After stumbling upon the comments section of a video on the death of Alexander I saw tens of dozens of Indians all claiming the same thing: that Alexander was soundly defeated by Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes and that the wounds he received in the battle were responsible for his death. As someone generally familiar with the story of Alexander this all seems completely absurd to me. Is there anything that lends credence to these claims?

I was talking to my Korean friend about foreign intervention and influence in Korea. While I see US intervention at least in the southern part as an overall positive thing given SK's robust economy, democracy and whatnot especially compared to the other countries with similar economies to SK at the end of WWII which I believed partially stems from US intervention during the Korean war. He argues that US and/or USSR intervention is the main reason that the peninsula is divided and without foreign intervention independence activists such as 김구 (Kim Gu) would have liberated the country united. Would this have been realistic given the scope of the Japanese Empire and the resources available to the Korean independence movement? Would there have been a realistic way for Korea to be a independent country as an united peninsula in the following aftermath of WWII?

This could be a harmless mistake. Or it could be a sign, nay - tacit approval, that we ought engage in anarchy once again.

I apologise for the post, couldn't find a report button. Does the link work for anyone else?

Is alexander and the Macedonian empire greek or macedonian? There are currently a lot of people that claim both of this theories but I want to know your opinion too.

What was the expected effectiveness of Tactical nuclear weapons to slow down Soviet invasion in the 60s and 70s?

To my understanding tactical nuclear weapons featured heavily into Natos defensive planning of western Europe during the height of the cold war - as a means to stop or slow down Soviet armored Divisions, at least until mobilisation was completed.

Was this expected to be a highly effective full-stop by Nato planners, or was the answer more nuanced? Was the plan to deliver the weapons at the point of contact (against tanks, as dramatically dipicted), or was the plan to hit soft targets in the rear (against logistics) to prevent continued operations?

Was there a difference between Nato and the Warsaw pact in how effective they imagined a tactical nuke to be in stopping an armoured assault?

When did wargaming transition from just a military planning/practice tool to also an at home hobby and then commercial hobby?

The Trojan war happend around 1200bce and homer lived around 800bce. While this wouldn't be too odd for historical records to be recorded after the fact by a number of years.

It seems quite odd that he would have detailed Knowlage of events and descriptions given between those times we have the bronze age collapse and the burning of all the grate palaces. Writing and literacy declined to extremely low levels between these times. I find it mind blowing to think that these details were passed down via oral stories.

Would it be likely that he could read the linear B script and was simply transcribing it to a readable script.

Obviously I know it is the illiad is highly embellished with myth and personalitys that probably didn't exist. But to write and record such detailed family trees and descriptions of the fleet and other details seems amazing to me.

As I recall most (certainly not all) Chinese elites around and since the May Fourth movement (1919) stressed (usually with pride) that China has been a civilization least plagued by religious bigotry and persecution. (Of course such idea was formed with the radical Enlightenment belief that the Church did nothing but burn scientists.)

Such notion has persisted, and many Chinese elites still think this way, and quite some questionnaires (whose "accuracy" I'm not quite confident about) on the religiosty of various nations show modern China as one of the "most atheist". While I do know it is a seriously doubted notion, I haven't seen any systematic refutation so far.

To limit the scope of the discussion, Can anyone provided newer discussion on:

(1) Did Ming/Qing Chinese elites and the "official ideology (if such term were legitimate)" lean towards atheism?

(2) Is there new methodological reflection on "what is atheism", "how to compare the attitudes towards religions between Abrahamic religions and the Chineses" etc.?

Many thanks!

Recently, I watched a show whith my girlfriends father where a descendant of Jacob Fugger was interviewed. He said something along the lines of: "In his time, he was probably the richest man who has ever existed." I responded that there have been a few richer people, among them was Mansa Musa. When I mentioned that he was a king of Mali, he quickly brushed everything off as a tale. He said that "sources from Africa are not reliable" and "are frequently mythologized", but the sources about Fugger are reliable. However, as far as I can tell (and please correct me if I am wrong), the scientific consenus seems to be that Mansa Musa really *was* the richest person in human history.

