I was reading my copy of Don Quixote and came across the phrase "for they understood about as much of [his words] as if he had been talking Greek" in reference to some confusing stuff Don Quixote said. This book was originally written in 1605 in Spanish and uses Greek as the language that is typical of not being understood. In contemporary times we say things like "It's all Greek to me" to indicate that we don't understand something. Anyhow, why is it Greek that's commonly the language in this turn of phrase and how did this originate?

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I know this is a very broad question, so feel free to limit it to specific countries or specific times, if it makes it any easier. I started wondering because I know that suicide was viewed as a sin, so much that some people resorted to murdering their own children to get a death sentence because that wasn't viewed as a sin. I also wonder because life at that time seems like it could be very harsh, ofcourse everything is relative, and it only seems harsh by todays standards.

• So do we have any information regarding this?

I'm not sure if this is against the rule but i'd love to learn about the demographics of /r/askhistorians. Do we attract certain type of historian more often? are certain viewpoints reflected more often here than amongst historians generally? How deep into their career is the median poster?

I've been binge watching it for the last week and I'm hooked. It's certainly well-produced and it seems well-researched.

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I read a time travel story once where Native Californians were depicted using sweat houses in 1250BCE, does the custom really go back that far?

Hello historians of Reddit. I recently read The Gallic Wars by Julius Cesear and I really, really enjoyed the read. Any other similar pieces of work you could recommand?

I guess the key features I enjoyed are that it was comtaporary notes of a campaing writen by the one doing it itself and was related to antiquity.

Sorry for the bad english and thank you!

What's his place of work called?

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Why did the Ottomans throw thousands of soldiers trying to besiege the walls of Constantinople in 1422 and 1453 when they could instead try to blockade them with their superior navy and army?

I can't imagine many peasants had any gold or silver. What would have been some portable loot that the Vikings would be likely to encounter and would have found desirable?

I am asking because I have to do a research report on a topic how an external event has effected America, and not a large amount info is out there about the culture side of these politically tense times.

Thanks in advance for all help and submissions!

I realise that Napoleon was widely viewed as an inspirational and capable leader, but was there anything else at play? For example, patriotism, honour, Revolutionary ideals...

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Wouldn't the German Reserve Army or Army units assigned to the theater of operations? Where we the areas of concentration of SS units?

"Big Brother" is a common trope in the media today, but what about in actual 1984?

Did America miss out on an opportunity following the Chinese Civil War to better relations between the two nations?

I hear that there was a significant proportion of women in the Soviet army. Did they approve of the rape of German women?