Tea at Trianon: The Roman Empire Strikes Back

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

Friday, June 5, 2020

The Roman Empire Strikes Back

From Heritage Daily:

It wasn’t until the reign of Justinian I that thoughts turned to “renovatio imperii” – restoration of the Empire. The Byzantines still referred to their empire as “Imperium Romanum” (Roman Empire) and to themselves as “Roman”. Justinian, known traditionally as “Justinian the Great” ruled the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565 CE. His rule constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Later Roman empire that has left an enduring legacy today.

Dubbed “the emperor who never sleeps”, Justinian reformed the Roman tax and judicial systems, expanded the Empires borders across the Mediterranean and Africa, repelled invading nations and blossomed a golden age in art, literature and architecture. These successes were notably thanks to Justinian’s choosing of highly efficient, but unpopular advisers for state roles and the support of his wife Theodora. But despite his successes, Justinian knew that his Empire was missing the very thing that makes it Roman… It was missing Rome….(Read more.)