Severian as Marcus Aurelius

Alex David Groce · 03 Nov 1999, 15:08 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Severian as Marcus Aurelius
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 15:08:36
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>Both Claudius and Severian backed into the throne, and both are lame. But I
>think Claudius is presented as something of a bumbling fool (though of
>course he often plays the fool as well), and this is hard to say of
>Severian. And Sev and Marcus Aurelius both lead armies into battle,
>something Claudius could never do.

Actually, in CLAUDIUS THE GOD, he does just that--using (IIRC, it's been
a good while since I read it) elephants in the battle to frighten the Briti=
sh.
Claudius is actually (in Graves' version) a decent military planner, and the
battle description and especially the elephants are (I think) a clear influ=
ence
on the "look and feel" of the battles in CITADEL.  In general, from the=20
prophecy of the Sybil at Cumae, etc., Severian is quite explicitly patterned
on Claudius.  In fact the quickest way to sum up what happens to Severian i=
s:
take the events that happen to Caludius, mix in the Gospel narratives, and
then embed it all in a sword-and-sorcery journey tale.

>Disclaimer: I am mainly familiar with _I, Claudius_ through television, not
>the book.

The books are quite entertaining, and Claudius is much less of a fool than =
in
the television series (or, quite probably, history).  And they are definite=
ly
a big influence on NEW SUN--for example, I think Valeria's name is Valeria=20
because Claudius' wife was Valeria Messalina.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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