"A wind boomed..."
-Poul Anderson, The Dancer From Atlantis (New York, 1972), III, p. 25.
Reid must learn that he is in the time of Atlantis.
("...vortex..." is a terminological parallel with Doctor Who.)
In James Blish's A Midsummer Century, John Martels finds himself not only in a strange environment but also in the wrong body and is stunned to be told that, by his reckoning, he is now in about 25,000 A.D. In this respect at least, his experience is closer to that of Wells' Time Traveller than of Anderson's visitors to historical periods.
In Anderson's The Corridors Of Time, Malcolm Lockridge travels along what looks like a long underground tunnel before being told that the tunnel has taken him and his companion to a historical period.
We encourage blog readers to remember other examples.
We are puzzled by this long detour into time travel and might return to Starfarers tomorrow.
(Timefarers would make a good title.)
19 comments:
One thing Poul gets acrosss well is how -big- human history is.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And he was a model for other SF writers!
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah. He developed a good sense of how -physically- big the universe was, too, after his initial periodl.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I also recall how good Anderson was in succinctly describing how big the Terran Empire was.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yes. Which, by the way, made centralization not really practical. Too much variety; much the same reason it didn't work with the Roman Empire.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
The Empire was governed at its best when it did not try to rule too tightly.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yup. At its peak, the Roman Empire was very decentralized. It basically just kept subordinate units from
*(continued) fighting each other, put down banditry when it could, and guarded the frontiers. And provincial governors (and the emperor) acted as "courts of last resort". The Army also did things like building up the road network and ports and harbors. That, and tax collection, was about it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That sounds very good to me! And not just for the Roman Empire but currently existing States like the US would do well to emulate such a model as far as possible. Let states, counties, cities, towns, etc., run their own affairs as much as possible without the Feds trying to do it.
The Roman Empire did do a few extras, like importing grain from provinces like Egypt and north Africa, to keep the city of Rome happy and quiet--and out of politics. "Bread and circuses" as I think Juvenal sarcastically called it!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: true, but the corn dole in Rome was never enough to support a family -- it was a supplement to an income, a partial subsidy, not a sole source.
Also, it effectively promoted trade -- grain ships carried a lot of other stuff (papyrus, for example), often owned by crew or officers trading on their own account.
And most of the grain imported into Rome was -not- part of the grain dole. Nor was, eg., olive oil.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Thanks, that corrects what I thought was the actual case: a dole meant to support families year around. Only a partial subsidy, which is far better.
And I like the idea of those grain ships also stimulating trade.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yup. Long-distance trade in bulk commodities reached heights in the first two centuries of the Roman Empire that were not seen again until the 18th century, and in some places (the Middle East, frex) not until the 19th and 20th.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And the changes being introduced by your stranded time travelers to Antonine Rome will vastly expand such trade and commerce!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, they'll cut transport costs. Better ships and navigation, better harness and animal-drawn vehicles, better canals, cheaper good roads. Eventually mechanically-powered transport. Having a Post Office will also help, by speeding up and cheapening transfers of information.
Stirling: "speeding up and cheapening transfers of information"
I keep thinking that given Roman technology PLUS telescopes at Galileo or slightly better quality would make semaphore telegraphs possible & useful. IIRC you stated that electrical telegraphs would be not much harder. I will read TO TURN THE TIDE to see what you characters do along those lines.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!
Mr. Stirling: I like all of what you suggested those time travelers were starting. I thought the Roman Empire did have a kind of postal service, even if, officially, it was limited to military and governmental communications. And I can imagine steam powered tech/transportation being possibly relatively soon.
And I've not forgotten how you had Artorius tactfully suggesting to Marcus Aurelius that it was not necessary for the Empire to persecute the Christians. Instead of demanding that Christians sacrifice to Roma and the guiding genius of the Emperor, it would be enough to ask them to pray to God for the Empire and the Augustus.
Jim: I like that suggestion re semaphore telegraphy. But I am not sure when any kind of electrical tech would be practical. And TO TURN THE TIDE is well worth reading!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yup. The basic problem was a different concept of "religion". You could say 'religion in general' in classical Latin, but you couldn't say a -specific- religion.
Pagan Romans thought of it as "all the same sort of thing".
The concept of religions as closed systems separate from each other was something that came from Judaism, via Christianity.
Romans also generally thought that important Gods who resembled theirs -were- theirs -- the head of a pantheon was Jupiter, a muscular God with a big club and small brain was Hercules, a violent war God was Mars, a virgin Goddess was Minerva or Diana, etc.
They often built temples to local deities all over the Empire with the local name and the Latin one tacked together.
And they thought there were an infinite number of minor deities -- it's rather like the Japanese concept of "kami", which runs from local tree sprites up to major Goddesses like Amaterasu Omikami.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, and besides what you said about pagan Romans concepts of the gods and their habit of identifying their gods with the gods of other nations, they also thought of "religion" as a department of state. Romans citizens and free subjects who worshiped these gods were showing respect and loyalty to the State.
Which meant the fierce uncompromising monotheism of convinced Jews and Christians something of a dumbfounding shock to many Romans. Also, besides the arguments proposed by Artorius to Marcus Aurelius, he could have cited the precedent of the compromise Rome made with the Jews. That is, before the Jewish War began in AD 66 the Jews had agreed long before they would offer a regular sacrifice to God for the well being of the Emperor and Empire.
I think TO TURN THE TIDE ended with Marcus Aurelius leaning to the idea of repealing the anti-Christian laws and declaring Christianity a "religio licita" along the lines outlined above. One step in preparing for this would be to meet prominent Christian leaders. In AD 166 the reigning pope was St. Anicetus (r. 155-166/7). A very public gesture would be for Marcus Aurelius to open official discussions with the pope.
Ad astra! Sean
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