The Niobe of nations
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
So Byron styles Rome, the "lone mother of dead empires," with "broken thrones and temples**; a "chaos of ruins"; a "desert where we steer stumbling o'er recollections." (Childe Harold, iv, 79.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “The Niobe of nations” mean?
So Byron styles Rome, the "lone mother of dead empires," with "broken thrones and temples**; a "chaos of ruins"; a "desert where we steer stumbling o'er recollections." (Childe Harold, iv, 79.
Is “The Niobe of nations” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.