Tea at Trianon: Celtic Warriors and the Romans

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Celtic Warriors and the Romans

From Mark Fisher:

Historians have long asserted that a Celtic horde attacked and conquered Rome in July of 390 BC without reason or cause. The truth presents a far different story. Our tale begins when a single Celtic tribe, the Senones, crosses the Apennine Mountains in central Italy looking for lands to call their own. Outside the Etruscan city of Clusium, they make camp. Brennus, the Senones leader, then asks the city fathers to grant them lands on which the tribe can settle in peace. But the Clusium elders, fearing the newcomers are invaders, send to Rome pleading for help.

The Romans have just supplanted the Etruscans as the regional power. To handle negotiations with the Senones, the Roman Senate sends the three young, arrogant, and politically powerful Fabii brothers as ambassadors. But the brothers treat the Celts so badly and with such arrogance, negotiations immediately break down. What happens next shows us why the Roman empire eventually prevailed, while the Celts were shunted to distant places like Ireland. (Read more.)