Boulainvilliers introduced cyclical history into articulated historical discourse for the first time.

Evidence

With Boulainvilliers, we see—I think for the first time— the idea of a cyclical history appearing within an articulated historical discourse. Empires, says Boulainvilliers, rise and fall into decadence depending on how the light of the sun shines upon their territory. The revolution of the sun, and the revolution of history: as you can see, the two things are now linked. So we have a pair, a link among three things: constitution, revolution, and cyclical history. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 5642

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the solar/decadence metaphor — how does the sun-as-cycle imagery do ideological work for the nobility’s claim to restore a lost origin?
• XREF: The sun/empire decadence image parallels the Orientalist construction of Eastern empires as decadent cycles, foreshadowing what Said describes.