The Julio-Claudians used German bodyguards, and the later Byzantine Emperors also used foreign bodyguards, in this case the Varangians. In the New Dynasty period of ancient Egypt, a tribe called the Medjay evolved from foreign mercenaries into paramilitary police who guarded areas of royal interest, like the Valley of Kings (I think, Egyptology is not my area of expertise). I wonder if there any other examples from history of regimes who specifically used foreign units to guard the King/Emperor or things of interest to him?

I was listening to some hardcore history and the host kept repeating that Rome during the late republican era (from the Gracci brothers to Cesar's death) didn't have a police force. The point of bringing it up in the podcast was to explain how Publias Clodius Pulcher could run the city with his gang with impunity, and how physical violence could control voting in the forum. How could a society as sophisticated as Rome have no police? I'm sure there were forces at work to maintain law and order, but during the period no army was allowed near the city for fear of a coup, so who was keeping people from murdering each other or robbing people? Was it a self regulating system of citizens arrests or was there as other group dedicated to investigating crimes and wrangling offenders?

I mean, did they literally just stand around guarding him? Or did they investigate plots and arrest/murder his enemies, like the Brocade Guard of Ming China?

The title pretty much explains my question.

For example would the US have been relatively in the dark about Soviet development of the T-64?

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I know the 'black budget' was partly released by the Washington Post a few years ago, but do we have any historical spy budgets? At any level would be good, but ideally I'd be interested in the budgets of individual intelligence officers during the Cold War-how much did bribes cost? Were moles paid highly, or did the intelligence services hold out for a bargain? What was the cost of operational equipment?

Fiction about the Cold War often shows spies as cheap, desperate people. How accurate is this?

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As an atheist I always hear that all the accounts of Jesus's life were written hundreds of years after his alleged death, and that there are no independent records from the time he supposedly lived to corroberate his existence. Is this true?

Follow up question if anyone wants to answer: is it true that Jesus's life story is the same as other gods before him like horus and krishna?

Hello i know this sounds like a general question i could have googled however im getting different dates on different websites? I know there was pre-existing conflict however when did the war start? I know the end was at the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. So when did it start? :)

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I remember in the movie "True Romance" the girl "Alabama" is being held by a mafia hitman, and he talks about killing for the first time, that it was "a bitch" but got much easier with repetition. This subject got me to thinking about Julius Ceasar. What was his first kill, and do we know.

• Did the Romans even bother to keep records of such things?
• How old would he have been, teenager, pre-teen?
• Was he just an aristocrat and never actually killed anyone with his own hands?
• Some nameless criminal served up for him to execute.
• Was there a tradition in Rome for getting their young aristocrats "blooded".

Do we know anything about Gaius Julius Ceasar's first kill?

I was just wondering if men tried to get out of service by being unfit and if they did, what happened to them? Thanks in advance.

I'm well aware of the way Greeks saw sex in terms of the penetrating and the penatrated and how most of this this occured in pederasty until the boy came of age. I also know that our identities of LGBT+ are recent phenomenon not really found in their society and homosexual exclusivity was looked down upon due to said viewpoints and the social duty to have children in Greek society.

Still, is there anything showing that ancient Greeks aknowleged same sex relationships in a romantic manner outside perderasty? Did same sex concubines/mistresses not exist (ala China)? All I can really find is Sappho and maybe Achilles and Patroclus (although that second one is rather iffy...)

I think it begins with C but I can't remember

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I know she lit. But why she considered the best

*of the State.