Appian

Tony Ellis · 28 Aug 2006, 17:49 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com (Tony Ellis)
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:49:11 +0100
Subject: (urth) Appian
Message-ID: <000001c6caca$44f7c190$6401a8c0@cthulhu>

Rex Lycanthrosaurus wrote:
>But even if Tony's right, and 62 is not the penultimate autarch's
>lifespan, but the length of his reign, other factors may impact on his
>putative age. 

You're either misreading me or misquoting me. :-) I have never said that
62 years was the length of the penultimate Autarch's reign. 62 is the
number of years that have passed between a point when we know Appian was
on the throne and the point when Severian meets the penultimate Autarch.
I'm saying that this *can't* be the length of the penultimate Autarch's
reign. It would make him far too old.

As for there being some sort of extenuating circumstances... There is no
evidence that Appian was only a boy at the time of the 62-years-ago
incident describe in The Cat, there is no evidence that the penultimate
Autarch's trip to Yesod took decades off him. 

If anything, the lack of evidence is a strike against such arguments. It
seems a little unusual that a ten-year-old Autarch should *not* be
remarked upon. It seems a little strange that Severian can describe
'his' Autarch as almost like 'a plump woman of 40' and not wonder how
someone who has been doing the job for at least 62 years could look so
young.

And finally we have the mysterious Paeon, whom Roy also mentions. You
reason that the penultimate Autarch may have been 5-12 years old when
Paeon trained him, 50 years ago, and I agree. But since we know Appian
had been on the throne *at least* 12 years by then, doesn't that support
my theory rather than yours?

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