The First Three Emperors

Manuel Argos was forty when he founded the Solar/Terran Empire. However, he says that these are:

"'...the days of gerontology and hundred-year active lifespans.'"
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 357.

So will Manuel reign for six decades? He intends to "'...chose good breeding stock...'" (ibid.) and to train his sons hard so that his empire will last for centuries. A character in the next story obligingly summarizes subsequent history. Two hundred years later, Manuel's grandson, Manuel II, reigns. Thus, we do not know the name of the Founder's immediate heir. We do learn that the adjective derived from the name Argos is "Argolid" and this latter term will still be used in Flandry's time.

An empire was necessary because the alternative was savages with spaceships. Manuel I defeated the barbarians who had invaded the Solar System, then conquered and civilized them. He had to subjugate closer stars in order to secure his lines of communication although this led to fighting elsewhere. Planets conquered for their wealth would in any case have been incorporated through economic necessity. Manuel II has nearly attained an empire large enough for economic self-sufficiency and defense but not too large for control. In the inner Empire, security and central power have eliminated many social evils. Ansa, an underpopulated agricultural planet still exposed to barbarian raids, is forcibly annexed because the Empire needs to protect its Sagittarian flank. However, Ansa, although initially unwilling, is now safe and part of a great socio-economic system so the Ansan resentment of Solar imperialism is not expected to last.

This exposition makes the space opera setting of an interstellar empire sound almost believable.