Tea at Trianon: Alexander the Great’s Tomb

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

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Alexander the Great’s Tomb

From The Greek Reporter:

For over 2,300 years, researchers and historians have been trying to locate Alexander the Great’s Tomb, which remains one of the world’s greatest mysteries even to this day. There are several attestations that go back to the Roman era, as historians of the time recorded the visits made by Roman emperors to the great general’s tomb in Alexandria. It is natural for many to believe that the great Greek military genius and conqueror of Asia would wish to be buried in the city that bears his name. Yet, for centuries now, theories abound about the location of the Alexander the Great’s Tomb, with some verging on myth. Most recently, an Egyptian tourism official reported on supposed evidence suggesting that the discovery of the famed tomb might be in the Siwa Oasis in the Marai area. (Read more.)