Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1868-11-12
Genrr0l antrllisrnfe.
THE FABLES OF HISTORY,


,--- THE FABLES OF HISTORY,
k45 EXPLODED EsRoRs--THr COLOSSUS OF RHODES
va ~ -.-y Dr. Octave Deleperrie the learned Sec
retary of Legation to the King Of the Bel
gians, has published book entitled
Historical Difficulties and Contested
Events"
The first delusion to which he addresses
= yTT himself is the Colossus OF Rhodes, In the
Z. - elementary works in use in the English
and the American schools, the Colossus OF
.-F Rhodes is represented as statute with
c.. gigantic limbs, each leg resting on the
enormous rocks which face the entrance to
the principal port of the Island of Rhodes
and ships in full sail passed easily, it is
said, between its legs. This is the narra-
tive Of the historian Rollin, of several
French dictionaries, and even OF some en-
cyclopedas. The real truth about the
Colossus, according to Dr. Delepierre, is,
that about the year 306, before Christ, the
Rhodnns, after successfully defending
themselves against years seige ordered
Chares to erect a memorial statue to the
honor Of their diety, and this statue was
Il y.-J ~ erected on an open space OF ground near
~ the great harbor, where its fragments were
seen and admired by travellers for many
years after its destruction Towards the
end Of the second century after Christ, the
Colossus was reconstructed under the En-
peror Vespasian, but of smaller dimen-
4 sions. The fable Of the ancient statue, be.
tween whose gigantic limbs ships in full
.-fq,s sail were believed to have passed, orignat-
ed apparently at the time of the Crusades,
when the inhabitants of Rhodes amused
themselves by relating to the newcomers
all sorts Of Incredible stories of their past
grandeur, casa
BELisARIus.
The romantic tale of Belisarius the con-
queTor of the Vandals deprived Of his sight
by the Emperor Justinian, and compelled
ss'As' to beg his bread in the streets of Constan-
"a go tinople was mentioned by no contempo-
rary historian, but it has been repeated age
T'7'a4 afterage, and Marmontels novel propaga.
y 20 ted the fiction in every language of Eu-
rope. The real fact, as recorded by Glib
bon, is that Belisarius was guarded for O
year prisoner in his own palace His
innocence of the treason of which he had
been suspected became then acknowledged
and his freedom and honors were restored
but death removed him within year o
his liberation. He was never blind nor 0
boggar.
THE AIEx4NpRnN LIBRARY.
. Whether the Alexandrian Library con-
tanned 81 900 volumes or 400, 900, it is tole,
r. rably cersain that this immense collection
made by the Ptolemes was not, as is com
monty supposed, destroyed by the Arabs
n the seventh century, but become prey
- to the flames when julius Caesar, who was
besieged nthatpart Of Alexandria in which
the museum stood, ordered the feet to bC
s set on fire. One story had it that thu
tt.. I'D books were ordered to be distributed in the
various baths at Alexandria, to be burnt il
the stoves, and that they lasted SIX months
-. butit would have puzzled the Egyptians
V to heat baths with parchment! Anothe
fiction was that at the taking of Babylon
the books we're thrown into the river Eu
pirates and the number was so great tina
ESQ., they formed bridge over which foot pas
sengers and horsemen went across
.as'.s.-F POPE JOAN.
Is it true that woman succeeded in de
a7 -- cefying her cotemporaries to the extent o
30 elevatng herself to the Pontifcal throne
't According to the widey-spread version,
female Pope, disguised as man, was elect
ed in the year 855, and assumed the nam
/! of John VIII, and subsequently died il
giving birth to child. This is clearlycN
ssss,.. legend, the most probable explanation o
which is, that Pope John XII amongs
3 sod many concubines, had one named Joan
who exercised such empire over hir
that for some time it might be said it wa
she who governed. His love for her wen
- sl so far that he gave her entire cities, an
despoiled the Church of St. Peter ofcrosse
and Of golden chaliees, in order to lay the1
izs a. at her feet, and we are told that she die
80 in childbed t-
EBELARp AND ELo1sA.
The history Of the two lovers, Abelar
.s5- and Eloissd, DR.. Delepierre takes to b
'lr true, as whole, but be contends that tn
celebrated letters imputed to Eloisa wer
4 fr not written by her at all and that tn
tomb in Pere Ia Chase, at Paris, is alto
gether modern construction.
4.. ..t ..1l WILLIAM TELL.
The tale of William Tell is pronounce
to be nothing more nor less than 6,
Northern saga that has been adopte
and repeated from generation to ger
ha' ia Grafton The revolution which too
place in Switzerland in 1907 gave ris
to the legend of the Swiss hero, and froI
that time to the-present writer's have cor
tnually endeavored to expose its unsoun
basis, but the public, equally peFtinacioua
- have insisted on believing in its truth
The story not known until two cen
.s tures after the supposed event. and tn
90 chronicles of the Middle Ages, so cage
after extraordinary facts and intersstin
news, are entirely ignorant Of it. Tell
lime tree in the centre of the market-plac
at Atdorf and his cross-bow preserved /
the arsenal at Zurich are not more vail
proofs than the pieces of true cross whic
are exhibited in thousand places. ts
80 n PETRARcH AND LAURA.
"s Petrareh great poet and eres
politician, but he was not altogether th
Platonic lover some have represented hir
to be. With regard to Laura all is doub
obscurity and hypothesis. ALI traces lei
OF her we're 50 faint, even in the century i
which she lived that doubts were erlte
e1 tanned Of her existence Baldee, d Yer
partial commentator on Petrarch,
obliged TO confess that the poet was by D
means faithful 10 his divinity; but thf
smother, whom he loved after less idel
81 fashion, presented him with dauQhte
Ssa Who afterwards became the consolation {
y yra his old age. Laura has made far mo,
..se noise in the world during the past four I
hve centuries than she ever did in her ov
oii time ~ 8 a
~ " slj4l t.eirasa JOAN OF ARC
49, We are now asked to believe that Joan
Are was not burnt pt Rouen "a il con
=. monty believed, but that some other ,ul
&ef known creature was sacrificed in her Stea