Tanja wrote: <I know what you mean about the flavour of decadence, which is why I chose the Byzantine Empire,>
Mmmm ... yes, quite possible, there's The Secret History (set in Justinian's rule, can't recall the author) in which an impressive amount of backstabbing, political skullduggery etc goes on (I'm not so sure about the immorality and decadence; for all her toy-boy proclivities, Servalan gives the impression in Gambit that she sees herself as Above All That.)
<because during the Julian-Claudian dynasty, Rome actually was still on the rise, not in its decadent stage. Never mind Caligula's mad shenanigans, the infrastructure and the administration were still sound, and the Empire hadn't even reached its largest extension yet.>
Again agreed; when using the term 'Roman' I was actually thinking less of the Federation as a whole and more of simply the elite, the President's court if you like. Compare it to decline of the aristocratic oligarchal elite under the late Roman Republic and early Empire.
<Though... in the year of the Three Emperors, following Nero's suicide, we do have an atmosphere very like the Federation following Servalan's coup d'etat, with general after general going for the throne.>
Interesting that Our Villainess, the one *we* have most interest in, is in fact one of the failures, President for 1-2 years at most, and would probably end up a minor, forgotten footnote in history (Blake, OTOH, will be a legend like Robin Hood or the Charge of the Light Brigade. IMO, he would be irresistable to folk lore, even more so after Gauda Prime).
<However, with Vespasian finally installed, everything stabilised again. So, alternatingly, could it be that the Federation after a final major shake-up becomes even more, not less stable?>
But outside factors are against it. The Federation, as I see it, is still in real trouble even as it expands in the last series; it's stretched its resources almost to breaking point and is heavily, dangerously dependent on one super-weapon (aka the writers thought up this brilliant McGuffin and luckily didn't have to deal with the 5th-series consequences). From Warlord :
MIDA: Resistance means armies, Avon, whatever you say, and we haven't got them.
AVON: Well, neither has the Federation. At least not sufficient to indulge in widespread conventional conquest.
IMO, this larger picture would fit rather well with your later, decaying Empire.
Though... in the year of the Three Emperors, following Nero's suicide, we do have an atmosphere very like the Federation following Servalan's coup d'etat, with general after general going for the throne. However, with Vespasian finally installed, everything stabilised again. So, alternatingly, could it be that the Federation after a final major shake-up becomes even more, not less stable?
Tanja
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