Relation To Rome
Codex Alera takes place during the reign of a Rome-like empire. While the relationship between ancient Rome and the realm of Alera is only alluded to over the course of the series, having been lost to history, Butcher confirmed that the people of Alera are the descendants of the "lost Roman legion" (the Legio IX Hispana) and its camp followers, which had been transported to the continent of Carna—an effective "drop chute for the Bermuda triangle."
The realm's Roman ancestry endures in the hierarchical society; the military structure, fighting style, and weaponry; and the nomenclature of cities, geographical formations, people, and ranks. At least one book survived, as well. In the prologue to First Lord's Fury, the Canim Warmaster Varg is reading a book out of Alera's history, but comments that he does not believe "Julius" could have taught Tavi anything. Like the explorers of Earth, Alerans had a tendency to name the places they discovered and built after places in the world they left behind. The ruined city of Appia, one of the earliest Aleran settlements, most likely refers to the Appian Way, also known as Via Appia, which is one of the earliest and most strategic roads in Ancient Rome. It is in this city that Tavi and Maestro Magnus perform their research into Romanic technology at the beginning of Cursor's Fury. When questioned about the term "Romanic" by Max, Tavi responds, "The people were called Romans...you call something Romanic when it was built by Romans."
Other geographic features named for places in Rome include the River Gaul (from the region approximating present day France and Belgium), the Tiber River (from the main watercourse of the city of Rome), the city of Aquitaine (from the province of Gaul compromising Novempopulania and Gascony), the city of Phrygia (from a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey), and the city of Rhodes (from a Greek island southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea).
Some of the names appropriated for Aleran geography are borrowed from Roman mythology, though the gods themselves did not survive. The city of Ceres shares its name with the Roman goddess of agriculture, and Placida was a surname of the goddess Venus.
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