Sources are very welcome, I'd like to read a bit about it... thank you! :)

We always hear about the mighty Athenian armada that used to rule the Aegean, but during the course of the war it had suffered some serious defeats in the hands of the Spartans and their allies. Still, it seems that at the battle of Aegospotami, they were able to deploy 180 triremes despite their previous loses. This makes me wonder, just how many ships did the Athenians have during the Peloponnesian war?

There is an urban myth back home in Sri Lanka that the father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew saw the great city of Colombo in the 1950s and vowed to make Singapore modelled after it.

Any context or evidence to support this?

I like to think at some point in time there must have been a lot of local lords, technically owing feilty to the Roman Empire, who decided to declare themselves sovereign and independent of the formerly great Rome; traitors, rebels, whatever you would call them.

Who were some of the first to do this? Were they considered naive and treasonous? Were the first to do so just waiting to be crushed by the empire? Or was this simply considered the "prudent" reaction to something fairly significant? My general understanding of the fall of Rome was that there was no clearly defined date... so what finally convinced some of the europeans out there to say "Forget Rome, I'm in charge now".

Was former status in the Empire given any consideration here? Were the lords all descendant from Roman appointed rulers/administrators?

Or was the whole place in such disarray with warfare and Germanic invasions that the notion of a "traitorous Roman subject" becomes silly?

As I understand it the Mongols didn't write much down during Genghis's early life and most of the people around him at that point would probably have reason to exaggerate or play along with whatever story they wanted to go with. I only thought of this because of his relationship with jamukha and how unlikely it seems he really met him at a young age, teamed up with him later as they both walked different paths to positions of power, and then became mortal enemies. Idk it just seems too story book to believe and it got me questioning who this story came from.

If you could provide some sources for your answers I would sincerely appreciate it.

By mid-ranking noble, let's say I'm a Count. Maybe my son is an idiot, or unusually cruel, or even just has a bad gambling problem. He's not mentally handicapped, I'm just convinced for whatever reason that he's not fit to be count when I die. Is it possible to just disinherit him? If I do this, is anybody (except my son) going to get upset with me? Do I need permission from someone higher up the nobility ladder? Could I just choose my successor, and if so, does it have to be someone from my family?

When studying various philosophers I find that many of their teachings come from 3rd parties years after their supposed death's. Not to mention many of their discourses and experiences (e.g. Diogenes encountering Alexander the great) can seem somewhat fantastical and fictional. It gives me an impression that these men may have not existed the way we know it but rather future philophers used these men as characters in teaching various schools of thought.

Princeton has some of the most dedicated alumni in the United States. It's hard to imagine that the university was ever known by another name. How did people react to its rechristening in 1896?

In my own religous (evangelical) background astrology is generally considered only slightly better than outright witchcraft. Reading around it seems this is true of most conservative Christian communities today. However, I am always suprised to find astrologers operating seemingly openly in medieval and renaissance times. Apparently, Kings had court Astrologers. How was this justified? What was the official position of the Catholic Church and other religous groups? Was astrology something one could practice openly and respectably throughout the middle ages?

So I’ve been reading a series of great articles about Sparta and one of the underclasses discussed is the mothake, children resulting from sexual violence by spartiate men against enslaved helot women (the whole thing is a woozy). It says that those children were commonly in the military and sometimes sponsored for the agoge, but they’re obviously talking about boys.

If anyone can shed some light on it, I’d like to know what happened with the girls. Killed? Spartiate domestic servant? Stays with helot mother?

For example, India had been a part of the British Empire for hundreds of years. When India became independent, did the descendants of British colonists typically return to the country of their ancestors? Or were they more likely to stay on in India?

Hello,

I'm an amateur historian at best, and would like to know what is expected for historical documentation for current events. If someone is already doing this I'd love to help collect data and/or help where I can.

If this is off topic can someone point me in the correct direction for this post.

Vikings are a part of our history, the impact they did around the world (especially in europe) was giant. They raided many coasts and its believed that they reached America far earlier than Colombo did. But how far did they actually went? And was Ragnar Lodbrok (one of the most famous characters of the vikings culture, and probable father of Ivar the Boneless, Ubba, Bjorn Ironside and Halfdan aka Hvitserk) real or just an inspiration for viking berserkers and raiders?

How would all these regions communicate with each other?

How did the French and Italian governments make their respective languages so widely spoken?

Was this pattern of language commonplace amongst european states?

Why were these languages chosen instead of some other language in the French and Italian regions?