Tea at Trianon: The Fall 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

Thursday, December 9, 2021

The Fall of Carthage

From Heritage Daily:

The Romans believed that the Carthaginian presence threatened Rome and her interests, and sent an expeditionary force to return control of Messana to the Mamertines, sparking the start of ongoing hostilities between the two great powers and the start of the Punic Wars.

The First Punic War was in the mid-3rd century BC, where the Romans landed in Africa and were ultimately repelled. Aware of the superiority of Carthaginian naval power, the Romans built a navy and using novel tactics inflicted several defeats at sea.

The most notable engagement was the Battle of Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC, in which 330 Roman warships engaged 350 Carthaginian vessels (considered one of the largest naval battles in recorded history), but ultimately the Romans sunk or captured 94 Carthaginian vessels.

After several years of stalemate, a divisive defeat at the Battle of the Aegates Islands in 241 BC forced the Carthaginians to sue for peace and make reparations under the terms of the Roman-dictated Treaty of Lutatius, including the surrender of part of Sicily which was annexed into the Roman province of Sicilia.

In 237 BC, Hamilcar Barca carved out a quasi-monarchical, autonomous Carthaginian state in southern and eastern Iberia. This gave Carthage the silver mines, agricultural wealth and manpower to stand against Rome on an equal footing once more. (Read more.)