A Sound Policy

To Turn The Tide, CHAPTER NINETEEN.

Marcus Aurelius agrees with Artorius that toleration of all forms of worship that do not upset the public order is a sound policy but thinks that there will still be problems with Christians because they refuse to participate in sacrifices to the Emperor and Rome. Artorius replies that, as with the Jews, Christians could be permitted to pray for the Emperor. He also clarifies that Christian rituals are not cannibalistic feasts and explains them in a way that reminds the Emperor of Orphic beliefs and Eleusinian Mysteries. Men seeking the Infinite:

"'...find common aspects of it.'" (p. 289)

Persecution of Christians might be halted and persecution by Christians prevented. How symbolic is it that a Jew named Josephus has sponsored Artorius? Also, how symbolic is the name "Arthur"?

(Marcus Aurelius in this novel, like Augustus and Lycius in Neil Gaiman's "August," is an Initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries.)

Artorius seems to be individually wise because he is able to encapsulate the wisdom of subsequent centuries and millennia.

Caesars

I have borrowed The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves, from the Public Library. The title characters are:

DIVUS JULIUS

DIVUS AUGUSTUS

TIBERIUS

GAIUS CALIGULA

DIVUS CLAUDIUS

NERO

GALBA

OTHO

VITELLIUS

DIVUS VESPASIAN

DIVUS TITUS

DOMITIAN

Janne Floris of the Time Patrol to Manse Everard:

"'You remember, at the overthrow of Nero, civil war broke out. The year of the three Emperors - Galba, Otho, Vitellius - then, in the Near East, Vespasian - devastating the Empire as they contended."

-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 467-640 AT 2, p. 488.

Thus, two sentences in Time Patrol summarize important information about five of Suetonius' "twelve Caesars." 

Lycius the dwarf writes in his memoirs that:

"Augustus's will set the bounds of the Empire; forbade any expansion."

(Poul Anderson mentions this Augustan policy in "The Discovery of the Past." See Perspectives.)

Lycius continues:

"And in his will Augustus also appointed Tiberius as his successor. Our divine rulers have, since then, been successively evil, mad, foolish and -- now -- all three."

-Neil Gaiman, "August" IN Gaiman, The Sandman: Fables And Reflections (New York, 1993), pp. 98-122 AT p. 122, panel 4.

I think that Lycius means:

Tiberius, evil;

Caligula, mad;

Claudius, foolish;

Nero, all three.

Thus, Janne and Lycius summarize information about nine of the Caesars.

Perspectives

Homer, expressing the Greek perspective, describes Odysseus as crafty and wise whereas Virgil, expressing the antagonistic Trojan perspective, describes Ulysses (the same character) as cruel and deceitful.

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, the Fall of the Terran Empire is followed by a period of chaos called the Long Night. Pete Pinto, the second-hand bookseller, made the point that later civilizations which had grown out of that period would not refer to it as "the Long Night."

Poul Anderson imagines an sf writer in Augustan Rome who considered three possible futures:

the Empire will conquer the whole world;

in accordance with Augustan policy, the Imperial borders will remain unchanged;

the Empire will fall as barbarians move in, leaving - 

"...nothing...but ruins and wilderness."

-Poul Anderson "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 182-206 AT p. 190.

Instead, Anderson tells us that:

"A heretical offshoot of the religion of a subjugated people, afar in a corner of the Mediterranean ambit, took over Romans and barbarians alike, completely transforming them and breeding new, utterly different civilizations." (ibid.)

Augustus himself, in a fictional account, tells Lycius the dwarf that the prophetic volumes foretold that either the Romans would:

"...last a few hundred years and then [be] gone - - eaten from outside by barbarians, from inside by strange gods."

-Neil Gaiman, August IN Gaiman, Fables And Reflections (New York, 1993), pp. 98-122 AT p. 113, panel 5 -

- or that they would conquer the whole world.

And here is my point about perspectives: what Anderson describes as transformation by a foreign heresy, Augustus describes as being eaten by strange gods!

Historical Fiction

Quick breakfast post before a day above the Old Pier Bookshop.

Writers of historical fiction must read history. I read of the Roman generals, the Scipios, father and son, in Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est." While "studying"/suffering Latin at school, I found that I was translating a sentence about the younger Scipio saving his father's life at the battle of Ticinus. I reflected that, unknown to the historians, Time Patrolman Manse Everard was nearby at Ticinus.

Neil Gaiman's "August," about the Emperor Augustus, is presented as extracts from the memoirs of the dwarf, Lycius. Gaiman's source was Robert Graves' translation of Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars which confirms the historicity of Lycius as depicted in "August," although we must assume that the dwarf's memoirs relating the real reason for the decline of Rome have not survived...

Authors of fiction write in the cracks of history.

Terminus

(We, editorially speaking, are incapacitated by a cold, although not covid, so there might not be much posting today. There are some dvds waiting to be watched.)

Lycius: Eh? Who could be greater than Jupiter the greatest and most powerful? 

Augustus Caesar: Hm. Firstly, Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jupiter must bow to him; boundaries are the most important of things, Lycius.

 

-Neil Gaiman, "August" IN Gaiman, The Sandman: Fables And Reflections (New York, 1993), pp. 98-122 AT p. 107, panel 5.

 

To be is to be one thing, not another. Thus, boundaries define everything. Terminus asks Morpheus to inspire Augustus to set the bounds of the Roman Empire. Millennia later, Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire, says:

 

"'Oh, the empire won't have to expand forever. Just till it's big enough to defend itself against all comers.'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Star Plunderer" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, 2011), pp. 325-362 AT p. 356.

 

Terminus is the name of the last inhabited planet at one end of the Galaxy in Isaac Asimov's future history and a terminus is the end of the bus route and this will be the end of my efforts for a while.

But checkout a good ghost story called "Terminus."