Everything Is Connected

Unexpected connections are always satisfying. Reflecting on Heinlein's and Anderson's future histories (here) led to reflection on a very different future history model. See here.

Brian Aldiss refers to Cyrus the Great in his Introduction to the 1983 edition of James Blish's The Quincunx Of Time! Fans of Poul Anderson do not need to be reminded of Cyrus' importance either to the Time Patrol series or to history. It is a sign of the latter importance that Aldiss mentions Cyrus here:

"Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, restored the Hanging Gardens of Babylon..."
Brian Aldiss, "PEEP: An Introduction to THE QUINCUNX OF TIME" IN James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1983), pp. 6-10 AT p. 9.

In the Time Patrol universe, there is/was a timeline in which Patrolman Keith Denison played the role of Cyrus and therefore would have restored the Hanging Gardens. Thus, there is a connection between this Introduction and the second Time Patrol story - a remote connection but we perceive it.

Blish's diptych of Quincunx and Midsummer Century, like Anderson's Time Patrol series and other time travel works, is a major conceptual successor to Wells' The Time Machine:

Blish's characters discuss time as a fourth dimension;
his "world-line cruising" is pastward time travel;
his "time-projection" involves time-traveling consciousnesses, such as Wells discusses;
his far future perpetual summer recalls Wells'.