[wideawake]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, wrote about Marie Antoinette who had ignorantly joked about the starving people of Paris but she was only 11 Volitaire's fellow Enlightenment philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, wrote about a princess who had ignorantly joked about the starving people of Paris, telling a courtier: 'Let them eat cake.' That was in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was only 11 years old.

Not quite accurate.

In 1766 Marie Antoinette was a virtually unknown Austrian princess - she was the eleventh of eleven sisters. Most people would have assumed that she would have been married off to an Austrian or Hungarian nobleman.

But two of her older sisters died and one was permanently crippled in a 1767 smallpox epidemic, when she was twelve.

When she was thirteen she was the only healthy unbetrothed daughter left and was promised to the French Dauphin. She did not actually arrive in France until she was fourteen.

During 1766 I believe Voltaire was living in Berlin - far from the Viennese court where the as yet unimportant-to-Frenchmen Maria Antonia (Marie Antoinette) was living. There is no proof of any kind that the princess he was referring to was her, or that she at that time had any knowledge at all of French current events.

there is not a grain of truth in the story. Fiddles weren't invented for another millennium, and Nero was 35 miles outside the city at Antium when the fire broke out

The word "fiddle" was used by Elizabethan translators of Cassius Dio and Tacitus to translate the word lyra or lyre. Like the fiddle it was a stringed instrument played with a utensil - so that was the logical choice of word in an English langauge which was at that time much more fluid than it is today.

Only one source places Nero at Antium. Others place him at estates not far from the city.

In any case, the fire burned for at least five days - more than enough time for an imperial courier to notify him of what was going on.

A couple of contemporary sources attest that while the fire was raging he was acting in a play and playing the lyre in safety and luxury.

The 4th was merely the day that the document itself went to the printers.

False. The 4th was the day that the changes suggested to the document by the Congress were made and officially adopted. It was sent to the printer that day, but its final draft was approved - hence the fact that it is dated July 4th and not July 2nd.

[21twelve]

Thank you for the informative post. As I recall - perhaps it was Jefferson? - that said something like “This day (July 2) will be remembered with fireworks and parades as a day.....” And as I recall, they were waiting on a couple of more guys to review it and sign it?

[Enchante]

re: Nero

That tale always struck me as strange anyway, b/c in those days there wasn’t exactly a serious fire-fighting capability. What exactly was Nero supposed to do that people were not already doing on their own? (either fleeing for their lives or trying to rescue some possessions if they saw a way to do so)

[Swordmaker]

I think you and I are on the same page with these de-constructors of history.

A couple of contemporary sources attest that while the fire was raging he was acting in a play and playing the lyre in safety and luxury.

And some others report that he was active in directing the effort against the fire and assisting with the evacuation.

It is entirely possible that he WAS acting in a play, or playing a lyre, when the first reports were brought to him of the conflagration's start. It is also possible that he delegated authority to handle the problem and remained safely out of harms way.

It is also possible that he had a bad reputation that was imputed to him as propaganda in later years because of his treatment of the Christian martyrs of Rome.

Can you imagine what history/myth in 2000 years will report about G.W. Bush and what he was doing at the time of 9-11?