Tea at Trianon: Marching an Elephant Across the Mountains

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

Monday, July 4, 2022

Marching an Elephant Across the Mountains

From The Big Think:

Another classic example of experimental archaeology is the British Alpine Hannibal Expedition. Hannibal was a general of Carthage (located in modern-day Tunisia), an ancient Mediterranean civilization that rivaled Rome for several centuries before the birth of Christ. Hannibal’s reputation as one of the greatest generals in history was built upon his command of an army that spent 15 years dominating large portions of the Italian peninsula, crushing Roman armies sent to stop them.
Hannibal recruited or coerced men from various localities and paid mercenaries, but a central piece of his army was a corps of terrifying war elephants. These creatures, or their ancestors, originated in the North African holdings of Carthage. Hannibal initially formed his army and elephant corps in southern Spain, and marched over land through southern France. The Romans hoped to stop him by placing troops along the sane coastal route to Italy. Hannibal fooled them by instead undertaking a crazy route across the Alps.
How did Hannibal get his elephants through the high mountains? The hulking creatures must have used a narrow route through the 7000-foot-high passes. Such a feat might be considered a myth if not for subsequent well-documented stompings of Romans by war elephants. Roman historians had various theories. Carthaginian histories were largely lost or destroyed when Rome later annihilated their civilization. Twentieth century scholars debated the question in books and newspaper articles. (Read more.)