Tea at Trianon: Fourth-century Church in Tyana

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

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Fourth-century Church in Tyana

From Daily Sabah:

Pointing out that there are very few examples of such churches in Anatolia, Doğanay said the structure is the only specimen of this size in the Cappadocia region. “We had some doubts about the dating of the church. But the coins we found here have confirmed that the church was built in the fourth century A.D.,” he said.

Aqueducts, pools and Roman baths are other important structures that have been found at the ancient city of Tyana, whose history dates back 4,000 years, Doğanay said. He noted that the ancient city was inhabited continuously for much of those 4,000 years, due in part to its key location at the head of the Cilician Gates (or Gülek Pass), which connects the Central Anatolian region to the Mediterranean coast and the Mesopotamian Basin. (Read more.)