It's normally assumed that all medieval, or non-democratic governments, were these horrible dictatorships similar to the soviet union. I assume this notion, like most common ideas, is a caricature of how things actually were.

I have one question about this view. How did freedom of speech work in pre-modern states? I've heard it said you could criticize policies, but not the form of government and you couldn't insult the ruler. I obviously know that it would far too large a task to generalize every non-modern state. So let me narrow it down to a few governments. I'd like to ask about the Roman Empire, specifically under the Emperors Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius. As well as the Roman Empire under Constantine. Also, the Byzantine Empire under the komnenian dynasty.

Then I'd like to ask about free speech in the Prussian state in the 19th century.

Help from historians who study the middle ages and antiquity would also be appreciated.

I often hear that prostitution is the "Worlds oldest profession." If that's true, how did brothels from Pre-Colonial years keep their workers from getting pregnant? Was there a "go-to" method, or did it vary from culture to culture?

I just read an article decrying how racist Ridley Scott's new "Exodus" movie is. I'm not asking about the historical accuracy of the Exodus narrative, I'm just curious if the article's author was correct in suggesting Egyptians would appear "African". I would expect them to look more like modern Egyptians.

There is obviously the Hagia Sophia, but along with Greek Fire, these are the only monumental achievement that I can think of that were invented by the Byzantines.

The Byzantine Empire existed for one thousand years. Constantinople was the centre for learning, it was the most powerful empire in Europe for a very long time. How come we hear so little about its technological advancements? Why don't we hear anything about Byzantine philosophers?

I'm a writer who recently stumbled across an idea for an opening to book I've been working on for a while. I would like to use a slave being executed for a crime to evoke the culture and was hoping to get some ideas from history.

Can anyone point out some good examples or places where a relative beginner to history could learn about this?

Thanks in advance!

Hello! So, my girlfriend mentioned something to me the other day about a political sketch artist who she likes, and a particular illustration by him. I thought it would be nice to hunt down a print as a Christmas present but I've totally forgotten his name and am trying to avoid asking again.

I do know that she studied the French Revolution in her history degree but not 100% sure that's relevant. The artist commonly satirised a politician called Fox by throwing in foxes in his drawings, and apparently also used the image of a boot to symbolise another politician(?) who was know as Boot. There was a specific illustration referencing gout as well.

This may be an insanely wide net to cast but I thought someone might be able to recognise it from my description! (Yes, I will pay better attention in future...)

I've been reading about the civil rights movement and I have come to understand that a lot of feminists movements were also actively taking part in it. However, I'm quite intrigued that women after taking part in the World War II and playing a crucial role in WWII did not immediately ask for their rights after WWII. I mean, for the role they played in WWII, they should have had greater bargaining power to get more rights. Instead, many women returned back to their home. I think I read somewhere that the estimate was that almost half the women who worked during the WWII went back to homemaking after WWII. According to what I have read so far, there wasn't any prominent women's rights cause after WWII. I have tried to find information online but I got a few books.google.com that I could not access because of my region. It would be great if anyone could just give me sources that are accessible. Thanks.

Who created the government, UK or Australians? Were they just dumped on the beach, or was there a system for integrating them into Australian life?

I saw some archival footage in a documentary about the atomic bombs where members of the US air force (I assume) were writing on the bombs themselves. The text was unreadable and I was wondering if any of you guys knew who they were/what they wrote.

Often you have someone called "worse than Hitler," prior to this was there another major figure people were compared to in this way?

I suppose zero is somewhat of a more nuanced concept than positive integers. But this system was introduced in, like, 500 AD, I think? Was zero really not all that widespread at this point in time, even to presumably highly educated monks?

EDIT: I guess what I'm really asking is when did zero become a common concept in public conscious, or at least that of the educated public.

I was reading through old /r/AskHistorians posts on the war and one response mentioned the fluid nature of battles outside of the Western Front and the effective use of cavalry in those locations as a small note in their larger point about the war. How did cavalry go about their duties in myriad of fronts in the war?

On a somewhat different note: Are there any good books on the use of traditional cavalry in warfare during the post-World War II era? I imagine that few if any occurrences involved the big players, but these sorts of smaller scale confrontations with a mix of newer weapons like guns and older ones like horses are kinda fascinating for me.

Hi, is there such an artifact?

For the past few days I have been thinking. Do we owe almost everything to the Roman Empire. I know they borrowed some of Greece's ideas, but I am sure the Romans just made it more well known. From World War One and Two, to the US, to every single event post Roman Empire.