# Digest urth.v004.n021

*The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 16 Sep 1997*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/207>

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### Alice Turner
*16 Sep 1997, 14:45*

> His real name is Lucius; he is a Latin; he was cursed by the Great
> Mother Goddess for messing up her temple during a battle; "Latro"
> means both "mercenary" and "pawn" (game piece), and Lucius is
> definitely both; and, in the interview words of Gene Wolfe, Lucius
> has a truly magic sword--"It cuts things." <g>

Plus, there are a lot of real people and real events in the books. Latro's
nearest and dearest are fictional, of course, but the "important" periphal
characters, politicians, royalty and such (as opposed to farmers and the
like), are not. Latro gets caught up with these people, never quite
understanding his role. The gods are the Greek versions; though Latro is
Roman, this is early enough so that the Romans had not yet adopted (and
adapted) the Greek pantheon---and of course the gods would necessarily be
local, anyway.

Eheu fugaces!
-alga-

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### Derek Bell
*16 Sep 1997, 19:33 · follows Alice Turner*

In message <199709161849.LAA13496 at lists1.best.com>, Alice Turner writes:

> Plus, there are a lot of real people and real events in the books. Latro's
> nearest and dearest are fictional, of course, but the "important" periphal
> characters, politicians, royalty and such (as opposed to farmers and the
> like), are not.

	I think I remember one scene sparked off a memory and I
realised that Latro was fighting Ulysses in hand to hand
combat. (Maybe with knives too?)

	Tercel

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### Michael Straight
*16 Sep 1997, 15:52 · follows Derek Bell*

Spoilers for Soldier Series...

>> On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, Alice Turner wrote:
>> His real name is Lucius; he is a Latin; he was cursed by the Great
>> Mother Goddess for messing up her temple during a battle; "Latro"
>> means both "mercenary" and "pawn" (game piece), and Lucius is
>> definitely both; and, in the interview words of Gene Wolfe, Lucius
>> has a truly magic sword--"It cuts things." <g>

> Plus, there are a lot of real people and real events in the books. Latro's
> nearest and dearest are fictional, of course, but the "important" periphal
> characters, politicians, royalty and such (as opposed to farmers and the
> like), are not. Latro gets caught up with these people, never quite
> understanding his role. The gods are the Greek versions; though Latro is
> Roman, this is early enough so that the Romans had not yet adopted (and
> adapted) the Greek pantheon---and of course the gods would necessarily be
> local, anyway.

I have a friend who is a Classics professor who specializes in this time
period.  I thought he might enjoy these books, but when I described it to
him, he said that Latro's chronology doesn't work.  At the time of the
events of the novel, the closest thing to Latin in the world was a dialect
spoken only by a few farmers in a ten-mile radius somewhere near what is
now Rome, and even then, who knows how close it was to what we know as
Latin.

The best I could think of to make it work is that Latro is somehow one of
those farmers impressed into military service or gone off to seek his
fortune as a mercenary, except isn't it implied that the language of the
people Latro rescues at the end (Phonecians?) is the same Latin he's been
writing?

-Rostrum

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