Tea at Trianon: Civilization’s First Cities

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Civilization’s First Cities

And another candidate for Atlantis. From The Collector:

Overlooking the Konya plain in southern Anatolia in Turkey are the remains of a city that was founded over 9,000 years ago. Possibly the first city in history, Çatalhöyük had no streets nor any identifiable public buildings, yet it had a population that at some point probably reached as high as 10,000 people. The rooftops formed the primary way in which to traverse the city, and all the buildings had ladders leading to the roof. The openings in the roof also served as ventilation. The city was a collection of mudbrick houses clustered together in a way that promoted an extremely close relationship with one’s neighbors. Most of the buildings had shared walls with the buildings next to them. (Read more.)