From: Charles Dye <raster@highfiber.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Severian as Marcus Aurelius
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 23:51:28

Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@apocalypse.org> writes:
>
>I'm new to the list, so please forgive me if this has already been discussed.
>
>We know that Wolfe is interested in writing about the classical period from
>the Soldier books, and that though a Christian, he shows an admiration for
>the virtue of certain ancient pagans, so it seems quite plausible to me
>that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Marcus
>Aurelius, could form part of the basis for Sev's character.

I think you may have more luck mapping Marcus Aurelius to Patera Silk.
Severian is Claudius -- the Graves version.  (Could the grave robbers
in Chapter I of _Shadow_ be some sort of horrible unspoken punning
homage to Robert Graves?)

For fun, compare Master Ultan with Graves's description of Sulpicius
at the end of Chapter V of _I, Claudius._  Ultan informs us that his
Library has a reading room reserved for the Autarch Sulpicius....

raster@highfiber.com



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