Sextus wants to use gunpowder against invading barbarians:
"'This province is my home, the home of my family and my kin, it holds the ashes of my ancestors of many generations, the temples of my Gods, and the hope of my descendants.'" (p. 152)
We remember Horatius.
"And how can man die better...?"
Firing explosives at the enemy from a distance, man will not have to die. A much better outcome! The time travellers can make a genuine attempt to use instruments of war to prevent further wars instead of to perpetuate them indefinitely. But, of course, I do not know how this series is going to turn out any more than any other reader.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Absolutely! Sextus was right to feel strongly about defending his home and native province. Nor do I care how many barbarians had to be killed to do that. All the wild men had to do avoid that was not attacking the Empire.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yeah, but that wouldn't occur to them if they thought they had a good chance of getting away with it. It doesn't, at that stage of development.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, and that depleting of the usual border garrisons, because of the war with Parthia, would make raids and invasions even more tempting to the barbarians.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that general attitudes towards death were different before modern medicine.
You could die at any time -- a relative of the President of the US in the 1920's died of an infected scratch he got playing tennis at the White House.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, re death. Just getting out of bed can be dangerous.
I remember that as well, a son of President Coolidge dying of an infected scratch.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yup, death was present all the time and could take you at any moment.
I remember my mother was -very- particular about cleanliness -- she was born into a world -with- germ theory but -without- antibiotics.
One of her friends in Peru died after a rabid bat got caught in her hair; another of the Black Death.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! Life is precarious and should not be taken for granted.
Ad astra! Sean
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