I'm looking at "Try 3 week yoga retreat" and "Perfect Squats!" and "The Best Nonstick Cookware You'll Ever Own From Circulon"

I think of the Roman republic with some admiration in so far as Rome was (for a time) able to conquer vast amounts of territory and give a fair measure of representative rights to its male citizens. At the same time, however, I remember reading that married women were very much in the power of their husbands, and that in theory at least a father could put his sons to death. By the time of Augustus, it seems that women had a little bit more freedom. Just how much freedom did Roman women enjoy, to marry, and divorce freely, own property, and so on in the 1st century A.D.?

How was the life of African tribes and communities before colonialists reached them? Did they have famines, poverty, etc, or were most communities self-sufficient with their requirements?

During the ancient and classical eras of history, I recognized that some kings held multiple royal titles of kingdoms they had conquered, e.g. Alexander the Great , King of Macedon, Hegemon of the Hellenic League, King of Persia, Pharaoh of Egypt, Lord of Asia. What was the purpose of these rulers having various royal titles if they all part of a singular empire?

Before the invention of conventional alarm clock, how did people used to wake up, it would probably be with the sun for most of time, but in situations wherein they needed to be awake before the sun, for example, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s dual, they met at dawn, which implicates that they had to both be up before the sun, and simply staying up the whole night seems like an irresponsible idea right before a duel?

Can anyone recommend English books or other resources on the history of the Yayoi and Kofun periods?

I am particularly interested in the the emergence of the Japanese culture and statehood, how the early Japanese interacted and mingled with the neighboring peoples, and the gradual introduction of technologies from mainland Asia.

I'm thinking of writing a fictional story where, instead of chalcedony, after the fall of the Roman empire a branch of Christianity arises which supports science. So instead of the dark ages, we have a society which looks like high medieval but has Renaissance tech and mindset but it's set in the 600's or 800's. Has there ever been such a faction? Even one that was developed during the reformation I'd take.

From what I've read, the governments of several European countries that fell early in the war fled into exile and continued to fight as the legitimate governments of their territory. The Polish government in exile for example exerted considerable influence in Poland and so did the Dutch with their colonial empire. Even the Danish government who didn't flee remained morally opposed to Germany and went to great lengths to protect Danish Jews.

So what I don't understand, is why France with its massive colonial empire and navy with which it could continue the fight, didn't do the same? Unlike the Danes, Vichy was rabidly antisemitic and was willing to order its colonies to resist Free France and the allies.

Did they even use yeast? or did they use other leavening agents? I'm mostly asking about societies in the middle east including Egypt but would also like insight into where medieval Europeans acquired yeast.

First off, sorry if this sounds too "a-ha! gotcha!"

While the library of Alexandria was a hub that carried tons of information, do we have records that suggest that all or some of the information in the library had copies in other libraries/information hubs around the world? It's just astonishing to me that so much information was all in one spot, and then when it was destroyed all of that information was just lost without other records somewhere.

Sort of a followup question, just how much did the destruction of the library actually slow down cultural/technological innovation?

I'm reading Malcolm Butler's 'New Knighthood' and he mentions that the Order's early leadership may have ventured to Scotland in the 12th century. Was there ever a Templar presence in Scotland? I thought I read something once about a presence in Fife... It's hard to find legit info on this subject matter obviously.

Any pointers to books (I'm not writing a paper or thesis, so I'm not skimming) would be appreciated.