We currently count years with Jesus' birth as the reference point, year 0. But for people living before him, or right after his birth, what was their point of reference.

For example, in what year would Plato say he was born?

I understand that Henry was trying to consolidate power and remove catholic influence but I don't understand why so many Abbeys and Monasteries were left in ruins and their cultural manuscripts and artifacts burnt or destroyed. Couldn't he have just removed the Catholics Monks and replaced them with Protestant Monks?

I'd like to learn more about all the presidents with a chapter on each, getting to office, their time there, their time after etc. Nothing huge as I know there is a lot to be said on the subject. I have never been able to find one which covers every president.

My house is 252, my neighbor is 254 and the house across the street is 253. When did this start and why?

I've read online that there were 11,000 to 16,000 troops landing at Guadalcanal. Researching the 1st Marine Division I learned that in 1941 the strength was somewhere near 9,000 marines which is severely under division standards.

How many of those 9,000 (or more by 1942) actually landed and how many of the 5th Marine Division do they account for?

Also, what type of weaponry were used aside from the M1903 Springfield before the M1 Garand arrived? BARs? 30 Cals?

Thanks, Jeff

I have read frequently in posts here about the Babylonian Exile possibly directly or indirectly causing Judaism to shift from polytheism to monotheism. I also remember hearing something about the story of the Egyptian slavery period being written during the Babylonian Exile to sort of say "See, we've survived this before, we can do it again!", along with the lack of archaeological evidence to completely discredit Exodus. Yesterday, listening to the BBC's In Our Time podcast on calendars, one scholar mentioned that the 7 day week, and resting on the 7th day, came from Babylonian traditions (they thought that the seventh day was unlucky, so you shouldn't do anything on it). He also mentioned that "shabbat" or "sabbath" came from the Babylonian word for "full moon".

Are either of these last two points true? What other effects did the Babylonian Exile have on the Jewish/Israelite religion? Already these seem like seismic shifts.

Instead of such a defeatist request, why would Roosevelt instead not help England to fight? I understand about the isolationist movement he was struggling against, but did he really believe the fall of England was that immanent?

Most (all?) indigenous peoples across the globe created fire by friction-- drills, bow drills, fireboards, and so on. However, the Inuit lived far above the treeline in the Canadian Arctic. They were still able to heat their dwellings by using soapstone dishes filled with seal blubber (kudliks).

One question that has been making me scratch my head, though, is this-- How on Earth were they able to light their heat lamps? In summer, it is possible that some driftwood would come ashore and they could use friction to start a fire, but in winter everything was encased in ice and snow, including the ocean.

I realize that it was technically Norway that pawned them, but it was the Danes who were in a position to try and get them back.

Medieval-English is quite substantially different than modern English; would the difference between, say, Latin from 200BC and 300AD be noticable?

I would like to clarify that the time period I'm talking about is before the formation of Norway as a country. The reason why I ask this question is that I recall seeing maps where this is the case. I also come from South of Norway, and after taking a DNA test, it was revealed that some of my genetic makeup comes from Denmark around one thousand years ago. Would there be a lot of trade between these regions at that time?

Such as far northern Norway, Finland, Iceland, etc.

For example; were my car to be stolen the financial impact of me replacing it with another would be tremendous (a month of two of wages for a second hand model)

However if my bicycle were to be stolen the impact would be less so, a week or two of wages at best.

Was replacing a horse (back when horses were the most common mode of transport) equivalent to the modern day loss of a car, or a bicycle?

Of course I know most never heard about them, but what about scholars? And Byzantines?

First off, I know that the methods which soldiers are recruited varies greatly with the clans in question. I read an article from Samurai Archives discussing about military organization and recruitment (It's called: Military aspects of the Daimyo) but it was too complicated for me to get a general grasp. In the article, it mentioned how (I believe it was the Shimazu clan) the amount of soldiers/peasant attendants a samurai was required to bring for a campaign depends on the size of the samurai's fief. But how do the samurai actually "Recruit" these peasant soldiers? who in particular "draws these men" from their fields in to war? is there something like a messenger that tells them to do such things?

I've been wondering about this since I've heard a lot about the religious significance of places like Delphi but not much of the actual geographic Mount Olympus. After all, if Delphi was a big deal because it was the home of someone who could speak to the gods, wouldnt the place where the gods themselves lived be an even bigger deal? Were there any shrines, temples or something else of that nature?