I also noticed that the timeline seems to coincide with the advent of the neo-assyrian empire and Kingdom of Kush (which I don't think were speaking semitic languages around this time), could it also be a consequence of the civilization collapse of 1177BC?)

Long time lurker, first time poster, go easy on me mods :)

We’ve seen many famous rulers of empires and powerful countries throughout history. Is there any documentation of what it was like being one? The stress? The emotions behind it? Any Kings or emperors that wrote about their own experience?

I'm curious about how much support currently exists for early Roman stories, before the 390 B.C. sack. It seems like this particular one might be an early patriotic myth. On the other hand, Brutus the Younger seemed to believe the accounts of his family's history. Is it possible that Lucius Junius Brutus didn't exist at all?

In Mein Kampf, Hitler makes it clear that he made extensive use of nonlethal terrorism to promote Nazism, with the police unwilling to intervene. At one particularly violent meeting, he says ‘after the meeting ended and everyone left, a police lieutenant rushed in and said ‘I declare this meeting dissolved!’ we couldn’t help but laugh at him, acting like he did something’. Yet elsewhere he complains about repression from the government, and how he feels that it would make him look weak if he had police protect him during marches, instead using his famous SA. He seems proud of, and openly admits to ‘bashing the Reds’ heads in’, something I assume would land him and the SA in jail, yet that only happened when he committed treason. He never mentions actually killing anyone, and the only mention he makes of a firearm during a political fight makes it appear that he thinks they are inappropriate. I understand that this is scarcely an unbiased account, but what was the truth? Did he go about killing communists, or just beating them up? Did the police do anything to prevent violence? Was nonlethal terrorism like this commonly used by everyone, or just Nazis vs Communists? And finally, how normal was the situation in the Weimar republic compared to the rest of the world at the time or earlier?

I've never been able to understand the strange courting situation we're given at the start of the Odyssey, and I've wondered if it would have made more sense to ancient audiences than modern ones.

With the absence of Odysseus, a number of "young" suitors are trying to court Penelope, Odysseus's wife. She obviously is trying to put them off, weaving a burial shroud for her father every day and unweaving it every night so as never to finish.

This would make some sense if marrying penelope would automatically bestow the kingship on them, but the text seems to indicate this is not the case. Further, while Telemachus would not necessarily become king automatically, based on the text, he does have the right to his father's home, possessions, and food, and so the suitors would not get this by marrying Penelope.

When Telemachus calls a meeting to complain about the suitors, they seem very sure that they're being reasonable. That it's actually Penelope's fault for not hurrying up and picking one of them. They urge Telemachus to throw her out of his house so she'll return to her father's home and get a new dowry.

So we've got young men who would neither become king nor gain Odysseus house and property by marrying Penelope pursuing her enthusiastically. It seems all they would get out of it would be whatever dowry her old father could provide.

Can you help me sort out what the thinking was here?

I heard Chinese Jews in form of the Kaifeng Jews managed to keep their identity up to the modern day and similarly with Chinese Muslims but the large Christian community Marco Polo met in China had practically died out by the 17th century, were there unique pressures that the Christians face that the Jews and Muslims didn't or was it that they faced similar pressures but dealt with those pressures differently

I've heard of them employing Chinese mercenaries before, but, given their expansion into Eastern Europe, would they have ever recruited mercenaries from Europe? The Rus', Baltic, and Balkan regions seem to be likely candidates to me personally, though I have yet to find anything confirming this idea.

Looking past the ‘chance’ assassination of Franz Ferdinand, is there not some single document or documents that proves that Germany (for example) wanted a war?

Why is it that every post I check has every comment removed. Either that, or you just don't answer the question. Is this even a functioning subreddit?

It's like one of those things people don't want the world to know. Can you suggest me some unbiased, authentic books?

I've seen it said in various places that prior to the introduction of tea and coffee, Europeans drank beer because unboiled water was dangerous due to various waterborne diseases but the beer-making process required water to be boiled therefore making it safe to drink. But I've also seen it said that people weren't constantly walking around in a drunken stupor because the beer (and wine) would be watered down. Surely the addition of non-boiled water would have been harmful?

So my questions are, was water in pre-industrial times as dangerous as it's often made out to be? Did people even know that water could make them sick? Did they drink water at all? And was alcohol really the standard beverage for everyone or just certain sectors of society?

The name sounds like they were just a private company, but apparently they had governors? And they made other settlers swear allegiance to the Dutch? Also they could arrest people and start wars? That sounds kind of government-like. What were they?

In the musical Hamilton, Alexander says to his son that it is honorable to shoot in the air in a duel because you can’t take back killing another person. Yet, I have also heard that it is dishonorable to do so, because if you weren’t ready to defend your position to the death, it shouldn’t have gotten to the point of a duel anyways. I understand both positions, but wonder which one was held throughout dueling history.

My Aunt grew up in Czechoslovakia in Sudetenland, she was born in 1923 to German parents. She and her parents were separated and sent to separate work camps - I don’t know which ones they were sent to. She was later drafted into the German army. When the war was over she was exiled and sent on a train to Berlin and told to seek aid in the American zone. She got a job in a shop there and met and married her husband, an American solider. He brought her to the US.

I have her parents names, her date of birth, and this story. That’s about it. I’ve tried searching for documents and on Ancestory, but I can’t find anything. It seems like her parents names were very common.

Can anyone give me any ideas on how to find out more about her family? I’m really interested to learn more about which camps they were in and where her parents died. My aunt unfortunately died a few years ago and didn’t like to talk about her life in Germany. I’d greatly appreciate any help or ideas!! Thank you!