The only thing I have for comparison is Imperial Rome, which grew beyond a million in its heyday. However, Rome was at this time a city where most of the citizens were either completely or partially sustained with state- and privately funded handouts of grain and gold, in exchange for political support, not to mention a large net immigration.

So, if I understand correctly, the main reason for Rome to grow that big was that the emperor and the political elite needed loyal citizens (clients), and used their extensive economic network to pump in resources produced by slaves in different parts of the empire to sustain the city. Cities of this size would otherwise not be possible with pre-industrial means, and most other Roman cities were of sizes more comparable to Medieval European cities.

So how, and why, did Kaifeng and Hangzhou grow so enormous? Edit: In the case of Kaifeng and Hanzhou, I'm speaking about the Song dynasty specifically, but any pre-industrial Chinese 1 million+ city would be very nice to learn more about.

I am specifically looking for what part of the arm would have to be damaged in order to warrant its removal? Also what would the case in an arm wound where it would not have to be removed? Thanks for your time!

Specifically something resembling modern day 'terrorists'- loosely organized insurgents with no formal goals just trying to cause chaos.

Calvinism is responsible for more sects of Christianity than any other Protestant church and was extremely popular in Europe for awhile. Predestination was a major tenet in Calvinism. Why didn't that carry over?

What is the primary purpose of religious scholarship for any of the major religions? Is it to understand historical context, find lost sites/treasures, influence current doctrine or what? What are some examples of great discoveries they have made?

Evening all; looking for some advice on where to look for the heraldry of Richard de Camville, buddy of Richard Lionheart who fought in the First Crusade, owned land in Cyprus and was KIA at Acre.

Given he's a little obscure I'm not looking for a 100% super-accurate answer, but anything sort of close would be superb. :)

Thank you very much, beautiful peeps!

EDIT: Think it's only fair to add that I have tried a web search, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at in terms of heraldry so didn't get very far. :(

I suppose this question is less about history and more about how history is documented by some shows (apologies if I shouldn't post here).

I've been watching a lot of Ancient Egypt documentaries from 2013 lately and a lot of them claim that some hidden mysteries were being explored "for the first time" on their show. At the same time, the amount of historians making appearances to talk about their theories seem to have been doing research for some time...

I've never seen anything like them elsewhere, although I imagine some other societies also use wooden shoes.

Probably unnecessary disclaimer: Yes I know that the Enlightenment was a lengthy period. If I could specify further, I would have already done so. Yes I know not all Enlightenment thinkers followed a stereotypically rationalist philosophy, but they have made the biggest dent by a large margin.

On a completely unrelated note, my tablet spellchecker recognizes "Chewbacca" but not "Enlightenment". I'm a little depressed now.

Wasn't Germany and Austria-Hungary technically the ''good guys'' in WW1? Since Gavrilo Princip pretty much just started the WW with murder. Inform me on anything I don't know about the situation, the duke of Austria-Hungary might have been a huge ass, I don't know.

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I've found many pictures of Roman pila having spikes on the butt end. Considering how the Romans used to fight in fairly dense formations, the butt-spike was probably very hazardous for the men standing behind the thrower. Plus, you don't really need to plant a javelin in the ground or fight with it in melee (and I really can't think of any other use for that spike). So why did they have that spike?

EDIT: Wow, I learned a lot today. Thank you all, historians of Reddit.

Did german tanks have a "field phone" like some later american ones? Would they be entirely dependent on radio? How would a tank commander know the infantry wants to notify him of a threat, etc?

I finally got around to reading Milton's Paradise Lost, in it I was struck by the beautiful imagery. When I finished I was left wondering how did the common people of 17th century England react to the writings of Milton and his contemporaries? Would they be aware? We're there any historical changes to the perceptions of God?

Edit: corrected to read 17th century

Did guys like Bin Laden, who were intelligent organisators, had a lot of formal education etc. occupy themselves with earlier terrorists? Did they learn about Anarchist terrorism at the turn of the century, like in Russia between 1905 and 1917?

Is it known how they got the idea that terrorism helps them achieve their goals?

After berating my younger sister for the tripe that she watches on television (keeping up with the kardashians, etc.), I became curious as to this question. It's no doubt there are much more important issues to be talked about today but I wonder if societies of the past had the same problem to a degree, if at all, or had it primarily been the product of a media saturated culture?

Did Romans really give a crap about what color toga Julius wore? Did peasants gossip about Henry VIII's weight?

I'm writing an essay on colonialism in The Tempest and need some context for the relationship between Prospero and Caliban in terms of the colonisation of the Americas in the early 1600s. If you have any additional information at all to do with colonialism in The Tempest or are even just able to link me to an interesting article or analysis then that would be much appreciated, thanks.

The quote is from Philip Edwards' essay 'Shakespeare: A Writer's Progress', though I'm unable to find it anywhere without buying it.

In the same way that Jesus would have been Jewish, what would have been the prevailing religion in Mecca/Medina during the 7th century? Who ruled over that area at the time?

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