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Plenty of males and females of the Race, Ttomalss knew, would not only have agreed but would have added emphatic coughs to their agreement. He did not mention that to the Big Uglies on the other end of the telephone line. Instead, he said, “Yes, I certainly think it is relevant. I am glad to find that you do, too. Whatever you can tell me will be of value to the Race.”
“In that case, perhaps you will understand that I wonder whether I ought to tell you anything at all,” Monique Dutourd said.
“If you do not, someone else will.” Ttomalss did his best to sound indifferent. “Or we will eventually gain the information from your books. Whatever else we may be doing, we are not discussing secret matters here.”
After a pause, the Tosevite female said, “Yes, that is so. Very well; you have reason. I will discuss these things with you.”
“I thank you.” Ttomalss did his best to treat her as he would have treated a savant of his own kind.
She said, “First of all, incorporation into the Roman Empire assumes Roman military victories. I do not think we need to talk about those.”
Ttomalss found himself making the affirmative gesture, which did no good on a phone link without vision. “I would agree with you,” he said. “Our military technology is very different from that of the Romans. And so is yours, nowadays.” And the Race will be arguing about why that is so for generations to come, he thought. Never had his species been presented with such a rude surprise.
“All right, then,” Monique Dutourd said. “Once a subregion was conquered, the Romans gave local autonomy to towns and areas that were not in rebellion against them. They did harshly stamp out rebellions where those arose.”
“That is a sensible policy,” Ttomalss said. “In large measure, we follow it here.” The trouble with following it was that Big Uglies who were put in positions of authority often used that authority for themselves and against the Race. Ttomalss wondered if the Romans had had similar problems.
“With very few exceptions,” Monique Dutourd went on, “the Romans allowed the males and females of the conquered subregions to practice whatever superstitions they chose to follow.”
“That is also a sensible policy,” Ttomalss said. “Why did they make exceptions?”
“On account of superstitions they thought dangerous to their empire,” the Tosevite historian replied. “I can think of two examples. One was the superstition of the Druids, which had its center here in what is now France. The Romans feared that these Druids, who were the leaders of the superstition, would also lead the local inhabitants into rebellion against them.”
“And the other?” Ttomalss asked when Monique Dutourd did not name it at once.
“The other, superior sir, was called Christianity,” she replied. “You may perhaps have heard of it.”
“Yes,” he said automatically, before realizing she was being ironic. Then he asked, “But why did they try to suppress it? And why did they fail? This is the largest Tosevite superstition at the present time.”
“They tried to suppress it because the Christians refused to acknowledge any other… spiritual forces,” Monique Dutourd said, “and because the Christians refused to give reverence to the spirits of the Roman Emperors.”
“Really?” Ttomalss said in surprise. “In that, they are much like the followers of the Muslim superstition today with respect to the spirits of Emperors past-Emperors of the Race, of course.”
“Yes. Both Christianity and Islam are offshoots of the Jewish superstition, which disapproves of giving reverence to anything but the one supreme supernatural authority,” Monique Dutourd said.
“Ah.” Ttomalss scribbled a note to himself. He hoped and assumed the Race already knew that, but he hadn’t known it himself. He asked, “Why are the Muslims so much more fanatically opposed to the Race at present than the Christians?”
“To get a proper answer to that, you would need to ask someone who knows more about Islam than I do,” the Tosevite historian answered.
Her reply won Ttomalss’ respect. He had seen a great many individuals-both members of the Race and Big Uglies-who, because they were experts in one area, were convinced they were also experts in other, usually unrelated, areas. When he said as much, Monique Dutourd started to laugh. “And what do you find funny?” he asked, his dignity affronted.
“I am sorry, superior sir,” she said, “but I find it strange that you are making an argument like the one a famous Tosevite savant named Socrates used when he was on trial for his life almost twenty-four hundred years ago.”
“Am I?” Ttomalss wondered who this Socrates was. “Did his argument succeed?”
“No,” Monique Dutourd answered. “He was put to death.”
“Oh. How… unfortunate.” Ttomalss found a different question: “Did you use your years or mine there?”
“Mine,” she said, so he mentally doubled the figure. She added, “At that time, the Romans were only a small and unimportant group. They later conquered the Greeks, one of whose subgroups, the Athenians, executed Socrates. The Greeks were culturally more advanced than the Romans, but could not unify politically. The Romans conquered them and learned much from them afterwards.”
“I see,” Ttomalss said. Ancientest history back on Home was full of stories like that, some true, others legendary, with scholars disagreeing over which was which. He asked, “What benefits did the Romans give to keep conquered subregions from rebelling?”
“Security from outside invasion,” Monique Dutourd answered. “Security from feuds with their neighbors also within Roman territory. Local self-government, as I said before. A large area unified culturally, and also unified economically.”
“I see,” Ttomalss repeated. “These are, of course, advantages you Tosevites would receive on becoming subjects of the Empire.”
“Ah, subjects,” the Tosevite historian said. “One thing the Romans did that made them unusual among our empires was to grant full
citizenship to more and more groups that had formerly been subjects.”
“You could expect the same from us,” Ttomalss said. “Why, already there is one Tosevite with full citizenship in the Empire.”
“How interesting,” Monique Dutourd replied. “Why only one? Who is he?”
“She,” Ttomalss corrected. “That is a complicated story. It has to do with the unusual circumstances of her hatching.” He said not a word about the continuing dispute with Kassquit over whether he kept the right to monitor her activities if she was a full citizen of the Empire. That was also complicated, and none of Monique Dutourd’s business. Instead, Ttomalss asked, “If these Romans were such successful rulers of their empire, why did it fail?”
“Scholars have been arguing over that ever since it happened,” the Tosevite female answered. “There is no one answer. There were diseases that reduced the population. The economy suffered as a result of this. Rulers grew more harsh, and their bureaucracy grew more stifling. And there were foreign invasions, most importantly from the Deutsche, who lived to the north of the Roman Empire.”
“The Deutsche?” Ttomalss exclaimed in surprise. “The same Deutsche whom the Race knows only too well?”
“Their ancestors, rather,” Monique Dutourd said.
“Yes, of course,” Ttomalss said impatiently. “How interesting. That strikes me as an example of true historical continuity. I have not seen many on Tosev 3.”
“They are here,” Monique Dutourd said. “If you have not seen them, it is because you have not looked for them-or perhaps you have not known where to look.”
“Yes, I suppose that could be,” Ttomalss admitted. “Would you be willing to teach me more Tosevite history?”
“It could be,” the female Big Ugly said. “There would be the question of payment, of course.”
“Of course,” Ttomalss said. “I am sure we can come to some sort of equitable arrangement about that.”
“Payment might not necessarily involve money,” Monique Dutourd said, “or not money alone. I would want my kinsmale fully pardoned, now that I am cooperating with the Race.”
