He claimed this in ‘the lost city of the monkey god’, just wondering what scholarship says on the subject.

In school, I heard a great deal about what living in Nazi Germany was like, heard about the hell of Soviet rule or the incredible strictness of Imperial Japan, but I’ve never heard about life for your plain, average Joe under Mussolini other than the old “Mussolini made the train run on time.” Is there any historical record or accounts of what normal daily life was like for a regular civilian under his regime? What was the public opinion of his administration, if it is known?

Lemons entered Italy at latest during the 2nd century according to Wikipedia. It then states that they reached Persia and subsequently the Middle East around 700 AD.

I was under the impression that the Silk Road was the only means of goods exchange between Rome and Southeast Asia during that time. If this is the case, how did these goods make it through the middle east unnoticed in order to reach Rome? If this is not the case, were there other ways of transporting goods at the time? It just seems strange that the middle east, being situated between two areas with lemons, being a hub between the two in trade, missed out on these lemons for over half a millennium.

I've read in a few places that elephant riders would carry spikes and hammers to kill their elephants if they panicked and started to trample their own lines.

On the other side of the coin their seems to be a number of major examples of elephants getting spooked and trampling their own lines.

Do we know if these elephant riders really carried a spike and hammer and if they did, why would they not use them when their elephants go rogue?

I am curious how common the use of enemy weaponry during the second World War. Was it only done by necessity, or was it something soldiers would prefer. Also, was there any sort of stigma involved when doing so?

Also to follow up, they were all treated the same as everyone else and sat in with the captain and officers during dinner, drinking wine etc. Is this purely fictitious?

During WWI the Germans were continually starved for food supplies, largely due to blockades by the British of the North Sea. Similarly, in WWII a oft-cited reason for the campaign into Russia is that the Germans wanted to take possession of the fertile lands of Ukraine and beyond.

However, is there any particular reason why Germany was short on food? Their lands were quite extensive (esp with Austria-Hungary as their ally in WWI) and fertile. Shouldn't this have been sufficient to feed their population? Where did they get their agricultural imports from anyways? Their colonies were not exactly breadbaskets...

And during WWII was the arable land motif mostly an "excuse" to justify German geopolitical designs? Having taken posession of France and Poland endowed the Germans with significant additional arable territory, after all...

"I'll now lead you to an honest ale-house, where we shall find a cleanly room, lavender in the windows, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall." - The Compleat Angler, by Izaak Walton, first published 1653

This sounds like a really facinating phenomenon! Do we have copies of many of them? Do we know what was popular? Do we know for sure how they sounded when sung?

[deleted]

[deleted]

Sonderfahndungsliste G.B. AKA The Black Book contains a list of people in the UK that the Germans planned to arrest if Seelöwe had been successful. Is the complete list available anywhere?

Ok, I realize that this is a pretty "niche" question, but I'm watching Season 2 of Versailles on Netflix. Great show.

In it they more or less credit the Duc and his lover (the Chevalier de Lorraine) with playing a major role in the social life of the court. Including: inventing etiquette and essentially creating the idea of "color trends" ("this winter, the color is red").

How much of this is true? What role if any did the King's brother and his lover play in court life in Versailles?

I’ve been listening to the “King of Kings” podcast by Dan Carlin and he has mentioned that the Persians in their vast expansion across the near east were, by comparison, lenient and tolerating to the people the conquered. Could anyone tell me if this is true and/or expand on it. Thanks!

For reference, the game takes place during Cleopatra's reign, so around 49BCE.

It is mentioned in the historical tours that you can take, that the game developers did sacrifice some historical accuracy for the sake of inclusive gameplay. In one example, scribes are shown teaching a group of boys and girls, though in truth, it would have only been boys. I was wondering if the surprising number of overweight NPCs inhabiting the game was another example of inclusivity over historical accuracy.

I had previously thought that the Russians were barred from using the Suez Canal because of the Dogger Bank incident, forcing them to take the long route around Africa (this is also what Wikipedia says). However, in "Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear" a portion of the fleet commanded by Felkerzam travels through the Suez Canal and meets up with the remainder of the fleet north of Madagascar. So what was the actual policy of Britain regarding the canal? Why did only a portion of navy use the canal?