Historical Continuity

David Falkayn:

"'Civilization needs more than the few monopolists we've got.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, January 2009), pp. 449-484 AT p. 455.

Coya Conyon:

"I can't say I like most of those money-machine merchant princes..." (p. 456)

The Polesotechnic League become cartelized in Mirkheim.

Centuries later, Chunderban Desai:

"'Technic civilization started on that road when the Polesotechnic League changed from a mutual-aid organization of free entrepreneurs to a set of cartels. Tonight we are far along the way.'"

-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, p. 274.

A tremendous sense of continuity through a long future history series. 

Now I am trying to hear some news, read two other books and attend the Zen group.

Molitor And Diocletian

The Dominate phase of the Roman Empire began with Diocletian.

The rule of the Terran Empire by force alone began with Hans Molitor. (Also here.)

So is Hans the Terran Diocletian? Apparently not because, during Hans's reign, Chunderban Desai says:

"'...we too shall have our Diocletian...'"

-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, p. 274.

So that has not happened yet. (According to Desai.)

Apparently, again according to Desai, Diocletian did make a temporary reconstruction. Flandry had helped Molitor's efforts to restore old institutions (A Stone In Heaven, p. 75) but they were too late.

In any case, Hauksberg thinks that the Empire was won and maintained only by naked power from the start.

These read like conflicting interpretations of past history.

What Josip Said And Hauksberg Thought

Josip, not much:

pleased to see Hauksberg;

doesn't see him often;

the Starkad affair is "'...dreadfully serious and constructive.'" (Ensign Flandry, p. 9);

hopes Hauksberg can relax this evening;

"hmph"'s when Hauksberg says must leave early;

beams when Hauksberg says that, for his nephew, meeting the heir apparent would be "'...better'n a private audience with God.'" (ibid.)

Hauksberg's earlier reflections are more pertinent:

"Everybody knows the Empire was won and is maintained by naked power, the central government is corrupt and the frontier is brutal and the last organization with high morale, the Navy, lives for war and oppression and anti-intellectualism." (p. 6)

So don't take the Empire seriously.

What Cairncross Thought

When Emperor Gerhart converses with Edwin Cairncross, information about the state of the Empire is principally conveyed not by what Gerhart says but by what Cairncross thinks:

their period is an age of plots, murders, revolutions, betrayals and upheavals;

Gerhart is widely believed to have killed his brother and predecessor, Dietrich;

however, Gerhart is tolerated because the Empire needs a strong hand against civil war, Merseians and barbarians;

the Molitors' only claim to the Throne is their strength;

they are not descended from the Founder.

The reader either already understands or will soon realize that Cairncross thinks that that strong hand should be his, not Gerhart's.

At least four men plot or attempt to seize the Throne by force during Flandry's lifetime:

McCormac

Molitor

Cairncross

Magnusson

Flandry defeats McCormac and Cairncross. Molitor succeeds. Another Intelligence agent, Targovi, leading a neat little combo including Flandry's daughter, defeats Magnusson. During Gerhart's reign, Flandry is able to influence Crown Prince Karl. And we want to read more.

Romans

I highly recommend everyone to read about Terran Emperors in Poul Anderson's Technic History and about Roman Emperors in Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars. The latter informs us about vices that we might never have heard of. Such things would have happened during the reign of Terran Emperor Josip but Anderson rightly spares us unnecessary details. There are many potential spin-off series from the Technic History... 

Romans in fiction by Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman inspired me to request Gaiman's source, The Twelve Caesars, from the Public Library. Understanding of how an author has woven diverse historical data into a coherent narrative enhances our appreciation of his fiction. 

Other but not unrelated Romans in fiction:

Alan Moore's Top 10 series has a parallel Earth where the Roman Empire has survived into the twentieth century, the first visual clue being a Police Commissioner wearing a head-band engraved with "SPQR." Their "barbaric" customs ask newly arrived travellers whether they are carrying any strange gods. ("Barbaric" is a joke by a "Praet" (Praetorian guard/cop).) 

At Blog Central, we have just received our copy of SM Stirling's To Turn The Tide. The AFTERWORD mentions the following relevant earlier works:

"The Man Who Came Early" by Poul Anderson

Household Gods by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Light

We know where we have come from but not where we are going to.

