I recently finished reading Snyder's *The Britons* and have a question regarding slavey. On page 149 the book says:

"Sidonius [a "Gallish aristocrat"] ... complains [in a letter to a man named Riothamus] that certain *Britanni* ... were enticing slaves away from the estate of one of his friends...."

The letter in question was written "around 470" which made me wonder about the practice of enticing slaves away like this. It could be that I misunderstand the degree of power slave owners had over their captives, but the ability to leave one estate for another sounds like much more freedom than slaves had in my conception of the period. My immediate read of it was that it might be a sign of change towards the sort of system in the area in the middle ages, but I'm not familiar enough with Roman history to know if this was common earlier.

How did the greek soldiers workout? Did they lift weights, do cardio, etc. How about Romans or Egyptians?

When did it change from a respected position to the butt of jokes?

I was watching the film crimson peak the other day, a film set in 1887. There's a scene where a character says that every man in the room earned their wealth and weren't born into nobility. Except one man, who is a lawyer.

This offhand joke got me thinking, did these jokes actually exist in 1887?

Today, I was reading about the Simba rebellion. Astonishingly, a (formally) Marxist liberation movement, the APL (or "Simbas") is described as prominently making use of magical rituals with the supposed function of rendering fighters impervious to bullets, at the same time, seemingly leaping over all contradictions with Marxist thought, establishing a "People's Republic" in eastern Kongo.

Did magical systems play a role in any other liberation movements in Africa, in particular past 1950 and adhering to Marxist ideology? I'm thinking in particular of the liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique, which occured in geographic proximity, in a similar cultural background, and around the same time.

Are there any publications or other sources that provide insight into how magical beliefs were married to Marxism?

Before the widespread use of fingerprints, and DNA, was it easy to get away with a life of crime?

I’m staying at a small hotel in Austria, where a poster on the wall has caught my attention (pictured in the comments). I’m not native speaking German, so my understanding might be poor. However, it’s an “Urkunde” or certificate to Jakob and Frans Schneeberger (the later the founder of the hotel) for - what I understand - their commitments in the war.

So I wondered, why and who gave out these certificates? Surely couldn’t have happened after May ‘45 - or what?

Also - am I staying at a nazi-hotel?

Sorry if I’m merely misinterpreting.

Sorry for the pun in the title!

Obviously not in the Christian way, but would Jewish people living in Judea around the first century hold any celebrations around the time of the winter solstice? What were the origins/meaning behind these celebrations, and how would common people (let's say, a carpenter with his family) experience them?

I've been reading the book Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa and at various points it relays to us the supplemental pay of the main character, 20 Kan when he's a servant and then raised to 90 Kan as he is promoted to head builder and eventually the lowest commander of an infantry unit.

But how much is that in actual terms for the economy he's living in? He seems to imply that he lives in relative poverty, but seemingly much better than many others we've seen. I'm not interested so much in conversion that say "This would be 800 dollars in todays currency" because that doesn't tell me anything about what kind of lifestyle he could be having in feudal Japan.

I've also had some difficulty working out the value of a Kan, as i've worked out that economic units were mostly based around the Koku, which has a volume to mass relationship requiring conversions. Was it common to mention prices in Kan rather than Koku or Ryo?

What’s the consensus among historians on the existence of Jesus?

I recently got a few history books, and I’m wondering the best way to annotate them in order to retain as much information as possible, sorry if this isn’t the right sub for this!

I drove across the bridge that is where George Washington crossed. The river is something that I would be able to swim across (not during the winter). Why did the Hessian soldiers feel at all safe with the continental army right across the river?

I understand that it was cold, etc.. But an army fighting for its life would attempt to overcome something like that.

Was there a different reason they were complacent? Was there a history of an unspoken Christmas truce?

Thank you

Medieval people needed knives all the time sooo who kept them sharp?

My dad says Butcher, bro says blacksmith, I think they'd learn to sharpen their own.

I am curious to know if that was considered disrespectful or taboo to name someone that way. I would love to hear about non grecoroman sources as well.

In modern militaries, especially since the World War period, much emphasis is placed on physical fitness for soldiers, i.e. running, lifting, calisthenics, etc. Was this common in earlier time periods? What type of exercises were emphasized if so? And what type of shape could both soldiers and military leaders be expected to be in? If not, when did that become a regular feature of military life?

In video games it's very common to have a second or third jump in the air, despite that not being a thing humans can do. How did this idea become prevalent in video games, and did this idea originate from somewhere other than video games?

I just want to hear some real facts, everything I could find was ether rumor or from unreliable sources.

The town of Bethlehem where Jesus is said to have been born is now bigger, and where the manger once was on the outskirts of the town is now engulfed within it, and is now its town's major tourist attraction. Regardless, the original manger where Jesus was born is lost to history, but are there any relics that are thought to have once been part of it, such as pieces of wood or straw? Are there any remnants of the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that were given to Jesus according to the Bible? Is there any remnant left of this historic religious site, important to both of the world's largest religions?