Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
After a shameful lapse last time, here are the questions from the last week which were popular and/or interesting and did not receive an answer yet.
/u/HJibberHobsbawm asked if dropping the capital G in the word “government” in the press was indicative of a change of attitude towards the political establishment and when did that dropping started to occur
/u/danthulhu asked about the math duels in Renaissance Venice and I really like that, because I asked something similar myself, ages ago.
/u/chikindiner would like to know more about snow in ancient Rome
I'm late, sorry! Was traveling yesterday and it didn't really hit me that it was Sunday.
/u/Alkibides415 answered What kind of gifts did the Romans exchange during Saturnalia?
/u/Belisarius7 answered How did Robert E. Lee manage to more than double the size of his army (30,000 to 75,000) in three months, following Antietam, in time for Fredericksburg?, as did /u/dandan_noodles here.
/u/dandan_noodles also answered Robert E. Lee is lauded as a military genius of his time, but what were his real victories? Most of his 'decisive victories' seemed to have been more of utter failures and poor coordination by Union leadership rather than ingenious use of strategy by confederate leadership.
I greatly enjoyed the answer by u/xenophontheathenian to a (now deleted) question about Minoan civilisation here.