We take for granted what writers of fiction do. They have had to learn how much can be done with written words.
At the end of CHAPTER FOURTEEN, a legate tells Artorius (time traveller):
"'The Emperor in Rome shall hear of you service to the State.'" (p. 213)
From its opening sentence, CHAPTER FIFTEEN is narrated from the point of view of Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus in Rome. (Names of earlier Emperors are confusingly used as a mixture of titles and additional names.)
The Emperor receives reports about Artorius and converses with Galen who has corresponded with Artorius.
They are impressed by Artorius' mixture of knowledge and modesty. He claims to know much that turns out to be true but also acknowledges that there is much that he does not know. The Emperor is impressed with Artorius' clever derivation of distillation from distillare!
Marcus Aulerius and Galen deduce some of the structure of English from Artorius' written Latin: use of capital letters; spaces between words.
Artorius and his companions have strange powers but are prepared to use them for Rome and mankind. Marcus Aurelius will go to where Artorius is. The mountain will go to Muhammad.
12 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I reread Chapter Fifteen more than once with keen interest! If Marcus Aurelius was even only half as able and conscientious an Emperor as described by Stirling, then he was a truly rare and admirable ruler.
In our real world, Marcus Aurelius did go to personally command the war against the Marcomanni, a conflict which devastated the Pannonian provinces and parts of NE Italy. The Emperor did win his war and even temporarily conquered what is now the Czech Republic, but the struggle exhausted him and the Empire (and probably hastened his death). Unfortunately, Commodus withdrew from his father's conquests.
Ad astra! Sean
I don't think anything outside Rome and its environs was really "real" to Commodus.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
It sure looks like that! Trying to recall the word for people like that. Narcistic?
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I remember now, was Commodus a solipsist? A bad fault for anyone to have in public life.
Ad astra! Sean
Probably an outgrowth of the way he was raised.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I don't quite see that being the case, not if his parents were devoted and conscientious in caring for their children. I think Commodus was like that from birth.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yeah, some people just -are- like that. It may be genetic.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And it's even worse when we recall how some people are sociopaths/psychopaths. I put down such things to howe are Fallen.
Ad astra! Sean
We have risen.
Paul: actually, sociopaths survive more often in modern societies -- they offer more possibilities...
Kaor, Paul, Mr. Stirling, and Janet!
Paul: The overwhelming evidence of real life, real history, etc., does not support your denial of how innately flawed, imperfect, prone to conflict, etc., all human beings are.
Mr. Stirling: Absolutely! Stupid sociopaths end up dead or in prison--the smart ones figure out how to survive/prosper.
Janet: It's good to see a new "voice" here. I have some sympathy for some of what you wrote, while being more skeptical of some of your other comments.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am looking at the same "real life, real history, etc" as you but understanding it differently. Please acknowledge that.
The overwhelming evidence is that the first human beings were not created in a sinless state from which they Fell but that they evolved by natural processes from other species, further that society has developed and has been qualitatively transformed through several stages from hunting and gathering tribes to the present high tech global economy. Therefore, it CAN, not necessarily WILL, be transformed further.
Why do we keep repeating this?
Paul.
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