I understand that after 2500 years, the Spartan mythos would be highly exaggerated, but even so from my understanding the Spartan Army was a highly professional, highly trained, highly motivated force that faced an army that neither trained as often nor as hard as the Spartans.
When an Athenian claimed that 'We have often driven you from the Cephisus'. Antalcidas replied "But we have never driven you from the Eurotas."
How exactly did the Athenians manage to drive the Spartans away at all if the Spartan army was so superior?
5 Answers 2014-03-24
1 Answers 2014-03-24
I'm not sure if I'm overestimating how much work is involved in the industrialisation and development of a country, but ~20-30 years since the revolution for the USSR and ~80 years since the US Civil War seems like a really short time for the two countries to become superpowers
1 Answers 2014-03-24
2 Answers 2014-03-24
2 Answers 2014-03-24
2 Answers 2014-03-24
I know they had the JU-88 but did they have plans for something along the lines of the Lancaster or b-29 super-fortress?
3 Answers 2014-03-24
2 Answers 2014-03-24
Did Confucianism help Mao to win popularity and rise to power, and was it also useful in maintaining his power by acting as a common enemy for the Chinese people and Mao?
1 Answers 2014-03-24
1 Answers 2014-03-24
Will we give them back to Britain or did something happen to those bases already?
1 Answers 2014-03-24
I'm a very far-left leaning individual (at various times described as Communist, Anarchist, Anarcho-Communist, "whatever-the-hell-I-feel-like-there-are-no-labels", etc), so I find myself very intrigued by the historical development of "Socialism".
I encountered Mazdakism a while back and find myself really curious about it. Reading the Wikipedia page was interesting, but leaves me wanting to know much more (given that the coverage is brief; what more can one expect from the wikipedia). I understand, however, that Mazdakism was, and perhaps still is, a persecuted religion for a very long time. My question is two-fold:
Have there been any new developments or finds concerning it? If not, are there any recommended books about it and the time period surrounding Kavadh I? Or perhaps the twilight of the Sassanid Empire in general?
What do you guys think is the likelihood that the Mazdaki text, the Desnad, will ever be found intact? In regards to the previous question, has it already? How much exists from cobbled-together sources? Was the Desnad treated like normal heretical writings and burned where encountered; or did a good deal of such writings (let's take Manichaenism as an example) manage to survive thanks to the fairly rapid collapse of Zoroastrian power in the 7th century? I understand that Islam treated Zoroastrians variously as "People of the Book"; did they discriminate between 'standard' Zoroastrianism and heretical sects?
That's all I can think to ask right now. If I can actually generate any responses, I may ask more about Zoroastrian history in general. I understand that Mazdakism was held to inspire a later "Khurramite" movement, which I also know nothing about!
In case anyone's interested, I actually learned about it from playing the game "Crusader Kings 2"; if you choose to play as the tiny, obscure, doomed Zoroastrian Satrapy of Merv (House of Karen, Vandad I - who curiously doesn't seem to actually exist at this time. It should be Quhyar, and it's dubious that even he would still live, or Bukhara would remain independent, by 867). Since your religious authority is by default very low, provinces readily embrace heretical teachings; particularly Mazdakism. I used to purge it, but now I encourage it!
1 Answers 2014-03-24
Thanks!
2 Answers 2014-03-24
1 Answers 2014-03-24
As much as this sub dislikes Cracked, I enjoy their comedy, but there is one article that I find rather interesting and wish to check it's accuracy. This article suggests that George Washington was lucky or a wizard. While I'm not asking if he was a wizard, I do as if he was lucky?
Was he lucky or is he just lucky in retrospect?
1 Answers 2014-03-24
Wondering if the bombing was bad enough to be considered a war crime and why/why not?
2 Answers 2014-03-24
2 Answers 2014-03-24
1 Answers 2014-03-24
1 Answers 2014-03-24
I've noticed that in old portraits and photos, most of the time people did not smile. Why and when did smiling in photos become socially acceptable (if it wasn't) beforehand?
1 Answers 2014-03-24
Hi guys. My apologies for sounding ignorant but I just never understood what happened with that vast empire. My knowledge goes from Genghis Khan running most of the known world to the small third world country it is today, commonly referred to as 'China's back yard'.
What block(s) of information am I missing between these two points? I thought that an empire that vast couldn't just simply degenerate to this point without some serious contributions along the way.
3 Answers 2014-03-24