I was watching Gladiator today and noticed that they had hundreds of flags on top of the Colosseum in the movie. That got me thinking, did ancient civilizations such as Rome, Carthage, Greece, and others use flags? If they did use flags, what did they use them for decoration? War? Or did they have other uses for the flags? And what did some ancient flags look like?

Apologies if this has already been asked, I looked and could not find a similar question.

I was doing some reading on the Russian revolution and came across a lot of references to meetings in European cities outside of Russia. If the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) wanted to help the proletariat in Russia, why wouldn't they call for these meetings on Russian territory? Russia is a huge country with plenty of remote towns and cities where they could have been safe from the Tzar and his army.

Additionally, was it that easy to obtain a Visa to get out of Russia back then? Could you just cross the borders without any permission from other nations? Were the governments of Great Britain and France on bad terms with the Tzar and his regime? Why were they allowing these huge meetings and conferences to happen in their cities?

It seems that in the 7th and 6th century BCE that Greek Sculpture was so-so. But then by the 5th century onward it's impressively realistic.

How did they get so good at it so fast?

(ok, a few centuries isn't crazy fast, but it seems like a cultural evolution much faster than any other contemporary cultures).

( I checked the FAQ and didn't see any obvious links there )

And by extension, how did the Ancient Greeks get so good at so many other areas like math, philosophy & drama so fast?

Was it better farming and surplus food leading to specialization? Were there some specific breakthroughs that occurred? Was it due to borrowing from/exposure to other cultures?

It seems like many historians discussing the Khazars immediately dismiss the possibility that the Khazars may be a significant part of the ancestors of central or eastern europe jews. Id like to learn more about their history as I have central asian heritage and it seems to have been a mainstream theory in the 19th century, but it seems that many contemporary Jewish historians dont give any credence to the theory, is this because of ideological reasons or is there evidence against the theory Im not aware of?

I am interested in knowing the difference between yarash (yod-resh-shin) and garish (gimmel-resh-shin).

Genesis 3:24 uses garash, Numbers 33:55 uses yarash.

Are these words synonyms?

At the end of the first Sino Japanese war in 1895, Japan was more or less in control of Korea. From that point did Korea remain until Japanese imperialism until the end of WWII, or was it treated as an independent state by the Axis/Allied powers?

I'm doing a project and would like some suggestions of affairs (like extra-marital affairs, not like the XYZ Affair) throughout US history. Rumored affairs are fine too, as long as they have some factual basis or are commonly accepted to be true (for example, Eleanor Roosevelt having a lesbian relationship). I already have FDR's affairs, JFK's affairs, Bill Clinton's, and Elijah Muhammad's that led to Malcolm X leaving the NoI. Thanks for any suggestions.

like greek or roman or american tribes or egypt mythology?

This episode of history confuses me to no end. I can't understand why they would have declared war on the U.S

I read that there are strong suggestions of a Soviet infiltrant high in the Nazi leadership, with most suggesting it was Bohrmann.

Now I've been reading the Wikipedia article on Ribbentrop and he seems really out of place.

He is reported to have been not very nazist at all in the early years, only later becoming antisemitic etc. He worked hard to undermine Germany's Foreign Ministry. He made a complete fool of himself in the UK, severely hurting relations, while doing well in the USSR - later he even wanted a German-Soviet alliance against the British Empire!

He damaged the German war effort in many ways, such as his complete ruining of relations with Turkey, his incessant bullying of neighbouring countries, lying to Italy to get them to join a war they couldn't fight, etc.

He also seems really desperate to stay in Hitler's good books, while basically everyone at home and abroad hated him. Hitler suggeste that Ribbentrop was even more radical than him.

Now this all seems like exactly what the Soviets would have wanted. On the other hand it might as well just be the work of a blithering idiot in power merely because he knew how to keep Hitler happy.

Is there any strong evidence that could support the former?