From: Charles Dye <raster@highfiber.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Severian as Marcus Aurelius
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 08:24:38

Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu> writes:

>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 definitely
>a big influence on NEW SUN--for example, I think Valeria's name is Valeria 
>because Claudius' wife was Valeria Messalina.

Definitely, but the fact that Valeria is a *heliotropic* flower was clearly
a big bonus!

Speaking of flowers, isn't Marcus's reign believed to have been mellowed by
his use of a mind-altering drug?  There's a connection with Severian, perhaps.

raster@highfiber.com



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