[1207] Ibid., 40, 38. Hieronymus, the last king of Syracuse, is said to have married a common prostitute, but their issue did not succeed to any crown; ibid. In modern times the assumption of the premiership of Bavaria by the notorious Lola Montez (née Gilbert of Limerick) will be remembered. “She now ruled the kingdom of Bavaria, and, singular to say, ruled it with wisdom and ability. Her audacity confounded alike the policy of the Jesuits and of Metternich”; Dict. Nat. Biog., sb. nom. Her régime did not, however, last more than a year, being unable to stem the tide of revolution in 1848. More fortunate was the castrato singer, Farinelli, who retained a position differing little from that of prime minister under Philip V of Spain and his successor for nearly twenty-five years. The reign of courtesans in the seventeenth century, when the aristocratic blood of France and England was enriched by “legitimated princes” and peers under Louis XIV and Charles II is too well known to need comment here; but the acquisition of governmental power at the hands of Louis XV by Jeanne Vaubernier (Countess Du Barry), a low-class strumpet, doubtless helped decidedly to bring that disgraceful epoch to a close; see Voltaire’s Louis XIV and Louis XV, etc.
[1208] Athenaeus, xiii, 38; Alciphron, ii, 1.
[1209] Athenaeus, xiii, 60. Here, again, a parallel is afforded by Cora Pearl. During the war of 1870 she transformed her house into an “ambulance,” where she spent her time and money to the amount of £1,000 in nursing wounded soldiers. Afterwards she claimed to be reimbursed, but £60 only was granted to her by the government; see her Mémoires, Paris, 1886. Ultimately she was expelled from Paris.
[1210] Ibid., xiii, 7, 31.
[1211] Ibid., xiii, 70; Polyaenus, viii, 45, etc.
[1212] Athenaeus, xiii, 34.
[1213] Ibid., xiii, 54. A figurative memorial, a lioness tearing a ram; Pausanias, ii, 2.
[1214] Ibid., xiii, 59; Aelian, Var. Hist., ix, 32. Crates, the Cynic, said that it was an advertisement of the profligacy of Greece.
[1215] Athenaeus, xiii, 69; and another at Babylon, the seat of his governorship. Plutarch (Phocion) says it cost about £7,000, and was poor value for the money, but Pausanias extols it; i, 37.
[1216] Athenaeus, xiii, 34.