Tea at Trianon: Battle of Himera: Carthage vs. Ancient Greeks of Sicily

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, May 22, 2024

Battle of Himera: Carthage vs. Ancient Greeks of Sicily

From The Collector:

With lucrative ports and colonies in the western half of Sicily, Carthage guarded its territory with swift and often decisive proactivity, thwarting several attempts by Greek colonists to settle there. Carthaginians, native Sicilians, and Greek colonists all vied for territory. Soon, a complex web of treaties, marriage alliances, and local despots developed, ensuring that the once small and sporadic conflicts would now escalate and draw in mercenaries from nearly every corner of the Mediterranean.

Seizing on civil unrest, an ambitious young man named Gelon took control of Syracuse. Seeking legitimacy for his new regime, the tyrant married the daughter of Theron of Akragas. Legitimacy was not his only goal. A rival, Anaxilas of Rhegium, had taken the town of Zancle to gain control over the Messenian Straits, threatening the eastern half of Sicily. Anaxilas was a well-connected man; his father-in-law also happened to be a tyrant, controlling a small town on the northern coast of Sicily. It was called Himera. (Read more.)