Roughly from Constantine to the end of the Heraclian Dynasty.

I was just doing some research on eunuchs outside of my specific subject field – as one does – when I came upon the subject of Chinese court eunuchs. This got me thinking: despite a relatively close physical/cultural proximity with China, where there seems to have been a long (and consistent) history of eunuchs, I don't think I've ever heard of eunuchs in Japan.

So, I guess my question is actually twofold:

1. Was there ever a presence of court eunuchs in pre-modern Japan? I don't know much about shogunate government structures, but I presume there were lots of official bureaucratic opportunities.
2. Is there a reason for the disparity in the use of eunuchs in China and Japan? I'm reminded of the situation in medieval Europe (tons of eunuchs in Byzantium, none in the Latin West) but I don't know enough about medieval East Asia to make an informed comparison.

I was mostly wondering about eunuchs in court/imperial positions, but of course I'd be interested in any other information you might have! I don't know if I'm just missing something due to lack of context, or if there's a legitimate disconnect between the two cultures.

Hi, all. History major here!

Did the Knight's Templar actually worship Baphomet? And for that matter, was Baphomet truly a demon? I've read that it could be a bastardization of "Mohammet" or "Muhammad", and that it was sometimes described as a severed head with one or three faces, or sometimes a black cat. Those all seem like a far cry from the cloven hoofed, partially naked demon drawn by Eliphas Levi in the 1800's. Its just always bothered me that I can never seem to find a straight answer.

Especially the people actually running things. Did anyone in charge of stuff say that knowledge about Greco-Roman military/economy/bureaucracy can't really be used now?

If someone did, how did his contemporaries respond?

Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English, but his form of it is eloquent and highly poeticized. I wonder what a conversation between two people, perhaps educated, perhaps not, would have sounded like during that era. Obviously there was a great variance in dialects, but I believe the form spoken in London was the standardized form.

Could anyone shine some light on this? A small sample conversation would be very interesting. I just feel that Shakespeare's dialogue could not represent the way the average person spoke back then.

If anyone could answer the same question for Middle English, which should be somewhat intelligible to modern English speakers as well, that would be great.

Was there such a thing as international news? How did gossip spread from the Spanish court, back to Britain and then among the masses?

I've read somewhere that it was ultimately a catalyst for many later changes, as many small landowners were killed in battle and wealthy patricians purchased vast estates. Is this true to an extent? How did this shape Rome going forward?

I could see if the language didn't expand at all beyond the peninsula, or if it got to splinter all across the empire's boundaries, but what's the reason for this limited language spread? How did the conquest of Anatolia, etc. differ from the conquest of Gaul, etc.

I've been reading Empire of Cotton and this basic question occurred to me. I had always thought of silk as being the most desirable fabric but the book claims that when payment was made in cloth, it was generally cotton that was desired. So why do we have this idea of silk being the most sought-after cloth? And why was it called the silk road if cotton would have been more desirable? Or is the author overstating his thesis?

By all accounts, Winston Churchill was an almost legendary figure who helped carry his nation through some of its darkest days. One would assume such a figure would be re-elected. What happened?