I imagine most of the city was for business/worship and rich people's homes, but did normal people live there as well? Were apartment style buildings a thing in that time period?

In The Iliad, Homer often describes the warriors rushing to strip the dead of their armor, but these same men are described as wearing armor. I assume that this is based on reality, and I'm wondering if the armor was to bring back as a trophy, or simply to have a spare set for themselves?

When human societies first began to support an elite governmental class, what was that classes' function? Protection and order? Organising war and trade? Religion and propitiation? Something else?

To my mind the beginnings of government seem like they would have sprung up initially in a similar vein to the way mafia organisations arise in society. Basically as a protection/extortion racquet whereby those with a proclivity toward bellicosity look to take advantage of the meek. Or is this too uncharitable of a picture to paint of the history of society's ruling elites?

So in the interwar period, the US Army was smaller than the Swiss, but ballooned to one of the most powerful in the world by the end of the war. Where did the Army get/train the cadre who would train and organize the incoming conscripts?

I was thinking about the recent Lindy bridge video, he mentioned many German tanks had the drive wheel in the front, and many British WW2 tanks had it in the back.

Was the complexity and extra weight worth it?

EDIT: To alleviate some confusion, I mean the Arabian system similar to feudalism where a Muslim man was allowed 4 wives.

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TL;DR In the Odyssey, Odysseus son Telemachus would have been 20 when Odysseus returned to find a group of suitors squatting in his home, hoping to marry his wife and inherit his kingdom. But why did the grown Telemachus not take his rightful place as King of Ithaca and banish the squatters once it was decided that his father must be dead?

I hope this is an appropriate question, even though it's technically about a fictional work. But I'm hoping that the answer will shed some light on Greek society at the time. When Odysseus left home for the Trojan War, his son Telemachus was an infant. But Odysseus was away for 20 years and returned to find his home in disarray and filled with potential suitors hoping to marry his wife and (from my understanding) inherit or take control of Ithaca.

But that never made sense to me. Yes, it had been 20 years and The King of Ithaca was assumed dead. And yes, his wife was still alive and probably considered beautiful. But he had an heir! Telemachus by this point would have been at least 20 or 21, and very possibly only a little younger than Odysseus might have been when he originally left (Bonus is anyone knows how old Odysseus actually was when he left home. Early or late 20s? Maybe even 30?) Even in our society that is considered fully grown, and would I be correct in assuming that Telemachus probably would have been considered "of age" for 4 or 5 years at that point? So my question is: why didn't Telemachus take leadership of Ithaca and drive the squatters out of his home? Or at least make it clear that IF his mother were to remarry, Ithaca and it's wealth would still remain his?

Was he simply weak? Or were there some factors within the contemporary Greek Society that prevented him from doing so? Am I misunderstanding the meaning of Odysseus position as King/Leader of his island? Or was it a plot hole in the original story necessary for the narrative to unfold as it did?

And forgive me if I've got any of my premise incorrect. It's been years since I read or watched any adaptation of the Odyssey, but that one question has always bothered me.

So last night I was playing Skyrim and I came across a goats head on a spike. It got me thinking, why are goats often linked to Satan? Is it only in Christian mythos? And does it have to do with some ancient pagans like the Vikings and how they would do sacrifices? Thank you to all who can answer this for me!!

I haven't been able to find a good source on this yet. I've read a few things about warning leaflets being dropped but have also seen that discredited elsewhere. I'm curious if the United States either directly communicated with Japan or used back channels to try to protect the citizenry.

Did people just make holes at random and happen to find things? Were there ore traces in nearby streams or in exposed rock formations that led them to look there?

To specify i am interested in the period between 1643 and the start of the Peninsular war in 1807. I am aware that even after Rocroi the Tercio was not immediately outdated and they were only turned into regiments in 1704. What about the Spanish success in the War of Jenkins' Ear and the American Revolutionary War against Britain? Was it a surprise victory from a terrible military? Were the armed forces capable enough that it was expected performance? Was it a piece of cake for a world renowned disciplined force? Simply how capable was their military in the period after (and partly during) their decline?

Title :)

Most of the books I have seen take a theological stance I was hoping for something more historical. Thank you in advance.

Arab traders once ruled the Indian Ocean trade. They traded with various Indian coastal kingdoms, the South-east Asian islands and got as far as the Philippines on their way to the eastern coasts of China. Yet, I've never heard of them interacting with the Japanese. Did they never reach Japan or am I missing something?