More On Patulcius

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991).

Gnaeus Cornelius Patulcius:

was born into an equestrian family in the late Roman Republic;

comments that, as the state and its territory grow, "'...clerks, registrars, annalists [and]

archivists...provide a government with its memory...'" (p. 340);

converses with Hanno in 1938 in Chapter XVI;

converses with the curator of Oxford in ? in Chapter XIX, section 7;

converses with the seven other Survivors in section 9;

is in bed with Aliyat in section 15;

complains to Flora/Macandal of Aliyat's promiscuity in section 19.

The guy grows on us. He is so reserved in earlier conversations that it is a big jump to find him in bed with Aliyat but it all makes sense. Despite his self-effacement, he is a human being, not a piece of office equipment!