Some people say that it's been long enough since 9/11 that the US should stop "remembering" it each year and move on. But in Britain we still annually celebrate the failure of the 5 November bomb plot by Guy Fawkes in 1605. That got me thinking: what is the oldest event that is still regularly commemorated or marked in some way?
This includes cases where the actual meaning of the event has pretty much been lost - for instance in the UK, Guy Fawkes Night these days is really just an excuse to set off a bunch of fireworks, but there are still connections to that original event.
1 Answers 2015-09-11
If Tyrants were called out, and Athens (and it's colonies) were the Democracies and Sparta had the Rhetra Monarchy.
What were the rest of the greek city states if not tyrants? I've always been told Athens was the democracy? What were Thebes or Corinth? Was it like a type of aristocratic town council?
1 Answers 2015-09-11
I'm working on a personal project for school in which I am making a short graphic novel on various religious wars throughout history. I want to show all the different participants, and I was wondering if different countries/powers would have different compositions in troops (e.g. one focuses on cavalry, another focuses on pikemen?) as well as the differing equipment between the combatants. Would every army essentially be the same, or are there some that would ever focus their troops on one or the other?
1 Answers 2015-09-11
1 Answers 2015-09-11
Is it possible for any country/ethnicity to trace back roots directly to ancient Rome? If not, where can we place an end to the Romans, or do we know a relative time when they were "gone"?
1 Answers 2015-09-10
I'm a historian and Polmologist, but I'm not a archaeologist (although I've dated one).... Does anyone have any dates for the use of coats of plates? (Not jacks of plates or birgadines).
Also is their any evidence for the curcia Bolli armour? Waxed and boiled leather, certainly used for limb armour, but due to surcoats what was worn under then is unknown...
Please provide sources. Thanks.
1 Answers 2015-09-10
I need this information for a history project in school for my leaving cert (Ireland). I've see the documentary "1945 a savage peace" which sparked my interest in the topic! Any information would be much appreciated :)
1 Answers 2015-09-10
Sorry if this isn't the right place, but I figured as academics you would have some idea about this.
4 Answers 2015-09-10
Hey historians!
I'm currently staying in a Norman castle which has been converted into a youth hostel, and the dorm I am staying in has a very interesting feature on one of the walls. According to one of the cooks it used to be the throne for whoever was occupying the castle at the time, and when the modern partitions are ignored it does indeed sit in the right place.
The only thing is, as you can see in the pictures, it is set very deep into the wall, and the throne is effectively the wall itself. I have never heard of alcoves acting as thrones, and my first impression after "wow, that kinda looks like a throne..." was that it is an old window.
For anyone wanting some context and history of the building, it's St Briavels Castle in Gloucestershire.
I mean, if it is indeed a throne, I am sleeping right next to where King John (of the Magna Carta) used to sit. How cool would that be?
Anyway, if anyone could offer some theories or knowledge I'd really appreciate it.
1 Answers 2015-09-10
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1 Answers 2015-09-10
When was the earliest example of people believing in a "higher power". Who, what, when.... Maybe why?
1 Answers 2015-09-10
Wikipedia has informed me that generally speaking early Muslims did not necessarily force converts unto Islam. So how was there room for a third (or more?) major religion in the mid-east? Why did Jews, Christians and pagans forsake their former beliefs for this newer religion?
2 Answers 2015-09-10
Why traditional type of conflicts (army versus army) have decreased whereas the number of guerrilla warfare have increased ? Which factors could explain such an evolution ?
1 Answers 2015-09-10
In games and movies it's a fairly popular theme that the characters discover the remains of a lost advanced civilization. In those cases, it's usually rather extreme where people with swords find advanced electronics or something, but I was wondering if there are any real-world cases of more advanced civilizations dying out for one reason or another and taking their secrets with them (if only for a century or two)?
1 Answers 2015-09-10
Howdy,
After impulse buying a copy of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People the other day, i've developed a taste for medieval history. Reading the Wiki page - for the sources, i swear - on European science in the Middle Ages, i encountered this sentence; in context, it reads:
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the decline in knowledge of Greek, Christian Western Europe was cut off from an important source of ancient learning. Although a range of Christian clerics and scholars from Isidore and Bede to Buridan and Oresme maintained the spirit of rational inquiry, during the Early Middle Ages Western Europe would see a period of scientific decline. However, by the time of the High Middle Ages, the West had rallied and was on its way to once more taking the lead in scientific discovery (see Scientific Revolution).
This struck me as a somewhat dubious restatement of the infamous Chart, not to mention woefully Whiggish. However, i defer to the more learned folks here, so can anyone confirm the state of European science in the Early Middle Ages?
1 Answers 2015-09-10
1 Answers 2015-09-10
Full disclosure: I have not read Snyder's new book but in this interview with him in The Atlantic his general thesis is made fairly clear.
The tl;dr of the interview is that Hitler saw the concept of the State as an ecological aberration perpetuated by the Jews and his ultimate goal was the complete destruction of the State in all forms, hence allowing the supreme race to emerge.
Basically I'm just curious how is Snyder's argument being received among his peers.
1 Answers 2015-09-10
Because for me, this is not a 'trivial' behavior, to put things on fire and inhale the smoke.
1 Answers 2015-09-10
could someone explain to me why battleships are way inferior to air craft carriers? and what importance did it have during world war 2(pacific war, pearl harbor).
3 Answers 2015-09-10
Other ethnic groups and religions that were heavily persecuted are either wiped out or converted and assimilated. How did Judaism and Jewish people escape this fate even though they have been seemingly persecuted as minorities wherever they have been?
2 Answers 2015-09-10
2 Answers 2015-09-10
My understanding is that, in theory, it was to avert bloodshed, but that the Arab states had no difficulty obtaining their own weapons. Was the United States just unrealistic about preventing war?
1 Answers 2015-09-10
3 Answers 2015-09-10