The Usurper's Three Sons

When Dominic Flandry arrives at the Coral Palace for the bon voyage party during which he will have a private audience with Emperor Hans, Crown Prince Dietrich receives while his younger brother, Gerhart, gets drunk. Poul Anderson telegrammically summarizes information about both these brothers.

Dietrich:

plain of face;

middle-aged;

stout, becoming corpulent;

had worked with Flandry during the civil war.

Gerhart:

"imperially drunk" (A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, p. 264) with cronies;

sullen as usual.

Adjectival information is added at the end of the audience. Dietrich is dull and Gerhart is scheming whereas dead Otto would have been trustworthy.

When Gerhart is Emperor, he is suspected of having assassinated Dietrich and even Hans although the latter would have been too shrewd for that.

There is still more to post about Emperors but other activities call.

What The Usurper Said

Hans Molitor wears:

"...the pyrocrystal ring of Manuel the Great..."

-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, p. 267 - 

- and has a:

"...huge Roman nose..." (ibid.)

- if the latter is of any significance.

He tells Flandry that he:

has been Emperor for six years;

spent the first three fighting;

needs another twenty or thirty years to make this jerry-built, dry-rotted Empire last a few more generations;

must lead an armada to quell the barbarians in Sector Spica.

His son, Otto, unfortunately killed, would have been a trustworthy heir, unlike Dietrich or Gerhart.

What The Founder Said

Three hundred human slaves have killed every Gorzunian in a spaceship and now decide what to do next:

"Theoretically it was a democratic assembly called to decide our next move. In practice Manuel Argos gave his orders."

-"The Star Plunderer," p. 354.

Argos is in a state transitional between leader and ruler.

He argues:

an empire is necessary for defence;

collecting tribute can make it pay; 

this is one of those historical periods"'...when the enforced peace of Caesarism is the only solution.'" (p. 356);

Caesarism is better than the current devastation;

an empire in fact should be an empire in name;

people fight for symbols;

a hereditary aristocracy will be a valuable archaism;

a dynasty can last with good breeding stock, a hard school and gerontology;

as with the Romans, all worthy individuals of any race can become citizens.

When they return to Earth:

"...the thin winter wind [is] like a cleansing bath around [Reeves]..." (p. 361)

The wind is always with us.

Emperors On The Empire: The Sources

What do the Terran Emperors themselves tell us about their Empire? Or, indeed, do any of them say anything particularly illuminating on this subject?

Our sources are:

Manuel Argos in conversation with John Henry Reeves:

Poul Anderson, "The Star Plunderer" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 325-362 AT pp. 354-360.

Hans Molitor in conversation with Dominic Flandry:

Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 239-426 AT III, pp. 266-271.

Gerhart Molitor in conversation with Grand Duke Edwin Cairncross:

Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 1-188 AT V, pp. 49-55.

Also, Crown Prince Josip, not yet Emperor, converses with Lord Markus Hauksberg in:

Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010) AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 9.

We will find out.

Imperial Phases: Terra

 

Technic civilization was first a republic (the Solar Commonwealth), then an empire (the Terran Empire).

Our main sources are two conversations of Dominic Flandry:

With Chunderban Desai

Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 239-426 AT III, pp. 271-276.

With Miriam Abrams

Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 1-188 AT VI, pp. 70-76.

Flandry tells Miriam that the "'...earlier order...,'" (p. 73) i.e., the Commonwealth, had committed suicide, bringing on chaos:

"'So again, as before, came Caesar.'" (ibid.)

However, in the case of Rome, the Republic, although maybe (?) heading towards suicide, had not committed it yet. Julius Caesar did not restore order after the Republic but instead accumulated power during that period and his successor, Octavius, continued this process, gradually transforming the Republic with a princeps senatus into a Principate with a princeps.

If the Principate was the continued appearance of republican government, then how could there have been a Principate under Manuel I who merely imposed his own imperial rule directly onto the chaos of the post-Commonwealth Troubles?

Desai tells Flandry that the Terran Empire is:

"'...well into our anarchic phase... Or our interregnum, or whatever you wish to call it.'" (p. 273)

Interregnum between what? Flandry spells out to Miriam that she and he:

"'...happen to be living in a critical stage of the Empire's decline, the interregnum between its principate and dominate phases.'" (p. 74)

Again, how can there have been a principate? And surely they are already well into the dominate phase? - since Flandry also tells Miriam that:

"'Now nobody can claim power by right - only by strength.'" (p. 75)

Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization seems to place the Dominate phase much later.