Rasputin came from a peasant upbringing with little to no education, yet somehow time after time he was able to stabilize the young heir when other treatments failed. There have been no records of his specific treatments, and there were times the child had been rescued from the brink of death. The royal family's dependence on Rasputin allowed him to become an integral part of their lives, and allow him to become a voice in their decisions. I find this part of the story involving the fall of the Russian Czar extremely interesting, as it can be argued that Rasputin was a driving force in the decision making of the Czar and Czarina that led to the fall of the Czarist autocracy and eventual withdrawal of Russia from the First World War.

Possibly the wrong place to ask, but how long must something be around before it stops being an antique and start being an artifact?

I was just wondering how a King in the Middle Ages would usually justify their place at the top of the social pyramid. Was it more religious authority, military power or wealth?

Just wondering how it all started, was there some fashion lord or king that decreed one day "From henceforth today, grey hair is totally in!"

Looking back, parachute pants and that 80s poofy frizz hair looks silly, but this, It just all seems so inconvenient, so so so much time and effort.

Was there any contemporary decenters? Or was it just a minority of the wealthy wearing that fashion?

It was apparently glossed over when I was in school. I only found out about it when I heard it in a song. The workers strike helped pave the way for child labor laws and the 8 hour work day. When I think about it the whole strike was skipped over it seems.

Might be too broad of a question, but what to what extent did Mussolini's Italy participate in the Holocaust? Was Italy responsible for a large portion of the genocide or very little? I am familiar with the role of Croatia during the Holocaust but not sure where the Italians were in the midst of this.

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There are plenty of smithed objects from civilizations all over the americans, and not just gold and silver, but coper too, and yet it seems that no civilization there ever developed metal tools nor weapons, which is weird because they certainly could have made them, it wasn't beyond them in any way, and it's not like you need a genius to come up with the idea that a coper ax may last longer than a stone one

Were sub Saharan peoples less adept at hunting? Or were there significant population decreases in elephant populations, just not enough to wipe them out?

Today, when most people think of nazis they think of bigots. Or maybe they think of fascists.

But, as I understand it, the word itself comes from "national socialism" (similar to how 1984's Ingsoc was the English Socialist Party).

Were the nazis ever really socialists?

Assuming they have, when and under what circumstance did nazis themselves ever give up any ambition or pretence of socialism? Or Germany nationalism, for that matter, seeing as they are hardly tied to Germany any more.

Did the public ever generally believe the Nazis to be or have sincere ambitions towards socialism? Is World War II and the Jewish holocaust the only reason this perception changed? Was there a general doubt of their sincerity even before this? Or was there even any belief in their sincerity afterwards?

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Hello! So lately I've been doing some research on the military of the late Empire and I have a couple questions and hope more knowledgeable people here could answer them.

• So how were mobile field army units (Comitatenses, Palatini. I understand the Scholares stayed with the Emperors at all times) allocated? Were they stationed just how the legions of old were stationed (mainly outer provinces of the Empire)?
• I read a bit on Wikipedia (I'm aware it's not as reliable as evaluated works) and it said basically the thing that Roman cavalry wasn't as effective in combat as their comtemporaries is a misconception. Is this true? To be honest, I hardly know anything about late Roman cavalry force, save for the fact that they "borrowed" much from their foes, who fielded superior cavalry troops, and that they suffered some embarrassing defeats in certain battles.
• What were the differences between the numeri and foederati troops?
• Say, if a small amount of troops were needed (not an entire legio or cohors), would that small unit be designated as vexillatio? Basically I'm asking if vexillatio still carried the meaning of "detachment" or did it at that point exclusively mean cavalry units?
• How were the sappers/engineers organized in the late army? Were they organized in seperate corps?

One minor question at the end: Aside from the Notitia Dignitatum and Adrian Goldsworthy's works, are there any other sources from which I could learn more about the late Empire (not exclusively the Dominate and later, I think the Severan dynasty and on would be nice too. And not just the military, I'm interested in all aspects of the late Empire)?

Quite a lot of questions and not all of them. But these are what I think I could word the best. Thanks in advance!

I had a missionary show me some excerpts from Daniel that he claimed predicted historical events, namely Alexander the Great conquering Persia and Media, dying, and four generals vying for dominance in the ensuing power vacuum.

I have little knowledge of when most Old Testament books are thought to be written, nor of Ancient Persian or Ancient Greek history, so I have no way of assessing the credibility of this claim with my own background knowledge. A Google search returns a lot of Christian apologetics webpages, and I would be more interested in a secular source with no preexisting committment to Christianity (or any religion or belief system) that confirms or disconfirms this claim.

The chapters and verses I was shown were Daniel 8: 1-8, 19-21.

Thanks for your help!

I'm working on learning the history of the regions of historical/modern Germany and I'm looking for some good books on specific topics:

30 Years War, Rise of Prussia, German territories during the Napoleonic wars, German Confederation, German revolutionary movements in the mid-1800's, German Unification

Also a book or volume of books that cover the history of the historical/modern German regions from as early as possible (Roman contact?) to the modern era, would also be awesome! Thank you in advance!