Great is the emphasys here, as Hannibal is often portrayed as one of the greatest generals in History. How do we know the Romans didn't just portray him as such to ease their responsibility in the humiliations that were suffered during the Second Punic War?

I was watching a history video where the host claims that Franks and other western Europeans sold Slavs and other North-East Europeans as slaves too the Muslims, but i always thought that with the rise of the Catholic Church and Feudalism, slavery vanished in the West with the only real exception being border states that were influenced by the Sareceans like the Iberian Christian states or Sicily, which wouldn't have access to North-East European peoples, so were these slaves sold by the Vikings, did the Franks make an exception for non Christian Europeans, was it a black market or What?

I know that common people didn’t shower much, shaving requires a sharp blade and other things that I’m assuming were hard to access in the ancient times.

So did most common men walked around with full beards or was it common to see them walking around with a clean shave?

Thoughts:

1. Some eastern european traditional foods contain potatoes and tomatoes and yet they are considered traditional though they have been used for cooking only for about two centuries.

2. Some instruments like violins were scarcely available in rural regions until the late 18th century yet traditional folk music is based on violins.

3. Some traditional clothing have strong purple motifs like flowers or birds although purple dye was not available to common people only after the industrial revolution.

*All these examples are based on folk traditions from eastern europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Moldavia)

Growing up in the American educational system, we learned a lot about the horrible treatment of native Americans as well as African slaves in colonial America. For the latter, we learn a lot about advocates for slaves, and vocal opponents of the institution of slavery. However, I don't recall learning about any sort of equivalent for Native Americans. Were there any notable individuals or institutions (particularly in the caucasian population) who argued or fought for equality/fair treatment of native populations in colonial times?

Making this specific to feudal times but really asking about the hygiene practices of lower classes pre-industrialization. With no deodorant, soap, limited access to clean water, toothbrushes, etc, was there just a noxious cloud of funk around settlements? How did people combat the stench? How could the stand to have relations with each other?

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Napoleon is regarded as a military genius, but his victories and defeats are almost the only thing you hear about him. As he decleared himself as emperor in 1804 and got exiled to Elba in 1814, he must have had alot of policies, what were they?

The Royal Navy dominated the North Sea, and the Western front was locked in a stalemate, so was there a plan to invade Germany and break the stalemate like in Gallipoli, landing somewhere like Hamburg or Wilhelmshaven?

As a non-historian, I'm often at a loss when it comes to choosing one book over another to read on a given topic or person. Is there a good way for me to choose a book that is accurate and engaging at the same time? I find the ones that are very engaging are often the ones with either errors, omissions or draw conclusions that run contrary to scholarship. The ones that are the most factual are frequently very dry academic texts that are difficult to plow through. How do I find the middle ground?

I recently went to the Swedish Army Museum, and there was a really nice exhibit on Swedish involvement in the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) during the 1960s. There were several interviews with veterans involved in the operation, and in most of them, the veterans were critical of how the UN handled the situation as well as the strict engagement rules. Was this simply a soldier's frustration at not being able to fire back? Have these missions been successful in their primary objective of keeping the peace from a broad 20th century view?

For example in movies theres the typical general's orders saying "Draw, Hold............ Loose!". Wouldn't it be just as effective if not more to constantly shoot as fast as possible unsynchronised? (Also this would prevent the enemy from preparing shields in anticipation of each volley).

Are these items lost or never cataloged? Why is this such a common occurrence?

I'm primarily talking about comics starring the Duck clan and Mickey Mouse, both of which have played a central part in the childhoods of generation upon generation of Europeans. Yet in the US, there never seem to have been Disney comics of anywhere near the same iconic status that the Lustige Taschenbücher enjoy in the german-speaking world, or Topolino in Italy.

Which is doubly astounding when you consider that unlike Asterix or Tintin, many of their most defining stories were the creation of American artists, Carl Barks and Don Rosa in particular. Or the fact that Duck Tales, which clearly drew heavily from Barks' and Rosa's classic adventure tales featuring the Ducks, did enjoy overwhelming popularity in the states, proving that those types of stories obviously do hold appeal for an American audience. So why could that appeal never be translated into mass market success in perhaps the most American medium of all, comic books?

Looking to build on my understanding of city states and I am having trouble finding information through Google. If the questions below amount too closely for asking for an outright history lesson, I will gladly accept some sources that seem to focus on the questions I have.

How large were ancient city states? Off of this, did they often include smaller villages within their borders?

Were there ever unclaimed lands between city states or nation states that people would reside in communities?

Was there often dispute between nation states and city states over the sovereignty of the city states that bordered nation's?

Has there been examples of or was it common for a city state to be encompassed by the land of a Nation state?

I know of wars between city states such as Athens and Sparta, but was this the norm through history? What was this aggression largely based on (I assume resources and land)?