Tea at Trianon: Why Did the Trojan War Last for Ten Years?

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, February 8, 2025

Why Did the Trojan War Last for Ten Years?

From The Greek Reporter:

With Troy, there is one obvious reason why a single city was able to withstand against the Greek forces for ten years. The reason is that it was not just a single city withstanding those forces. In fact, Homer describes in his Iliad (written c. 650 BCE) a coalition of nations from Anatolia and even parts of Europe on the side of the Trojans.

If it really had been just the isolated city of Troy standing against the Greeks, it probably would have fallen quickly. Yet, that is definitely not what Homer described. When we see what he did describe, it is not surprising at all that the Trojan War lasted so long. On the side of the Trojans, there was the kingdom of the Phrygians and the kingdom of the Lydians. It appears that Homer was describing the world of the Trojan War based on the geopolitics of his own era or those just shortly before.

The Phrygian kingdom that Homer refers to controlled a huge part of Anatolia. It was quite rich and powerful and could actually be described as a small empire. Troy was closely associated with them. In fact, King Priam of Troy supposedly married a Phrygian princess. Later, Greek writers often called the Trojans ‘Phrygians.’ The kingdom of Lydia was powerful, too. After the fall of Phrygia in approximately 700 BCE, Lydia immediately rose to fill the power vacuum, indicating that it had already been a powerful state. (Read more.)