I've been listening to an audiobook version of Susan Wise Bauer's The History of the Ancient World, and there are frequent mentions of persons both in servant roles, and as political powers over the course of ancient history, particularly Asia (For a time frame, I'm at the point where the book is recording events from roughly AD 88 to 182 in China, and has covered events from pretty much the dawn of written history.) The book doesn't, however, give any reason why there are so many eunuchs running around everywhere. Is there any documented reason why 1. eunuchs were so common in the ancient world and 2. Why they were so commonly found serving people in positions of power?

I apologize if this question is a little broad, but after about 20 hours of listening to this book, I kind of want to know the reasoning behind these odd eunuch-based power struggles.

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I've always wondered if Medieval and Ancient Spears and Pike shafts were smooth and straight, like a modern broom handle. Or were they somewhat crooked and full of knots as the ancients couldn't mill wood to the degree we can in the modern day.

If they were straight how did they manage to achieve that effect?

I'm looking into doing Wars of the Roses re-enactment with a local group, and I was interested if anyone could help me out with what kind of weapons would be used by men-at-arms (in the Yorkist army, if it makes any difference)? My basic understanding is lots of Billmen and Archers, but could you expect to see anything else? Many thanks for any help.

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Did humans that lived hundreds or thousands of years ago have thicker skins than people in the modern era? I sometimes wonder if modern humanity causes more psychological trauma harm to itself than is necessary due to our expectations and world-view.

For example, if people in 1000BC felt it was a natural occurrence to have neighboring tribes rape pillage and plunder perhaps they could brush a violent raid and attack off and get on with life in a way that someone from the modern era might not.

Are we right to look at atrocities which occurred in antiquity with the eyes of modern sensibilities? If the people who lived in ancient times wouldn't have thought those actions to be "atrocious" perhaps we shouldn't either.

On the other hand, if it really is true that modern man has a completely different set of sensibilities and psychological makeup than ancient man then perhaps there were things that would have made our ancestors psychological wrecks that we would just shrug off.

I would ask my dad as he would know but he doesn't like to talk about his father (now dead) so I thought I'd ask you instead.

The story I've been told on the few times I've asked is that: He fought in Stalingrad and was captured by the Soviet army. He was given to Britain by Russia as a POW and worked in a camp near London for a year or two before being released when the war ended and building a life here (the UK).

What I want to know is:

Why didn't Russia just execute Germans they captured, particularly in a battle like Stalingrad?

Why was he sent to England? Was there an agreement between the allies about who would house POWs?

What were POW camps in England like? I was told he did bricklaying for several years when he was a prisoner. Was this the normal role for a captured POW?

Did most German POWs continue to live in the UK after their release or did they return home?

It wasn't until a few days ago when I actually considered the story that I realised there were potentially some issues with it.

Why was it not blazed acrossed evey front page paper that Americans were dying/sitting ducks? Ok, Admiral Ernest King gets much blame but what about Roosevelt, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Department of Defense. Senators, the press? Silence seems like the very worst approach. "In the first eight months of 1942, German submarines sank nearly 400 Allied freighters and tankers along the U.S. Atlantic coast with a loss of more than 5,000 lives, "

Curious, if in private writings anyone called for greater transperancy, letting the seamen know/have a choice in the matter

I am aware of the influence of decisive British victories such as the Battles of The Nile and Trafalgar; my question is more concerned with underlying forces that may have been at play, for example:

• (Mis)management by military leaders and heads of state
• Choice of naval tactics and strategy
• Training and experience of sailors and officers
• Design features of the ships/boats/yachts used by either side

A brief search did not reveal any similar questions, my apologies if I have violated any rules!

My parents-in-law both survived the Vietnam war. The mother mentioned that during the war there were multiple incidents of people from Laos being accused of cannibalism. I read that there were rumors of cannibalistic mountain tribes in Laos, but the mother claims that Laotians cannibalized during a siege she survived ("one of the largest Southern Vietnamese cities" is what I recall). Any information on either or both would be appreciated.

Is it as simple as Napoleon is a unique enough first name?

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If a soldier was shot but not something immediately fatal, what care could they expect immediately? Assuming they survived long enough to be removed from the battlefield, what treatment would they have in a field hospital, and then in a convalescent ward or similar?

Assuming they survive all that, maybe minus a leg, what benefits and care could they expect to be provided long term (I assume that would vary greatly country to country)?

I'm looking for a detailed map of Rome, the city rather than the empire, from around 44 BC, but the results I'm getting from my searches are lackluster.

When I was in high school my Latin teacher had a beautiful map detailing the city itself, and we often had lectures about Roman culture and the city of Rome. My senior year, he gave me one of our textbooks to "Remember him by" the week before he committed suicide , so I have continued translating Latin text to keep myself sharp, though I ran out of things to translate in the book years ago. For my personal collection, I'd like a map like he had that I can print out and put with my old Latin notes so I can research these things myself. Any ideas where I can start looking, or have links to one?

That is, an individual animal with a name, like Alexander's horse Bucephalus.

Do we know how they recruited, trained, armed, provisioned, and organized their armies? How did they typically fare against Qing armies? In The Warlords, it seemed like Taiping troops were pretty well trained and armed.

Did the relationship begin to mend as soon as the peace was signed, or did it take time for the nations to change their attitudes toward each other?

I'm a psychotherapy student with a casual interest in Soviet history. I've read a little about how psychiatry was used to silence dissidents later in the Soviet period. However, I assume there were also citizens of the Soviet Union with genuine mental health issues, and I wonder how those people were treated. How common was legitimate mental health treatment? Was there a particularly favored style of psychotherapy or psychoanalysis? Was medication common? It just seems like we never hear much about legitimate mental health treatment.

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In America, we hear a lot about Chinese traditional medicine from the medicinal and specifically herbal standpoint. What about its practice? What types of medical specialists were there? How were the different 'levels' educated? Were there midwives? Did they have other responsibilities besides birth? Is there a traditional Chinese gynecology? Did what we would call astrology or magic or religion ever play a part in medical practice?

Yes, I am asking about a broad sweeping time frame to allow Chinese history experts in many eras to chime in if they know the answer, and because I don't know enough about Chinese history to know when the important non-dynastic (so here: intellectual, scientific, perhaps social) changes occurred.

We frequently see war movies showing agents parachuting into France or elsewhere, but was there a significant drop of these missions due to RADAR?