I’ve heard of Greek Fire but never really understood how widely it was used, and especially where it was used. Was it used up until sail ships or was it limited to before then?

before I listened to that I always assumed the "Harrying of the North" just meant a lot of people were massacred, not that the Normans destroyed people's livelihoods as well.

Were cockroaches a problem in Medieval Europe? If so, how would they deal with them? Are there any noteworthy people that had cockroach phobias like today?

ive heard the theory that the modern irish are basically the indigenous inhabitants of the british isles and the celtic invasion theory is crap..

so was there ever a celtic invasion is all our mythology based on other peoples ..like the gauls??

I was watching a PBS documentary that said they were acquitted of manslaughter, collected the insurance payout, and faded into obscurity.

How could an individual Scandinavian pray to the Norse Gods on a daily basis? I am not thinking of great festivities or large offerings such as blót, but if - and how - an average Scandinavian around 850 AD could pray to the Norse Gods, just like a Christian could/can pray to God? Was there any formality/formular to how "Vikings" could pray to their Norse Gods daily (aside from, as mentioned, Blót and such)

I’ve seen YouTube comments from right leaning people saying he did at the end of his life, but I’m not finding that anywhere. The closest I’ve seen is him be highly critical of it to be sure it does not go authoritarian/ totalitarian like capitalism can (and has been) and so the USSR isn’t repeated.

I don’t mean the historical events as such, which I know he would tweak for dramatic purposes - but the minutiae of a seaman’s life and work in age of sail, the language and manners of the officer’s class, and such.

I’m particularly curious because I’m a medical doctor, and I am continually amazed at the technical accuracy he displays with regard to medicine. He’s not just accurate, he’s accurate with respect to the times. Sometimes he has his ship’s doctor do the right thing medically, but for the wrong reasons that were prevalent in the day. Once he even got Dr. Stephen Maturin to choose what by modern standards would be the wrong treatment - and the patient died (in typical O’Brian fashion this was not explicitly spelled out - but a healthcare professional would have spotted it.)

Since racism was so normal, were they really cautious in fear of being attacked or even lynched?

In america, I'm not sure why the tag says "sub-saharan africa"

I've been reading about Romans for past couple of days and it seems like Marius Reforms were the cause for the downfall of the Roman Empire. I like to read chronologically so it feels weird for me to skip content, I'd be really grateful if someone would sate my curiosity for the time being.

P.S. In an alternative scenario would The Roman Empire be defeated by the Germanic Tribes if it weren't for the Marius Reforms?

I dont know where she was going or how far she traveled but it just seems like something that would'nt happen as late as 1915 in America. Especally for someone as young as 35. But I've also been told that they were proper west Virginia hillbillies. I'm trying to understand who these people were and how they were dieing off in long horse and buggy journeys, over a decade into the 20th century. Is this sort of thing typical of the 1915 lifestyle, was my famaly dirt poor, or was there just some bad record keeping about the cause of death?

Also, if anyone has book recommendations for the American occupation of the Philippines/How the Philippines were governed after the war that would be neat too. I'm looking for books on the Cuban and Pacific theaters.

I'm a mechanical engineer by trade and in my day to day life I use complex mechanical elements which today are considered commodity items - roller bearings, screws, flat surfaces, measuring equipment, bar stock, and so on.

Now we learn in engineering school how important flat surfaces and precision screws were to the industrial revolution, and we learn a few of the big players' names like Whitworth, and then a few methods like the 3-plate grinding method for flat surfaces, but the curriculum doesn't go into much detail on the history beyond those brief shout-outs.

I'd like to look more in depth into the development of modern machine tools and their construction elements, manufacturing methods, and how long it took these machines/methods to be commonplace (subjective, I know).

For instance, would the congregants of a synagogue in Paris in 1400 be aware of the exist of Jewish communities in India or Afghanistan?