Not the city that was just captured or defeated, specifically their own countrymen getting a little out of hand celebrating once word got back to them about the victory.

I’ve tried the whole “twist a stick on some kindling” method and I’ve never been successful. I’m fairly fit, and the most I’ve dedicated to trying such a method was an hour at a time, but I just come nowhere near making a real fire. Were they just a hell of a lot stronger and enduring? Did they have longer sticks?

I'll level with you, I'm asking for fantasy worldbuilding and writing. But I want to keep the disbelief-suspension to a minimum. If the mundane fights are believable, the crazy ones are easier to swallow when they come up.

I have recently read a number of articles detailing the execution of Marie-Antoinette and mostly all - with the exception of a few - point toward her being a privileged, over-excessive and inhumane person.

I'm speaking of her alleged attitude toward the peasantry in France, her personal discrepancies regarding younger men etc and her lavish expenditures while many in France at the time were living in poverty.

Does she deserve the title of 'Madam Deficit'? Was she openly enabling the excesses and corruption of the French monarchy, or are these allegations simply propaganda by revolutionaries at the time?

Additionally, was she any different to her counterparts in other absolute monarchies at the time?

Thanks!

In Robert Harris' novel, Imperium (roughly covers the time of the Verres trial to Cicero's election to consul; ~70-64 BC), Caesar is introduced as a young freshman senator. Despite his junior status, he is portrayed as a well respected adviser/confidant/associate/go-between etc etc of the key power brokers like Crassus and Pompey; would this have been accurate at the time or would he have been a glorified pawn/hanger-on?

Obviously Caesar would later go on to become a full partner with Crassus and Pompey (in the first triumvirate) but when would he have first been considered a player rather than a pawn in terms of his influence e.g. after he became pontifex maximus etc?

Thanks for reading.

Ice Cube and Dr. Dre are far more well known today than Eazy-E or MC Ren, in the former case owing mostly to his death in 1995. But in Ice Cube's anti-NWA diss rap "No Vaseline" he devotes a line to DJ Yella, 5 lines to Dr. Dre, and a verse each to MC Ren and Eazy-E. When the song was released, was MC Ren more prominent than Dr. Dre?

I am in search of an accurate map showing the topography and villages on and behind Fifth Army's front during Operation Michael, 21st March-5th April, 1918. I will appreciate all contribution

Thanks

In the Codex of the videogame Battlefield 1 (not the best source, thus I turn to you) it is implied that self-loading rifles were not used on the ground because they were susceptible to dirt. Even so, SMGs were used in the trenches by the end of the war. Was this the case? Why were self-loading rifles more susceptible to dirt than SMGs?

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I’m doing Italian history as part of my A-Level course and we cover Italy from 1860 - 1945, so I’d like to do some extended reading around these years. Does anyone have any recommendations?

This was brought up on a political discord server I am in. The only thing I could really retain is it had something to do with Nazis attacking another fascist leader. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

In movies, pulp, pop culture and yes real life too, leopard print rugs, clothes, swimsuits, decorations etc are code for cheap/skeezy (no offense to the leopard enthusiasts out there) but how did a seemingly generic pattern based on an exotic and expensive fur from a noble predator become equivalent to velvet paintings and such?

Vengeful lead curses on tablets, carved phalluses, votive charms, love spells/potions and vows to gods and spirits. There are a lot of components to Grecoroman culture that seem like witchcraft now but did not at the time. Still I want to know how was its use and existence seen? Do we know who in Greek and Roman society would have interacted with it most? What was "magic" like in Classical antiquity anyway?

The highway system wasn't around until the 1950s. How did people traverse the country before then? How long did it take?