In Hagakure, a stipend of only 4 koku (enough rice to sustain four people for a year) is described as shamefully low. What would be a typical stipend for a samurai of a low enough rank that he wasn't given any land to have peasants farm on his behalf? Hagakure was written after the samurai class had been in decline for some time. Would samurai have been paid better or worse during the Muromachi period?

How many Hebrew works were estimated to be lost in the great fire of the Library of Alexandria? What kind of affect on history or culture would there have been had the fire never happened in the library?

Specifically, for a 'historical' novel, the given historical events in the book would, hypothetically, have occurred within very recent memory (specifically the Bourbon Restoration), most figures in position of 'legitimate' authority in the novel are unpleasant and/or corrupt. Would these have been generally acceptable 'targets' for a novel with a protagonist of dubious morality, or would antagonists representing a array of French upper strata have been of interest to the average reader at the time?

Whilst this game has not been released yet, trailers have been released which showcase multiple elements of the game. I have read that the developers went to great lengths to capture the setting accurately, and from watching the trailers I have three questions.

At one point in a trailer, we can see that the Japanese wear what to me looks to be recognisably samurai armour, e.g. kabuto helmet with ornate decoration. My first question is: would the samurai around the late 13th century look 'distinctively samurai'? If so, it seems that the general appearance of Japanese armour changed little (to my untrained eye) throughout history.

Again to my untrained eye, I cannot tell if the main character (or any of the Japanese, for that matter) are using a tacho or a katana, or some other sword. I have read that the Mongolian invasions influenced the design of the katana, as the longer tacho swords seemed ineffective against the types of armour used by the Mongolians. However, it appears that the main character uses the sword much in a katana fashion (held blade facing up, with the sheath held directly against his body rather than dangling blade-down from a belt). Would it have been possible that a warrior would have used these techniques at the time, during the invasion itself?

Lastly, the common foot soldiers are shown to speak Mongolian, but the 'generals' can speak Japanese. Would the Mongolian militant elite have learnt Japanese? And would the common soldiers even be Mongolian, instead of Chinese or Korean subjects?

Many thanks for your time, and I appreciate that the game has not been released so you are working from limited information - hopefully I have provided enough context to my questions for those unfamiliar with the game in question.

When they were making early maps what went at the top?the bottom? Did they just put stuff wherever or was there a protocol for early mapmakers?

Playing games and watching movies has taught me one thing: soldiers in popular culture carry their weapons on their backs. While I know there are sheaths and holsters designed for back carrying, but was this practice really as pervasive as pop culture media would have us believe?

You often hear about empires claiming to be the succesor to the roman empire, ive never heard about countries trying to follow in the footsteps of the roman republic when that was arguably their best period. Why is that?

The romans had 5 kings the last one was so bad they got rid of him and instead of getting a new king they instated a republic, why did it take so long for later european countries to do the same when they had far worse kings?

Medieval knights are often portrayed as honourable and gushing with valour. Obviously it’s not wholly true for all, but is the concept that all warriors of kingdoms are fair and just, based off any specific event or person? Thank you.

Whenever the space race is discussed it seems like there is two sides who are very convinced that either the first man in space or first man on the moon made either side win the space race. In the west it seems that the US won it when they landed on the moon. But when I have talked to Russians it is not really a question of winning or losing, just an amazing thing that Gagarin went into space.

So, I wonder if it was as clear then as it is today in both the west and the east that there was a set finish line for this race, and that someone won it with any of the milestones.

In medieval Europe, the widow of a blacksmith could practice her husband's profession. Was this also true for Jewish bankers, merchants, and others that handled money? Or were there laws and customs in place that restricted Jewish women from participating in these businesses?

It says on his Wikipedia page that after the war he was met with some hate and death threats. Why would people be angry at him for killing and almost being killed to prevent an invasion?

Rome's conquering reach, and power and influence reaches far and wide, as we can see their influence on the world 2000 years later. But why couldn't they conquer Scotland? I don't know the validity of this, but in Ryse: Son of Rome, the depiction of Caledonia is based on Roman soldiers' reports of the area. A dark, dank swampland inhabited by tribal beastmen of unnatural size and strength. If this is what the Romans thought of Scotland, is this fear one of the reasons why Caledonia was left alone? Or was it a terrain disadvantage?

From reading Wikipedia, it sounds like historians generally accept that the pontoon bridges did actually happen. But there appear to be a lot of specifics that are disputed, and it can be reasoned that many points of Herodotus' descriptions would be problematic from a technical standpoint.

Has any physical evidence of the bridges ever been found? Has there ever been an attempt made to find any? Divers or underwater craft looking for evidence?

After the crossing, the bridges were left behind. When a part of the Persian army later retreated to the Hellespont, they only found the debris of the bridges destroyed by another storm.[9]

Could we expect to find any anchors, or fragments of sunken boats, or anything of the like down there? I have no idea if it's even feasible to expect such things to last 2500 years, or to remain stationary.

I heard a long time that when Mao sent the red guard into rural China that some of the villages believe the Qing dynasty still ruled China . Is there any truth to these claims and if so how were these communities so isolated for so long ?

Now he's regarded as one of the greatest thinkers, but was he seen as that back in the 1600s?

I believe it is all but accepted (I think) that Hoover was homosexual or bisexual. How true is it that the mob and Meyer Lensky blackmailed him with pictures?

From the LA times:

"Author Anthony Summers writes in his book, “Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover,” that top organized crime figures Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello obtained photos of Hoover’s alleged homosexual activity with longtime aide Clyde Tolson and used them to ensure that the FBI did not target their illegal activities."

"Summers writes that electronics expert Gordon Novel said that CIA counterintelligence chief James J. Angleton, now deceased, showed him several photos, including one of Hoover engaged in sexual activity with Tolson.

Summers writes that the Mafia may have obtained the photos from the OSS, the forerunner to the CIA. He offers the theory that OSS chief William Donovan and Hoover, while feuding over control of foreign intelligence, investigated each other and Donovan came up with the photos.

The Summers book quotes Susan Rosenstiel, the fourth wife of alleged mobster and liquor distributor Lewis Solon Rosenstiel, as saying she saw Hoover dressed in women’s clothes and involved in homosexual play at sex parties at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

At one such party in 1959, she recalled seeing Hoover with “a red dress on and a black feather boa round his neck. . . . After about a half an hour, some boys came, like before. This time they’re dressed in leather. And Hoover has a Bible. He wanted one of the boys to read from the Bible, and he read, I forget which passage.”

She said the other boy engaged in sexual activity with Hoover."

It would've kept britain out of the war and i'm pretty sure France didn't have very strong fortifications on that border