When Flandry sees that his gaudily kilted guard carries a knife and two shrivelled hands on his belt, he thinks:
"Barbarians!" (p. 243)
Barbarians are in space because unscrupulous merchants have sold them modern weapons and spaceships. The guard carries a knife but wields a blaster. They act barbarically on an interstellar scale:
"...we are they from whom the Alarri fled.'" (p. 244)
In Flandry's youth, the Terran Navy had had to smash the Alarri fleets at the Battle of Mirzan.
Anderson projects Terrestrial history onto the cosmos. The Schotani who had displaced the Alarri are referred to as:
"...another tribe..." (p. 245)
We do not usually envisage extra-solar rational species as rival "tribes." And these "tribes" have names with Latin plurals: Schotanus, Schotani; Alarrus, Alarri.
Poul Anderson also wrote about Terrestrial history:
2 comments:
The Terran Empire was based on the Roman, of course.
I think this is a bit of a weakness, because the two states are not analagous.
The Roman empire was built relatively slowly, a process of accretion around the core of Rome and Latium, hammered together over centuries and associated with a single people and language -- effectively, a nation-state expansion.
Whereas the Terran Empire apparently was more like Alexander's -- the creation of one man bringing order out of chaos in a very short period of time.
One thing that's also apparent from Roman history is how contingent things were. The Roman -imperium- very nearly slagged down like Alexander's in the civil wars of the 1st century BCE.
That one warlord, centered on Rome (Octavian/Augustus) came out on top and consolidated a single state is obviously not preordained; and the fact that Octavian, despite rather fragile health, reigned for 40 years (into his 70's) is also unlikely, given them mortality patterns of the day.
A breakup into separate states ruled by post-Roman warlords was equally likely -- possibly more so.
Speaking of the Volkerwanderung, one thing recent ancient DNA research has proven is that migrations, including mass migrations, are historically quite common.
For example, just this year aDNA research on the early medieval period has shown that the Anglo-Saxon migrations to England in the 5th and 6th centuries were (relative to the total size of the populations involved) enormous movements of complete family groups -- replacement level in parts of the east and north, with a 78% or more level of genetic turnover, and around 50% in most of the south and Midlands.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Yes, it was sheer accident that Octavian Augustus had the abilities needed to triumph over his rivals in the civil wars of the dying Republic, AND had the genius needed for remodeling Rome into a form, the Empire, which lasted for centuries. And it was sheer chance that Augustus lived as long as he did!
And Augustus' achievement continued to haunt the Western imagination, both in the past and in modern times. And, I believe, in the future as well. Which means Manuel Argos did not have to grope blindly for the forms and models needed for founding his own Empire. He had precedents he could creatively reshape to make the Empire work for Technic civilization. Including trying to avoid the mistakes made by Augustus (like not instituting a clear and orderly law of succession).
NOT surprised invaders mostly exterminated the older inhabitants of the lands they overran. Human beings are like that, alas.
Ad astra! Sean
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