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, and that declined. By the 11th century -- and that was after several centuries of increasing development -- West Europeans visiting Constantinople were astonished and offended when people expected them to pay cash right away for things.
They were used to a setup where you settled up once or twice a year; people where they came from just didn't have the cash to do otherwise.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That I had not known! I had been thinking that, at its most primitive, post-Roman Europe had regressed to bartering: so much of item A for item B. With coined money being used for the most expensive goods and services.
The system you described might have its advantages, but I think the disadvantages out weighs them. There were times people could not pay off their debts at the customary times.
Ad astra! Sean
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