Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991).
Gnaeus Cornelius Patulcius:
was born into an equestrian family in the late Roman Republic;
comments that, as the state and its territory grow, "'...clerks, registrars, annalists [and]
archivists...provide a government with its memory...'" (p. 340);
converses with Hanno in 1938 in Chapter XVI;
converses with the curator of Oxford in ? in Chapter XIX, section 7;
converses with the seven other Survivors in section 9;
is in bed with Aliyat in section 15;
complains to Flora/Macandal of Aliyat's promiscuity in section 19.
The guy grows on us. He is so reserved in earlier conversations that it is a big jump to find him in bed with Aliyat but it all makes sense. Despite his self-effacement, he is a human being, not a piece of office equipment!
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