(urth) Maximinus Thrax

[Matthew King]

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 2:01 PM, b sharp <bsharporflat at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Matthew King I'm not sure if this impacts your post but I think it is quite well established that
> The Commonwealth and Severian's journey in BotNS occurs in what would be South America
> on Earth. If we accept that Severian putting mountains in the east as a blunder then most of
> the rest of the geography, animals (even fossils), plants and human culture matches that continent.
>
> I tried to trace his journey once using Buenos Aires as his Nessus starting point and Lake Titicaca
> as the clear model for Lake Diuturna.  I found a town of Salto for Saltus, Asuncion might be the
> location of the House Absolute. Iguazu Falls are The Cataracts, the Pampas are the Pampas but I
> found Thrax to be a toughie. Maybe the city of Tarija, Bolivia is the best match.

I apparently hadn't read all of the following interview until today,
because I was surprised at a few of the things in it.  It contains the
most candid answers I've ever seen Wolfe give on any topic.

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm

"Insofar as I was trying to create any kind of parallels with an
actual historical period here on Earth—and obviously I wasn't aiming
at developing an exact analogy—I was thinking of Byzantium.
Incidentally, I also got into trouble with some reviewers over my
presentation of the Ascians, who were my equivalent of the Turks. If
you read the book carefully, it's clear that the action is taking
place in South America and that the invading Ascians are actually
North Americans."

Byzantium was located in Thrace.  http://www.thracian.info/images/thrace_map.gif

All that may not be terribly germane to the "Giant Maximinus Thrax" reference.