Tuesday, 11 June 2019

Two Last Knights

(Post amended because of comment. See combox.)

Poul Anderson's historical novel, The Golden Slave, and his Time Patrol story, "Delenda Est," show us the Roman Republic.

Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Star of the Sea," deals with the Roman Empire.

The King Of Ys by Poul and Karen Anderson describes the decline of the Roman Empire.

Poul Anderson's Trilogy about Harald Hardrada is called The Last Viking.

His Time Patrol novel, The Shield Of Time, features the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II.

The two Dominic Flandry collections by Anderson are:

Flandry Of Terra;
Agent Of The Terran Empire.

The last novel to feature Flandry is The Game Of Empire.

Volumes III, V and VI of The Technic Civilization Saga by Anderson are:

Rise Of The Terran Empire;
Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire;
Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra.

In "The Star Plunderer" by Anderson, the Founder of the Terran Empire states that he will base his new regime on the Roman Empire.

In the light of all this historical fiction and fictional history, I was surprised and amused to read about:

"...the great King Maximilian, Holy Roman Emperor, 'The Last of the Knights,' as he is named by his proud loving subjects..."
-Dornford Yates, Perishable Goods (London, 1928), CHAPTER IV, p. 108.  

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Strictly speaking, "Delenda Est" shows us the rising Roman REPUBLIC, not Empire. Rome was a MAJOR and ambitious power in the Second Punic War, but not yet so dominant that all other powers in the Mediterranean world had to cower before her.

Seam

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Right. I will revise the post.
Paul.

S.M. Stirling said...

One thing the Second Punic War showed was that the Romans had more resilience than any other power in the Hellenistic world.

It wasn't just that they were big, though they were bigger than any individual Greek city-state; some of the Hellenistic kingdoms were bigger and more populous.

It was that Rome could combine the intense civic loyalties of a city-state with the size and population of a kingdom. Rome turned subjects into Romans; this was something that Greek cities were very bad at, and usually didn't try, since they were too exclusive.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stiring!

I agree! The Romans CONVERTED the peoples they conquered into Romans.

Sean