Almost finished reading the book, (not the miniseries-which I haven't seen) and am very curious about how much liberty was taken in the writing. There are a great deal of murders and political backstabbing (particularly from Livia) and Augustus comes off as rather weak-willed and naive. Is there historical evidence to back up the story? Are the claims based on unsupported speculation at the time or were they solely invented for the plot?

I would like to find some quotes by Erwin Rommel in particular. A simple Google search brings up web pages like BrainyQuote and WikiQuote. Are these sites credible? Are there any historically verified/ credible websites containing collections of quotes from various historical figures?

Kissinger writes that it was Stalin who pushed China to enter in on North Korea's behalf in order to make the Chinese military more dependent on Soviet hardware. Why didn't this happen the way he wanted?

So I'm playing through LA Noire and there are a few cases where you're blatantly illegally searching businesses and homes. I know illegal searches and seizures are outlawed by the Bill of Rights but was illegally searching homes commonplace in the 1940s? Was it condoned by the courts at this point and required a future court case (like the 1960s Miranda case) to finally get it right? Thanks!

Was it a multitude of reasons having to do with the grain shortage, the growing distrust of the nobles, or even the printing press making it easier to spread ideas of revolution?

In every sect of Christianity I'm aware of Polygamy is strictly forgiven. I don't see why they decided to do this. Evidence of this would be having lust as a Deadly Sin, but why have it?

Where did the rumors originate from? Has anything been found that is assumed to be Atlantis?

It seems hard to believe that so many people would willingly change their religion just because the king did. Did people ever revolt? If they were forced to convert, how did the soldiers enforcing this get converted? I find it especially hard to believe for circumcising religions such as Islam (and I'm aware one king converted to Judaism as well). Did people basically say "well the king changed his religion so I guess I'm going to cut off part of my penis now" or was this forced on them?

I've heard various sources claim many different things. Some say that Red Army personnel who had been captured by Axis troops and survived captivity were then terribly treated by their own government (executed, imprisoned, or sent to gulags). Others believe this is a total myth or that these reprisals were rare.

I know the SS was the main tool in carrying out the final solution, but what was the extent of the Wehrmacht's involvement in the systematic genocide.

I've heard the claim a number of times that Crassus ran a protection racket—that his men would go to fires and demand payment to put them out, or even that they would demand payment not to set fires in the first place.

Every time a source has been provided for the claim, however, it has turned out to be this passage from Plutarch:

And besides this, observing how natural and familiar at Rome were such fatalities as the conflagration and collapse of buildings, owing to their being too massive and close together, he proceeded to buy slaves who were architects and builders. Then, when he had over five hundred of these, he would buy houses that were afire, and houses which adjoined those that were afire, and these their owners would let go at a trifling price owing to their fear and uncertainty. In this way the largest part of Rome came into his possession.

As I read the passage, it doesn't seem to suggest anything of the kind. Rather, Plutarch simply seems to be taking advantage of fire to purchase land cheaply.

No indication seems to be made that he had any interest in putting out anyone else's fires, whether they paid him or not—only in buying the burnt up land of those stricken by fire, and in acquiring for a song the land of those whose homes might burn down momentarily, or might not.

Indeed, I'm not sure that the passage even seems to support the idea that he fought fires at all, even once he'd bought the land. The slaves are architects and builders, not haulers of water.

The entire enterprise seems an ordinary predatory land-grab, rather than a fire company—crooked or otherwise.

So, my question is this: where does the idea of the fire protection racket come from? Is there a different primary source that describes Crassus' conduct differently? Is there a secondary source that misread Plutarch and has propagated a myth? Am I misreading Plutarch, or relying on a poor translation?

This might sound like an odd and seemingly obvious question, but it came to me when I was reading about Iranian history. Power in the region switched hands militarily a number of times (Parthia, Persia, Safavid) However while some sources marked these as dynasty changes, others considered them completely separate empires that conquered the other.

Is it simply a matter of who you're asking a la "revolution" vs "rebellion"?

I know Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus existed.

I tried doing a search for this and checked the FAQ but couldn't find anything. Apologies if this has been asked before.

What was the world's first permanent police force? What is the first case we have of someone who's sole purpose is enforcing laws? How would they have been selected or hired? What would an average day have looked like for them?

or anyone who state the throne from i guess 1780-1950~

Apologies for the very little amount of research that I did, but how did a city with a population of about 8000 able to afford an army of upto 5000 . Which was ~60% of it's population?

Present day nations like India which has the third largest army in the world has only .1% of it's population as defence forces.

Also I would appreciate if anyone of you corrected these figures.

To me it seems to make more sense that America just wanted unconditional surrender and Japan wasn't offering it, so they dropped the bombs. I haven't read any sources where people involved in the decision to drop the bombs discuss its impact on the Soviet Union, and I'd like to if they are out there.

I'm specifically talking about Western Europe, from the 10th to 19th centuries, in any culture in which women could be independent rulers. Any examples of such a marriage, and the problems associated, would be incredibly welcome.