Yes, Augustus was no oriental king or emperor: he was never called so and he undoubtedly used not fair means to maintain his power (despite his PR propaganda).
Aeneas is not the founder of Rome, but the founder of the gens Iulia (from the name of his son, Iulo Ascanio), the same family of Iulius Caesar and his adopted son's, Ottaviano Augusto. Virgilio, the writer, wrote the Aeneid during Augustus'reign with clear demagogic intent. Numa is one of the Seven Kings (mythic and at 99% false characters), not a founder of rome (he merely built the outer walls, if I am correct). Caesar was not assassinated for idealistic reasons (freedom, tradition etc.) as in Shakespeare's. But for economical-power seeking reasons: he was supported by the Army and by the Plaebeians, not the people but the middle class, the new class of artisans and traders. The noble, landowners, patrizi, senators, wanted to maintain the Status Quo and so killed Caesar to block, in a futile but sensible attempt, the emerging of the new rich class.
Classical liberty was very different from today's freedom. Right. More important: the idea of Man itself was different: slaves and barbarians and POWs were not men so why worrying about their freedom?
I can't recall at the moment the example of historical empires, before the modern age, which did not rely primarily on sea trade for their communications. Maybe the mongol, central asian empire, was one, but they had their horses, hadn't they, so why bother with boats?
I think that, as you say, the Abbasyd Empire is a much closer model for the Lunar one than any other, easier to remember, historical entity. But that could be debated, I suppose.
One last thing: many ancient state religions were dualistic. I believe it had social and economical explanations: if you personalize your enemy in a foul god, you can easily focus the powerful social forces and keep them from destroying you. You can aim their efforts agains outsiders or threaten them not to dare strike the state hierarchy because its your only ally in preserving your soul from hell. I am not Marxistic, I stress it, but Karl was no fool.
Ciao
Gian
Powered by hypermail