Is the Republic effectively the Constantinople Roman Empire?

[Daemion]

After reading the four-part article about the Year of BattleTech, reading up on what Weisman was interested in following out of history, I can't help but wonder of the Dark or even Middle Age is yet over for BT.

We've had the Mongol invasion, and things went downhill from there.

I can't help but wonder, though, if the Republic, and eventually the IlClan and 3rd Star League will simply be the long leg of the Eastern Roman Empire, which didn't die as soon as the Western Roman Empire did.

Thoughts?

[Empyrus]

Given that Alaric Wolf/War/Steiner(-Davion) is almost certainly named for Alaric I, king of Visigoths, who sacked Rome, i'd say the Republic of the Sphere is the Western Roman Empire. It doesn't help it uses Roman terminology for its various organizations and organs, and the abbreviation for it, ROTS brings mind SPQR...
And yeah, i figure Alaric becomes the IlKhan and the Wolves the IlClan.

More likely, the Third League is kind of a Holy Roman Empire (which was neither Holy, Roman nor an Empire). It won't be a real Star League, it won't uphold the legacy of the Terran Hegemony and it won't be an alliance for it is almost certainly forged in fire and held together by fire...

EDIT That said, the Third League probably has shades of the Eastern Roman Empire. Indeed, the Star League as a whole is something of a Rome for the BT-verse, the legacy will be brought up again and again for variety of reasons.


EDIT2 Late realization that you talked about the Republic of the Sphere and i jumped to Star League from that. This is because i tend to see ROTS as a Star League's successor state in a sense.

[Empyrus]

The original Star League and its fall was inspired by fall of Alexander the Great's empire, no? At least i recall reading something like that. (The Succession Wars also bear similarity to China's warlord era, though that may be a coincidence.)
The Clans are Mongols and their invasion.
ROTS and its fall is the Western Roman Empire. I'd imagine this was Jordan Weisman's intention when the MechWarrior Dark Age was created.

So whatever comes next is likely to be something different though possibly drawing from history but that is not guaranteed as big events go, the Jihad doesn't have any good historical counterpart though i figure it was almost certainly influenced by the War on Terror; fiction in general has been strongly influenced by that in the 00s and 10s.

My HRE suggestion is because i figure it has its own flavor while being somehow connected to preceding events (ROTS/Rome->Third League/HRE).

Continuing from ROTS with Eastern Roman Empire counterpart might be reusing the Roman theme a bit too much.

[The_Livewire]

Maybe Prefecture X is more like the Byzantine empire, and IlClan is it finally dying?

[Garrand]

Maybe Prefecture X is more like the Byzantine empire, and IlClan is it finally dying?

I guess that would make the IlClan the Ottoman Turks then...

Damon.

[Hominid Mk II]

James McKenna was Julius Caesar.

Michael Cameron was Augustus Caesar.

The First Star League was the the Roman Empire.

The collapse of the SL at the hands of the weak First Lord Richard Cameron and the barbarian Stefan Amaris was the collapse of the Roman Empire at the hands of the weak Emperor Romulus Augustulus and the barbarians Alaric, Odoacer and Attila.

The Succession Wars were the Dark Ages and Early Middle Ages.

The creation of the Federated Commonwealth under the Steiner-Davion Dynasty was the brief unification of Germany and Spain under the Habsburg Dynasty.

The Clans are an amalgamation of the Viking Berzerkers, the Mongol Hordes and the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks.

The Jihad was the Thirty Years War.

The Dark Age/Age of Destruction is - I think - all the revolutionary upheavals and major wars in Europe from the French Revolution through to World War II amalgamated into one.

The IlClan era will be the Cold War era.

[pensiveswetness]

and who say history never repeats...?

[klarg1]

There are many parallels between BT "history" and real-world history. Authors draw inspiration from many sources, and historical themes.

(The fall of the Star League as allegory for the fall of Rome and the European middle ages seems like the strongest tie to me, but as we can already see from this thread, there are other parallels to be drawn.)

[Von Jankmon]

The clearest analogy being when in 1241 when the Mongol ilKhan Ögedei who was capable and secure in his leadership position but drank himself to death in a binge on the cusp of his armies invading (and utterly steamrolling) Europe.  The horde turned back east to choose a new successor.  By the time they returned the Poles, Rus and later the Teutonic order were far better prepared to hold them off.

Fair enough, they didn't have aerospace fighters then.

[iamfanboy]

And what about the Hundred/Thirty Years War parallels between the Homeworld/IS Clans? Religious schisms leading to off-again, on-again warfare for a long, long time...

[Minemech]

 The Free Worlds League has tended to mix the Holy Roman Empire with the post 476 Roman Empire in my experience.