​

Now my question is, how do we actually know that he was responsible for an economic crash in Egypt? How do we know that the sources about him are reliable / how do we know *which* sources about him are reliable?

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia!

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Come share the cool stuff you love about the past!

We do not allow posts based on personal or relatives' anecdotes. Brief and short answers are allowed but MUST be properly sourced to respectable literature. All other rules also apply—no bigotry, current events, and so forth.

For this round, let’s look at: Crime and Punishment! In 1727, the Chinese scholar Zeng Jing tried to incite a military mutiny against the Yongzheng Emperor. Rather than have him executed, the emperor instead exchanged letters with him, and a contrite Zeng Jing ended up pardoned and promoted to minor office. Yongzheng's son, though, was less forgiving, and un-commuted the execution on his accession in 1735. This week, let's talk about crime and punishment!

there is this story ive been told, idk when idk by who but quite a few of my friends here in the Netherlands have also heard this from various places.

ive heard various variations of the story but they all boil down to "town hears that allied forces are close, start hanging out flags in celebration causing the nazies to flee" in some retellings the people celebrated way too early and had to fend for themselves for a little while.

so is there any truth to this premature celebration story?

In the first episode of the television show The House of the Dragon, a breached birth occurs and the only options in that situation were to perform a cesarean (the mother would die and the baby possibly survive) or nothing be done (and both mother and baby die). The disturbing situation and reading some online discussion led me to wonder when things changed in our own history and if more weight would be given to keep the mother alive (instead of choosing the baby's life first) if the knowledge to perform a partial birth abortion was available. Or would was it common for the baby's life to take precedence even when the parents were not royalty?

Thank you ahead of time!

One thing I always wondered was the Bering Strait. It's narrow, ancient civilizations sailed much further distances, there are islands between the continents, and people who knew how to make boats lived in that area. So why wasn't there any travel or trade before the discovery of the Americas and if there was, why isn't that well-known?

I have a drawing project in mind that includes as much accurate armour and clothes as possible. Precisely I have the 10th century english armour, welsh and scottish woman clothes in mind. I am sorry for an inaccurate explanation as I am not oriented in the period but I can provide specific details in the comments.

This question first occured to me when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. It's a game so obviously you need to keep things simple but as someone who's been fencing it seemed hard to picture someone fighting with a piercing weapon against an opponent with a slashing weapon.

Later, I've started reading on weapons while researching for my novel and I've found out that many types of swords were used in the same time. This brought me to a lot of thinking...

Sorry if it sounds wacky. English is not my first language and although I usually have no problem, my first language seems to be pretty devoid of vocabulary if if comes to stuff like this.

I have recently been reading up on the subject of English silver penny, and how silver instead of gold was the standard metal used for most of human history. I’m also currently writing a D&D campaign loosely based on Beowulf, and want to accurately portray the economy of the Danes. Did they also use an 1/240 pence system, or did they use a different decimal system for their coinage?

I have been reading "The Landmark Julius Caesar" and in the second book in "Commentaries on the Gallic War", Caesar mentions a king/leader of the Suessiones called Diviciacus who was said to be so powerful that he ruled over regions in Britain too.

The book's footnote says a few other Gallic leaders were reported to have ruled over parts of Britain too, but whether this was true wasn't clear and then doesn't elaborate more than that. Does anyone have any more information on this?

And also how close were the relations between Gaul and Britain? Was it mostly just trade relations, or was it possible that there was a big political influence too? For example, were there any political marriages between the two regions?

Three different cultures (Hebrew, Egyptian, Roman) have similar stories about important male figures floating down rivers and being saved by a woman. Is there any proof they inspired each other, or shared a common factor that influenced them to tell such a narrative?