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From: ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Five Thinly Veiled Versions of Rome in SF
Date: 12 Nov 2024 04:58:49 GMT
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In article <vgumdi$1eds6$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde  <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>> In article <vgtnq0$15a52$1@dont-email.me>,
>> William Hyde  <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> James Nicoll wrote:
>>>> Five Thinly Veiled Versions of Rome in SF
>>>>
>>>> For some science fiction authors, all roads really do lead to Rome.
>>>>
>>>> https://reactormag.com/five-thinly-veiled-versions-of-rome-in-sf/
>>>>
>>> Not just in science fiction.  Gondor and Arnor are clearly drawn in
>>> large part from the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.
>>>
>>> And Harry Turtledove wrote at least two Byzantine-inspired series that I
>>> can think of.
>>>
>>> I can't at the moment think of where Asimov used Thucydides.  Perhaps he
>>> just needed him for the rhyme.
>>>
>>> Then there's the explicit use of Rome in DeCamp's "Lest Darkness Fall".
>>> It was amusing to read Gibbon and think of these Goths as pictured in
>>> DeCamp's novel.   Entirely not to my surprise, LSDC knew his stuff.
>>>
>>> It is remarkable how many of these feature late Rome, and not the Rome
>>> of the Republic.
>>>
>>> Well, Alan Yates did write an sf novel "Coriolanus, the Chariot", but
>>> IIRC that had nothing to do with Rome.
>>>
>>>
>>> William Hyde
>> 
>> The Turtledove was Videssos.
>
>But Videssos is a one-to-one mapping of Byzantium.
>
>William Hyde

Yes.  I was identifying one of Turtledove's "two Byzantine-inspired series".
(I didn't bother mentioning the one with "Byzantium" in the actual series
title).
-- 
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