Was it hereditary? Was there a formal application process like today? Would they just be selected by nobles with no way of refusing?

For that matter, was it the kind of job that might be sought out by a lower-class person or was it no better than any other job available to them?

I'm curious about lots of things related to historical job searching but I don't want my question to be over-broad. Nonetheless, if your area of expertise is about a different time period, region, or type of job, I'm still interested in the answer.

For example, why was the Han dynasty called the Han dynasty when the family name was Liu, and how was the name “Han” chosen in the first place?

I’ve seen claims that America nuked Japan mainly to scare the Soviet Union, and I was wondering how true this claim really is.

Thinking of those beautiful muslin (sp?) dresses we see in Austen adaptations, how did anyone stay warm during a British winter? Long woollen underwear?

I'm developing a game and I still can't understand one thing. If a musketeer has a sheathed, a sabre let's say and at one point he has to melee fight someone at very close range, and he pulls out his sabre, where does the musket he normally holds in his hands go? Even more mind-boggling for me was how were the Russian Streltsy able to carry a sheathed sabre, a musket and a bardiche that they used as a rest for the musket? Where did they put all these things? Did they simply drop some of their weapons in battle?

That should have read “ actioned”?

Was there any discussion in NASA about possibly needing some forms of weapons? Not necessarily for aliens but if some crew member required to be stopped from disastrous action?

And in other manned missions from other countries?

Rewritten question to avoid being removed for being too specific.

Most of the early fascist leaders, including Mussolini, seem to have started off as syndicalists and revolutionary socialists. The Fascist Manifesto, written in 1919, seems to have had republican and otherwise leftist ideas (universal suffrage, eight hour work day, union control, etc.,) . How, then, did fascism become a hyper nationalistic ideology opposed to socialism and all those on the left?

More specifically, I'm interested in how naval battles in rivers were fought, what kinds of ships were used and how ships were built or mobilised.

I read recently that the US was interested in 1868 in buying Greenland and Iceland from Denmark. Why did this not happen? I read it was because following Seward’s 1867 Alaska Purchase the US Government did not want to appear imperialistic, but are there any other reasons? Would Denmark have accepted such a deal? I also know the USA tried to buy Greenland again in 1946, for 100,000,000$ USD, and was rejected, but it wasn’t too big a deal as the US got their military bases in the area. Why was it rejected, and what other reasons did the USA have to buy Greenland apart from the military bases?

I have started reading 'Rice, Rivalry and Politics', a book about the international relief effort in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the situation seemed extremely shocking to me. In the book, the authors talk about the political situation on the ground, and how aid effort were made difficult by many different factors. The most shocking factor for me was that the Heng Samrin government was struggling to find enough people who knew how to count to assist in distributing the aid! Was the international aid response in Cambodia as terrible as the book claims?

The passage is in Wars II. xxviii. 13

"And Alamoundaras captured one of the sons of Arethas in a sudden raid while he was pasturing horses, and straightway sacrificed him to Aphrodite;"

I'm both surprised by such a casual references to a sacrifice to a pagan deity in this era (maybe I shouldn't be?) and surprised that Alamoundaras sacrificed to Aphrodite of all gods, though I wonder if Procopius was using a Greek name for what was really a foreign god.

Any clarification is greatly appreciated!

I’ve spent the last few days researching the event and all the accounts support him joining Henry the Young King and Geoffrey in fleeing to the French court and standing against Henry II, but he becomes seemingly absent for the remainder of the revolt.

I’m wondering if there is any solid information on the part he played?

Most boys are circumcised the United States, even though only a small minority of Americans are Jewish. What is the historical background of the popularity of this practice in The United States?

I should clarify that I have never studied history, so please correct any stupid assumptions that I make. I read somewhere (I forget where), that Druids were forbidden from writing down their secrets. This led me to wonder what writing system and language they would have used if they were to break this rule. I assume that each tribe would have their own language, and that these languages were all related and are probably related to modern Welsh. As for what writing system, I know that the Roman alphabet has been used in Britain since the Romans settled here, but what would the British tribes have used before the Romans? I assume they must have had some kind of writing system, but I have no idea what that would be.

I get that people question the existence of religious figures and such, but the Holocaust took place in relatively recent, well documented, timelines. What evidence do they base their decisions on?