Tea at Trianon: The Elite Special Forces of Ancient Rome

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, August 9, 2023

The Elite Special Forces of Ancient Rome

From World Atlas:

One of the more common functions of the Praetorians was their role as secret police. Being the most powerful man in the world came with a lot of enemies. So the emperor was never in short supply of people who needed to be extorted, spied on, tortured, exiled, or killed to maintain power. There are plenty of examples of Roman emperors using their bodyguards to round up thousands of political rivals in mass arrests. Nero was infamous for using his Praetorians to coerce rich landowners into handing over their wealth to the state.

The Praetorians were deeply involved in the political intrigue of the empire. Roman senators, generals, and other members of the aristocracy knew better than to get on the bad side of the emperor's bodyguards. Falling out of favor with either the emperor or the guardsmen was not conducive to a successful life in Ancient Rome. (Read more.)