Me and my friends were playing D&D and I had made a spear fighter. We then started jokes about how bows and arrows were just small long range spears, rapier's were close quarters spears, guns were loud metal bows, and so on, comparing every weapon to (usually) a spear.

This got us to thinking: Were there any cultures that didn't have a spear of some sort as a weapon? Spears just seem like a simple yet effective weapon that is easy to make and use.

In book "The Wars Of The Jews" written by Flavius Josephus. We may find this record, about Simon Thassi, in Book I, first chapter and second passage.

He was afterward an auxiliary to Antiochus, against Trypho, whom he besieged in Dora, before he went on his expedition against the Medes;

But in other, more numerous, resources we find that there was a war between Parthia and Seleucid Empire.

Why did Flavius Josephus write this? Was this a mistake? Did he consider them one the same nation?

Also, what was the reason given, and did any old timers or senior leadership express concern about this change?

I am doing research on the Northern Crusades specifically, so my question mainly pertains to the Teutonic Order; I know they drew heavily from the Knights Templar for their early guidelines so there may be some overlap.

The concept of Halbbrüder and Schwertbrüder, juxtaposed against ‘full’ Ritterbrüder is really interesting to me but I can’t find much on whether there was a progression one would usually take. For instance, the Schwertbrüder were simply coopted from the Livonian Order after their defeat at Saule; was there a stigma among the Teutonic Knights for these men? Did they tend to seek a “transfer” of sorts? Was this done at all?

Another example I’m interested in: say you’re a German from Lübeck who answers the call to settle eastward. For the sake of argument let’s say you’re from a minor noble family and you’re at least somewhat literate. You decide you want to join the Crusade to make a name for yourself and help spread Christianity. What route do you take and what is the equivalent of “career planning” involved?

Or is that an entirely anachronistic way to approach the question?

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Sorry to bother you guys, there hardly is anything out there to answer my question and I've searched hard (on the lay internet).

I've been trying to imitate a Roman soldier just so that I can have a more natural, down to earth hiking preparation. I want to be able to live off basics, without hitting the supermarket for fancy preserved food.

What should I pack? (I know a solider was expected to carry I believe it was 7 days of rations, although they had 2 servants per 8 soldiers.)

Eg (to illiustrate what I wanna know; no one online seems to just list it like:)
- one skillet

- fire starting material
- 5kg corn or wheat depending on area
- salt
- some meat that was found
- dank memes

I was reading about language families and found that Korean is considered a language isolate with no connections to other language families. It seems strange to me, an American who wouldnt be able to tell the difference between Korean and, say, Chinese if I heard someone speaking in the street, that these languages share no common ancestors despite their obvious similarities.

I understand that recent scholarship is rather divided on whether the heretical Cathars and their communities that were described in Medieval polemics by Catholic theologians even existed, at least not in the way that they are portrayed in those writings. What do historians think, and what are some good books that approach the subject - both for the existence of the Cathars and against it?

So.. I've been into history since I was a child. And came home from the library with stacks of books. It's always been focused around warfare. Or military history. But I find most historical topics interesting. I am also extremely fond of archaeology. And I've always thought of going to school for it. But just never have. The last year or so I've found it popping into my head on a more frequent basis for some reason. I'm 29.. going on 30. I just wanted to hear what peoples opinions who went to school to be a historian, are on the question. Any archaeologists out there? I'm aware they are different fields. But I've highly thought of pursuing either.

I see in various archives pictures of soliders and sailors (mostly from the world wars but occasionally other conflicts) who have pets such as dogs, cats or rabbits. Could they, and if so, how did they balance the duties and mobility of being an active service member while also taking care of a pet?

Kind of like what you'd see in a fantasy or RPG story. People who go around, adventuring and fighting and generally just solving problems for money.

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Obviously it's not like in a video game or something, I highly doubt people went around fighting monsters and saving the world, but were there actually people who made a living by going around and solving various problems rather than, say, sticking to a specific trade?

So today during the Literature lesson our teacher was telling us about Ivan Bunin and she mentioned that during the nazi occupation of France in WW2 Bunin was hiding a Jewish musician, they went to the church and converted the musician to Christianity, when the German soldiers came to search Bunins house they found the Jewish musician and wanted to take him but Bunin and his wife showed the soldiers a certificate that showed the Jew became Christian. Was this possible because I'm pretty sure Adolf Hitler hated Jews as a people not the religion of Judaism.

I'm sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes i'm on mobile and English isn't my mother tongue. Also sorry if I got some terminology and facts wrong.

I'm only familiar with technological history from about 100-200 years ago, so I don't know how much daily life changed before that. I want to know if there was a massive leap in quality of life, or if there wasn't much difference at all.

When Danes invaded Anglo-Saxon England they used longships. These ships seemed to have one deck with no living quarters. The journey from Denmark and other Nordic nations to England must have lasted some time. Did these warriors simply live together on the deck without shelter from the elements?

Were Factors specific to the IJN or to Imperial Japan more generally responsible?

"A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools."

Gerald Ford's presidential pardon of Nixon is still divisive to this day, with some viewing making an unpopular pardon for the sake of letting the country heal as politically courageous, and others seeing excusing his predecessor's crimes as politically cowardly. But there doesn't seem to be as much debate, or even mention, of George HW Bush giving a blanket pardon to everyone involved in the Iran Contra affair (which may or may not have included Bush himself). How did that get mostly forgotten, given Iran Contra involved treason and was pretty serious at the time?