Thursday, 7 September 2023

Earlier And Later Empire

In some volumes of The Technic Civilization Saga, a short story is awarded an internal title page. In Volume III, Rise of the Terran Empire, the text of The People of the Wind, an entire novel, begins under its title on p. 437 after the novella (or however it is classified), "Sargasso of Lost Starships," has ended on p. 436. At the end of "Sargasso...," a former Ansan Earl whistles the tune of a song about Terran sky whereas the novel begins as Avalonians prepare for war against Terra. The Terran Empire has annexed Ansa but will not annex Avalon. Poul Anderson presents every point of view.

Having reconsidered the early Imperial period, I want to jump forward to the later Empire as defended by Dominic Flandry maybe in A Circus of Hells but not tonight.

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5 comments:

  1. Sean M. Brooks8 September 2023 at 22:24

    Kaor, Paul!

    I think of "Sargasso" as a fiction within the fiction placed about 250 years before ENSIGN FLANDRY. If this is "true" then I can only regret how little we know about the Empire during those 2.5 centuries--because that would be when Terra was at the height of its power and glory.

    Ad astra! Sean

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  2. S.M. Stirling9 September 2023 at 19:32

    Despite some similarities (and deliberate copying by the Terrans) the Terran and Roman empires are very different.

    The Roman Empire was a monarchic version of the vast domains already ruled by Romans under the Republic.

    The risk in the civil wars of the late Republic wasn't that Rome would vanish, but an analogy to the division of Alexander's empire among the Macedonian warlords who were his heirs.

    Save for Augustus -- both his abilities and the low-probability of a man of sickly health living and keeping his facilities to the age of 75 -- that's probably what would have happened.

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  3. Sean M. Brooks10 September 2023 at 06:45

    Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

    Which is what might have happened if Augustus had died young before the battle of Actium.

    Ad astra! Sean

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  4. S.M. Stirling10 September 2023 at 20:11

    Sean: exactly. There would probably have been at least a threefold division of the territories ruled by the Republic. The one run by Antony and Cleopatra would probably have quickly become Hellenized, except for military organization.

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  5. Sean M. Brooks11 September 2023 at 02:27

    Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

    I can see Antony and Cleopatra setting up a Hellenized Roman-Egyptian empire in the pars Oriens. Who would have taken over in Italy, Gaul, Iberia is anyone's guess!

    Ad astra! Sean

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