Tea at Trianon: Dido of Carthage

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, September 29, 2021

Dido of Carthage

From Ancient Origins:

Belus had hoped that after his death, the governance of Tyre would be divided equally between Dido and Pygmalion. This, however, was not to be. When the king died, Pygmalion immediately seized power and had Sychaeus murdered, as he desired his wealth. The ghost of Sychaeus appeared to Dido in a dream, told her the truth about his death, the hidden location of his wealth, and issued a warning to flee from Tyre as Pygmalion would surely kill her next. Therefore, Dido went to retrieve her dead husband’s wealth and fled from the city with her supporters.

Having fled from Tyre, Dido and her band of followers sailed across the Mediterranean and arrived on the coast of North Africa. The former Tyrian princess met a local ruler by the name of Iarbas, who agreed to sell her as much land as the hide of a bull could cover. Dido demonstrated her shrewdness by first cutting the hide into strips and then used it to encircle a large piece of land. It was here that the city of Carthage was founded, and Dido became its first ruler. (Read more.)