# Short Story 61*: Civis Laputus Sum

*The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 30 Apr 2014*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6540>

> 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.

---

### Tony Ellis
*30 Apr 2014, 22:06*

> Marc Aramini wrote:
> There is an odd statement Jeremy makes, saying his murder will be ?the
> first time in five thousand years one of us has taken the life of one of
> them.

3000BC is the rough date that is often given to the expression 'the
beginning of recorded history', so perhaps that was what he meant. But
*why* is that date given? Because it's roughly when writing appeared,
hence 'recorded' history. So I think Jeremy means that people like him
- the scribes, the scholars - have been the victims for as long as
their class has existed.

---

### Marc Aramini
*01 May 2014, 00:22 · in reply to Tony Ellis*

Seems right to me!  Thanks Tony.  Though Jeremy should strive for more
accuracy; history is written by the winners!!!

> On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 3:06 PM, Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com>wrote:
> 
> 
> 3000BC is the rough date that is often given to the expression 'the
> beginning of recorded history', so perhaps that was what he meant. But
> *why* is that date given? Because it's roughly when writing appeared,
> hence 'recorded' history. So I think Jeremy means that people like him
> - the scribes, the scholars - have been the victims for as long as
> their class has existed.
> _______________________________________________

---
