In William Gaddis’s novel The Recognitions, Mithraism is a slight topic involving the main character’s relationship and his father (in post WWII and not 3rd century Rome). Because of the secretive/mysteries of Mithraism, it seems little evidence exists outside of the physical artifacts and locations. Has historian understanding of Mithraism shifted greatly from the 1950’s when Gaddis wrote his novel?

It seems to a non-historian on a cursory level like little is known and a lot of it is speculation/conjecture. But how would so little be known about a cult supposedly popular within the military? Wouldn’t minorities and spies/ within/around Rome have notes? Do historians view them now more as a secret club like some Yale Skull and Bones thing or was Mithraism an actual contender for major religion at some point? If so, was there a specific event historians point at and go this is where Mithraism became regulated to a footnote? Gaddis seems to use it to address themes of authenticity and forgeries contrasted with beliefs versus knowledge.

EDIT: This post is not about Black History. On the app it will not allow me to select flair or change it. Can a mod please change it to an appropriate flair?

Are there any historians today who moralize like Tacitus/Thucydides does? I mean instead of trying to reconstruct events as faithfully as possible, are there works that try to teach a moral lessons?

I am interested in the WWII onwards period

And I mean RIGHT after. Did anarchic chaos ensue? How long did it take for law and order to come back? How lawless were they?

From my limited knowledge of Chinese history, the name of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom doesn’t really make sense to me

For one, every dynasty in Chinese history was a 天朝 tian chao or “celestial empire.” But Taiping was a 天国 tian guo. The “heavenly” and “celestial” are actually the same word in Chinese so that’s fine, but deliberately choosing to be a guo or “kingdom” instead of a 朝 chao “dynasty/empire” seems like an odd choice? As if it’s deliberately lowering itself?

Second, while “great peace” 太平 tai ping has obvious reasons for a name, and was in fact used as an era name by several emperors previously, it seems to break normal conventions for a country’s name. Every Chinese dynasty and kingdom always used a single character/word for their name.

Unless the tai is being used in the same way that 大 da was used by previous dynasties? Like the Qing and Ming were 大清 and 大明 respectively, so this is more of a result of how we talk about it in English as opposed to a norm-breaking?

In other words, what did the premodern Japanese literati know about Chinese history (say, from the Warring States era to the Ming era), and from what sources did they draw it from?

Hello, I think I have almost everything down in my sources for my project I'm working on. But there's one thing that's missing, I don't have any books or any articles that go over aztec architecture. Are there any books that you recommend out there that go over that specific subject?

Any type of information would be appreciated.

Just finished watching 1917. What was the historical significance of this particular battle that needed to be stopped?

Follow up question, Benedict Cumberbatch's character says that they will only receive the attack order tomorrow, the next day, the next week. Did this actually happen?

As I understand it, precise parts now can be made with automated machines using CADs and such; earlier likely possible through very skilled craftmen. What's the history between those 2 points where precise parts can truly start being mass produced?

South America is a largely Catholic continent where the countries largely speak the language of their former colonizers. Similarly in Africa, many former colonies are vastly Francophone and Christian/Catholic.

By contrast, the former British India and Ceylon was left largely with the same religious and linguistic makeup that it was found in.

Religion: Majority Hindu, then Muslim, Buddhist etc. There is a Catholic minority but to my knowledge, very tiny to no Protestant makeup (religion of the English)

Language: English is definitely the second language in all former British colonies but first languages are still the original, diverse makeup of languages that were found there originally and english is a minority language vs what you find in other former colonies.

Why is this the case? Did the British intentionally not enforce their language/religion or did the people not accept it?

In depictions of many byzantine emperors, such as Justinian, they can be seen wearing a crown with what looks like chains hanging down. Something classical roman emperors don't appear to use. When did the Roman Emperors start to wear crowns and why? I'm also curious if this sort of crown with the chains have a name, and if the chains have a meaning?

I was reading about Richard of Cornwall, and I read about how he used his wealth and connections to get voted King of the Romans, but why was he never crowned by the Pope? And why was he among a list of rulers of the Holy Roman Empire between 1250-1312 not actually made Holy Roman Emperor?

is there any disadvantages to having more than 1?

I've known about the two failed Mongol invasions of Japan since I read about them as a kid, but I'm playing the video game "Ghost of Tsushima," which is set in the first invasion, and it's piqued my interest in the subject.

I know little about the Mongols' tactics/stratagems, but a resource-devoid mountainous archipelago of thousands of islands surrounded by treacherous waters doesn't sound like an appealing target. It seems obvious to me that an invasion, let alone two, would be enormously costly, both militarily and economically.

Why, then, was Kublai Khan/the Yuan Dynasty so determined to conquer it? Was it just expansionism for expansionism's sake?

I have seen it claimed in different places on the internet by different people that during WW2, more people died working on the V2 rockets than were killed by it. How truthful is this claim? If true, why did they fail to kill more allies?