Re: RL language n' stuff...

From: donald_at_...
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:08:33 GMT


In message <49C48C0A.1030009_at_...> Douglas Seay writes:
>Joerg Baumgartner wrote:

>> If they really looked into it, they would recognize it as false... Caesar
>> was a dictator in the late Republic. Octavian founded the Empire.
>
>Semantics. He was pretty much a monarch. As long as he payed lip
>service to the Republican institutions, he could get away with whatever
>he wanted. The Empire may not have been finalized under him, but he
>pushed the Republic in that direction. I personally consider the two
>triumvirates and the period between them as transitional, but you can
>draw the line wherever you like.

There's a considerable difference between a dictator and a monarch in classical terms. The Greek tradition of dictators was a response to an emergency by appointing someone to rule unchallenged for a period of time. That might be a term of years, for the duration of the emergency or for life. A monarch was someone who ruled by right of birth and the favour of the gods.

>Hmm. All Rome, no Whitewall. Sorry 'bout that.

The Emperor of Dara Happa is a classic monarch. I don't know of anywhere in Glorantha that has a dictator but then again I know of no Greek style democracies either. Maybe somewhere in the Lunar Empire has had something like that in the past.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/

Powered by hypermail