I remember speaking with someone about a book written by a late Roman scholar who understood that Rome was collapsing and that a large body of knowledge would be lost. Therefore, he wrote a book that tried to contain the entire body of Roman knowledge. I'm trying to find the name of the scholar and the name of that book.

Is there any discussion of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Titus Labienus, who defected from Caesar's camp to Pompey during the civil war? I understand that Labienus was killed in the Battle of Munda and his head presented to Caesar. What was the reaction to this?

EDIT: For example, in the Russian Far East, were there similar alternating attempts to Russify indigenous peoples, kill them, and/or crowd them into reservations? If so, did Russian policy toward such peoples tend to be analogous to American policy toward indigenous peoples at the same point in time?

Hey! Everyone I am a beginner who wants to start learning and reading about history. My main interests are interaction and development of religion throughout the ages. I would like your help and recommendations as to how to go about it and start reading about these things I am really interested in Buddhist history , so I would like to start from there Any suggestions and recommendations are welcome Thank you

In the west we know Santa Claus and Sinterklaas/Saint Nicholas. In the Alps we know Krampus who is an advisery to the winter figure. In the Pyrenees we find Olentzero taking the role. When we go east we find Miklavz and Mikulas and further east he turns into Ded Moroz. In Mongolia we find Chysh Khan.

These versions of the Winter Man all have companions, and they are all weird.
Belsnickel, Knecht Ruprecht, Black Pete, 6 Krampus like devils(Miklavz), an Angel & Imp duo,Schmutzli, Hans Trapp, etc
These are all related or based on each other in some way. To take famous Black Pete as an example, he is an almalgation of Knecht Ruprecht, Miklaviz's 6 krampusses, and Schmutzli viewed through the eyes of a victorian age childerens book writer.

There are more. Pretty much every place that has winter, has a version of this winter gift giving man and his companions. They are all very much alike in theme and it goes well beyond the anglosphere I think.

Where does this come from?
Originally I mean. It's obvious that the current versions are christianized versions of earlier things.
I have read some articles that thought it was based on Wodan/Odin. I'm not sure if that makes sense considering how widespread this thing is. It all feels as a tradition that is far older than Wodan, and we kept re-inventing it over many millenia and cultures.
Why we do it is obvious I think. Midwinter needs a fest to eat surplusses that would otherwise spoil, some in the community will need gifts of food to get through winter and various other such reasons.
But where does mr Winter Man and his companions come from?

Would I be treated as a coward for fleeing, sent back out immediately, or would I treated well for information or remembrance of those lost?

Did they just go to the embassy and say, “hi, I agree with you and wish to defect” or was it more complicated?

Is there a way to preserve old newspaper? 1910 and older copies. I couldn't imagine laminating would be good for it but let me know if there are any solutions. My goal for preservation is more about being able to move them without adding rips and holes.

I'm doing a project , and i can't seem to find anything about his last years , any help will be appreciated :)

The North African theater of WW2 is frequently depicted as almost an adventure compared to the horrors of Europe and the gritty nature of the Pacific. It resulted in nearly 500,000 total casualties (killed, captured, wounded, and missing), so how did it come to be seen this way?

Follow up: if the answer is military genius, exactly what did he do on the battlefield or in warfare to warrant such an accolade?

The ideal resource will explain, in minimum possible words, how Delhi Sultanate expanded in the Indian-Subcontinent. I want to understand which regions got inducted into the Sultanate in which period ?

Expansion: Is it possible to answer this question in an intellectually defensible way?

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We always hear the stories of the minorities in documentaries so i would like to know about how the Germans were fairing.

Even aircraft of the same designation changed drastically over the course of the war. A Gustav model Bf-109 had almost nothing in common with an Emil from only a few years prior. Early P-51s and late P-51s changed engines entirely. The list obviously goes on.

I was just curious, what ever happened to the older models when they were declared obsolete or combat ineffective?

I recently read Plato's "Symposium", and I was surprised by the sincere sexuality. For those who don't know, the text is about a bunch of hungover guys at a dinner party who decide to have a discussion about love and sex instead of getting drunk again. The speeches are the actual philosophy part. Almost everyone mentions how great male homosexuality is, especially between older and younger men, and there's an awesome speech about how straight, gay and lesbian orientations were caused by the gods messing with a three gender system. Then a super drunk fratboyish friend turns up and rants drunkenly about his attraction to Socrates and how hard he tried (and failed) to get him into bed. Socrates isn't impressed by this, and there's some jealousy drama, after which the dinner degenerates into drinking games and a raging party. (This was so much more fun to read than I anticipated, lol. Also, Socrates is such a troll! He doesn't use "socratic questions" at all... much like how Plato's friendships don't seem very platonic)

I've been taught that Greek male homosexuality was a kind of trade, like a mentor thing or a sugar daddy thing, or a "classy" way for misogynists to get sexual release without involving any women. But when reading this text, that interpretation came off as a very heterosexual perspective on homosexual desire.

Well, I'm bisexual myself, and this seemed to me like the real deal. Plato goes on for pages and pages about attraction, crushes and relationships. I know that he wouldn't have identified as "gay" the way we think of it, but reading this I felt that his attraction to men was deeply important to him, not just a convenient arrangement.

So I looked him up on Wikipedia, and it seems like Plato first met Socrates when he was about 20 and stayed with him to the bitter end seven years later. According to Wikipedia, there's a source that claims that Socrates made such an impression on him that he went home and burned all his earlier writing. I'm reminded of young political activists who are drawn in by a charismatic leader. But... I'm also reminded of what it's like to be 20 and fall in love.

1. Do we know anything about what happened between Plato and Socrates? Is there any evidence that they had (or didn't have) one of those older man/younger man wisdom-for-beauty relationships? How did Plato react to Socrates' trial and execution?

2. How on earth have Christian classics teachers managed to teach this text throughout the centuries? Did they avoid it? Claim that the sex is some kind of metaphor?

3. Are there any historical examples of queer people that recognised themselves in Plato? Were people who studied the classics less homophobic than the rest of Western society?

Also, has anyone studied Plato from a queer perspective? Is there anything I can read that is less... well, straight?

I think the rise of the Safavid's and the Safavid dynasty itself is one very interesting subject that's been keeping my attention for some time. Despite what I perceive to be the importance of the Safavid's, it does not seem that there is a lot of historiography on the Safavid's, aside from a few books written by passionate historians.

One particularly murky subject that I struggle to find any sources on is the rise of the Safavid's, or Shah Ismail I's conquest's before the battle of Chaldiran. I was wandering if you guys have any good books I can read about Shah Ismail I's early conquests?