{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5100", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 5100, "subject": "Maximinus Thrax", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2008-07-11T14:23:42+00:00", "last": "2008-07-11T20:27:02+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Matthew King", "address": "automatthew at gmail.com" }, "date": "2008-07-11T14:23:42+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Maximinus Thrax", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thrax, the name of the city to which Palaemon exiles Severian, is also\nthe Latin name for Thrace. Alice Turner mentioned this in her mapping\nof the geography of Urth onto Earth\n(http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0001/0002.shtml). Thrax was also\nthe name of a son of Ares.\n\nGaius Julius Verus Maximinus Thrax, a.k.a. Maximinus the Thracian,\nrose from common birth to become emperor of Rome in the third century,\nA.D. Disreputable ancient historians claim him a giant, over eight\nfeet tall, known to eat forty pounds of meat in a day. \"[H]is thumb\nwas so huge that he used his wife's bracelet for a ring\". He was\nintelligent and a notably good military commander. During a war\nagainst the Gauls, the legions mutinied, slew the reigning emperor,\nand proclaimed Maximinus the new emperor.\n\nI'm thinking of Baldanders, of course, but I don't recall anything in\nBotNS that would clinch this as a connection.\n\nhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Maximini_duo*.html\n\nImages of Maximinus Thrax\nhttp://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=28983.msg188068#msg188068" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "b sharp", "address": "bsharporflat at hotmail.com" }, "date": "2008-07-11T19:01:01+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Maximinus Thrax", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Matthew King I'm not sure if this impacts your post but I think it is quite well established that \nThe Commonwealth and Severian's journey in BotNS occurs in what would be South America \non Earth. If we accept that Severian putting mountains in the east as a blunder then most of \nthe rest of the geography, animals (even fossils), plants and human culture matches that continent.\n\nI tried to trace his journey once using Buenos Aires as his Nessus starting point and Lake Titicaca \nas the clear model for Lake Diuturna. I found a town of Salto for Saltus, Asuncion might be the \nlocation of the House Absolute. Iguazu Falls are The Cataracts, the Pampas are the Pampas but I \nfound Thrax to be a toughie. Maybe the city of Tarija, Bolivia is the best match.\n\n-bsharp" } ] }, { "message_id": "<17F91673-F617-47C5-A9DE-95E84F39FA91@gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Lane Haygood", "address": "lhaygood at gmail.com" }, "date": "2008-07-11T19:05:36+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Maximinus Thrax", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "You know, something just struck me as I was rereading Dr. Talos' play, \nand now I don't have my book so I can't quote chapter and verse, but \nlook at the section wherein Nod and the Prophet are talking. Nod is \ntalking about the white fountain coming to cure the black hole at the \nheart of the sun, and admits that it will cause death and destruction \n(eschatology) but that this follows in the natural sequence of the \nworld. Nod asks whether he should hate a wound because the wound does \nas it is its nature to do. Maybe from a more global perspective, the \ncoming of the New Sun isn't something that's the result of conscious \nmoral agentive choice, but rather just a completely natural occurrence.\n\nOf course, tucked in to Thomistic natural law hierarchy, this means \nthat it is God's eternal nature which has decreed this to happen, so \nI'm not sure if God gets off the hook for eschatology, but certainly \nthe Hieros and Severian are just cogs in the wheel if Nod is to be \nbelieved.\n\nLane" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Jul 11, 2008, at 2:01 PM, b sharp wrote:\n\nMatthew King I'm not sure if this impacts your post but I think it \nis quite well established that\nThe Commonwealth and Severian's journey in BotNS occurs in what \nwould be South America\non Earth. If we accept that Severian putting mountains in the east \nas a blunder then most of\nthe rest of the geography, animals (even fossils), plants and human \nculture matches that continent.\n\nI tried to trace his journey once using Buenos Aires as his Nessus \nstarting point and Lake Titicaca\nas the clear model for Lake Diuturna. I found a town of Salto for \nSaltus, Asuncion might be the\nlocation of the House Absolute. Iguazu Falls are The Cataracts, the \nPampas are the Pampas but I\nfound Thrax to be a toughie. Maybe the city of Tarija, Bolivia is \nthe best match.\n\n-bsharp\n_________________________________________________________________\nNeed to know now? Get instant answers with Windows Live Messenger.\nhttp://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_messenger_072008\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Matthew King", "address": "automatthew at gmail.com" }, "date": "2008-07-11T20:27:02+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Maximinus Thrax", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 2:01 PM, b sharp wrote:\n\nMatthew King I'm not sure if this impacts your post but I think it is quite well established that\nThe Commonwealth and Severian's journey in BotNS occurs in what would be South America\non Earth. If we accept that Severian putting mountains in the east as a blunder then most of\nthe rest of the geography, animals (even fossils), plants and human culture matches that continent.\n\nI tried to trace his journey once using Buenos Aires as his Nessus starting point and Lake Titicaca\nas the clear model for Lake Diuturna. I found a town of Salto for Saltus, Asuncion might be the\nlocation of the House Absolute. Iguazu Falls are The Cataracts, the Pampas are the Pampas but I\nfound Thrax to be a toughie. Maybe the city of Tarija, Bolivia is the best match." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I apparently hadn't read all of the following interview until today,\nbecause I was surprised at a few of the things in it. It contains the\nmost candid answers I've ever seen Wolfe give on any topic.\n\nhttp://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm\n\n\"Insofar as I was trying to create any kind of parallels with an\nactual historical period here on Earth and obviously I wasn't aiming\nat developing an exact analogy?I was thinking of Byzantium.\nIncidentally, I also got into trouble with some reviewers over my\npresentation of the Ascians, who were my equivalent of the Turks. If\nyou read the book carefully, it's clear that the action is taking\nplace in South America and that the invading Ascians are actually\nNorth Americans.\"\n\nByzantium was located in Thrace. http://www.thracian.info/images/thrace_map.gif\n\nAll that may not be terribly germane to the \"Giant Maximinus Thrax\" reference." } ] } ] }