Rome? But this is city, not country. Imperium Romanum? S.P.Q.R.?

Why did it break apart?

I'm aware that, here in American society, we believe that our framework guarantees the opportunity for attaining these needs. However it does not ensure it.

Ancient western philosophers like Aristotle and Cicero certainly lauded these goals as being an integral component of a well functioning free society. I am also aware that Locke offered a more libertarian philosophy regarding these needs, placing the onus on the individual instead of the society at large. However, Locke's philosophy was extremely ideological and not necessarily realistic. Furthermore, I'm aware of the influence of social Darwinism on western politics. However, I don't understand the extreme divergence in thought.

Many western philosophers throughout history have proposed civic duties as an obligation to the society of which one is a part. Why ignore or discredit their views?

Edit: title should say political philosophy. I wrote this on my phone. Please excuse the typo.

Every once in a while I'll come across some feature on the history or exploits of Constantinople. They never fail to mention that Byzantium was the Eastern half/division/branch of Rome.

But I've never gotten a decent explanation of what that means, and Wikipedia doesn't help much. Does that just mean that the Byzantine territories were Roman provinces (in the way that you might call North Africa "the Southern half of the Roman Empire)? Or was there some other dynamic involved?

If it was territory controlled by the same Romans of Italy you would think that after the fall of the city the Empire would have just shifted its administrative infrastructure to its other metropolis and continued. As far as I know that wasn't the case however.

Also, why are they so poetic?

Yamamoto: foot of the mountain

Shiratori: white bird

Kurosawa: black mystical marks

Being Brazilian, I have always heard that Santos Dumont, and not the Wright brothers, did it. Who actually deserves the credit?

This might be better in r/askscience but what the heck.

I'm interested in the British Empire and anthropology and the history of the homosapien. What are some good books for someone who knows very little on either of these subjects?

Thanks guys! :)

I was just wondering this, as it would make sense that there would be diseases native to America and Australia that the Europeans would have no immunity too. My only thought is that perhaps there wasn't enough population density in these areas, but considering the Aztecs and their cities, I would think there surely would be enough for diseases to prosper.

With politcal map I mean nations, political map is just the term I copy from paradox games.

In one of his letters, Hemingway talks about how he shot a German prisoner of war after unsuccessfully interrogating him:

"One time I killed a very snotty SS kraut who, when I told him I would kill him unless he revealed what his escape route signs were said: You will not kill me, the kraut stated. Because you are afraid to and because you are a race of mongrel degenerates. Besides it is against the Geneva Convention.

What a mistake you made, brother, I told him and shot him three times in the belly fast and then, when he went down on his knees, shot him on the topisde so his brains came out of his mouth or I guess it was his nose.

The next SS I interrogated talked wonderfully."

[Ernest Hemingway, Selected Letters 1917-1961, ed. Carlos Baker, New York 1981; p. 672.]

In another one of his letters to Arthur Miezner from 1950 he says that he killed about 122 "krauts" ("and have killed 122 sures besides the possibles" [Sel. letters, p. 697]).

Now knowing Hemingway, I expect there to be a whole lot of exaggeration. But how much? Is there any evidence for that, or to the contrary? The links I found about that in a forum came up dead.

As a further question, was it common for war reporters on the Allied side in WWII to become a bit more involved in the war than they should (German PKs were wholly integrated into the Wehrmacht, and I have to admit I don't know how exactly it worked for American/British correspondents)?