Roman Empire

[kero319.livejournal.com]

Now its obvious that Alera is based on the Roman Empire, and Jim Butcher publicly acknowledges Ancient Rome as his inspiration. But what of the actual references to Rome?

Just three good examples of references are:

Appia, most likely a reference to the Appian Way(a.k.a. "Via Appia"), an important rode in Ancient Rome.
Tiber: The majority of events of Cursor's Fury takes place at a bridge on the Tiber River.
Romanic Era: This is a direct reference to Rome. At one point Tavi explains the terms "Romanic" and "Romans" to Max. Romanic Era refers to an era in Aleran history when a people dubbed the Romans, lived and flourished, surprisingly without the aid of Furies

Comments

[kalium.livejournal.com]

The military structure, a number of names of ranks and positions, the Legion...

Direct references to Rome are pretty much beyond counting.

[(Anonymous)]

Ludus game is most likely related to a Roman game of the same name (or close). Wikipedia mentions Ludus game having checkerboard type black and white squares of fewer number than mentioned in the beginning of Cursor's Fury, and the second tier of board is new as well, but these changes could've easily come about in the evolution of Romanic culture into Aleran, as stated the second tier board represents the skies of the battlefield, only accessable to wind-crafters obviously not present during Romanic times.

not after romes fall

[(Anonymous)]

this is what Jim said about it

Author Jim Butcher, when participating in a recent online debate about this subject, said "Alera is set more or less in the present. It just isn't happening on Earth.

"There's plenty of Lost Roman Legion stories out there. Mostly, the stories are about where they went, and what they did when they got there. This one just happens to be about the world they got lost on, and the society that developed there over the next couple of thousand years.