"'...we live on the edge. We have got to show we aren't safe for unfriends to touch. Otherwise, what's next?'
"'Nemo me impune lacessit,' Flandry murmured.
"'Hm?'
"No matter. Ancient saying. Too damned ancient; does nothing ever change at heart?'"
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 573.
Everything changes but not at the same rate. The Latin phrase, meaning "No one attacks me with impunity," is the motto of the Scottish Order of the Thistle and of three Scottish regiments, appeared on the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Scotland and still appears on the version of the United Kingdom coat of arms used in Scotland. The saying, apparently attributed to Julius Caesar, has had wide use in military contexts, according to Wikipedia.
Gospodar Bodin plans a retaliatory attack on the Merseian Rhoidunate. Knowing that the Empire would disapprove, Flandry nevertheless participates in "Bodin's raid" and even provides it with a suitable target, Chereion. Bombarding this planet cripples Merseian Intelligence and the Empire, if it had had the will, could then have finished Merseia.
5 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I dunno, I agree the Dennitzan raid on Chereion disastrously crippled Merseian Intelligence for many years. And I can see how an all out attack by the Empire on the Roidhunate might well have forever removed Merseia as a threat to Terra. Still, I'm uneasy, wars have a way of turning out differently from what those who fought in them had hoped. For example, the massive attack needed to cast down Merseia would have necessitated drawing large forces from the other frontiers of the Empire, possibly opening it to disastrous barbarian invasions, if nothing else.
So, maybe the "grindstone half war" with Merseia was the least bad alternative?
Sean
Sean,
Yes, I was quoting a later Merseian opinion, Tachwyr in THE GAME OF EMPIRE, I think.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
And I can even cite a possibly analogous real world example of the danger in a great power trying to permanently dispose of a rival. Here I mean the long war the Eastern Roman Empire fought with Sassanian Persia from about 602 to roughly 628. True, it was a defensive war on the Eastern Empire's part, resisting Chosroes II's attempt to conquer her. But it ended with the Emperor Heraclius defeating and breaking Persia. Next, while both powers were exhausted from this struggle, the Arab Muslim invasions began after 634. Persia was conquered and the Eastern Empire suffered enormous losses of territory and had to struggle desperately for bare survival for the next 80 years.
So, it might have been wise of the Empire to avoid attempting a once and for all finish fight with Merseia.
Also, while many powerful persons in the Empire would not approve of even a limited retaliatory raid of the kind Gospodar Bodin planned, both he and Flandry had good reason to believe Emperor Hans would SYMPATHIZE with the raid. Flandry even said Hans would probably use any protests against the raid to flush out influential appeasers from the gov't.
And, if the shoe had been on the other foot, I think the Merseians WOULD have been reckless enough to attempt a finish fight with the Empire.
Sean
Sean,
Yes, Hans would have approved and would have used responses to the raid to flush out appeasers. But Flandry would have participated in the raid even if Hans had disapproved and would then, if necessary, have remained in exile on Dennitza.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Good point, one I agree with, IF Hans had been different enough from what we know of him that he would have disapproved of the raid on Chereion.
I'm also reminded of how 14 years later, in A STONE IN HEAVEN, Flandry thought for a time that the measures he took to thwart Edwin Cairncross' ambitions might have forced him to leave the Empire as an exile.
Sean
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