Hello there wonderful inhabitants of the virtual town of AskHistoriansville (can you tell I try a bit too hard to change these up?)! Hope everyone’s having a great weekend. Here’s some of the popular and/or interesting questions from last week, which did not receive an answer yet:

/u/kekherewego asked if it’s true that Roman slaves had more days off per year than the average US modern day worker

/u/OnMyWhey113 would like to know more about similarities between imperial Roman court ceremony and Catholic Mass

/u/PokerPirate wants to know about the history of racial politics in Orgeon

The Rundown:

• /u/sirventricle on "Before Israelite conquered it, who ruled Jericho and where is Jericho mentioned outside the bible?"

• /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov on "How did Gen James Longstreet go from Lee's right-hand man to pro-Reconstruction Republican?", "Did Americans in the 1940s recognize the American Civil War (78 years 'ago') like we recognize WW2 (78 years ago) today?", and "I recently read an AMA by a former soldier in the Red Army who was drafted from Azerbaijan. He said that it was common for Russian soldiers to make racist remarks toward him about his skin. Was this a unique occurrence that happened to him? Or was it common?"

• /u/tenminutehistory on "Which cultures did Russia encounter as they pushed eastward through Siberia towards the Pacific? Did these cultures willingly incorporate themselves into Russia? Or did some of them have to be conquered?"

I wondered how widespread was literacy in Egyptian and Mesopotamian antiquity. It didn't receive much attention, but I'm still interested if that knowledge was reserved to a restricted class or was relatively more common.

I answered this question on what the average Englishman knew of the crusades from 1240-60.

I found /u/DJ_Beardsquirt's question: Why did Britain withdraw from the Trucial States just two years after they discovered oil? very interesting indeed and it's a shame it didn't get an answer.

Most arguments for decolonisation in that time are based on either the expense of holding colonies or the ethical dimension of hindering local self-determination. But neither would seem to apply in a case where not only did the Trucial States offer the prospect of vast oil wealth, but the local rulers were actively begging the British to stay and (according to Wikipedia at least) the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi offered to pay the entire cost of maintaining a British garrison. A promise which is entirely believable given the many conspicuous displays of wealth by the sheikhs of that region in more recent times.

Let’s look back at the theme of the week! What did we learn about Siberia?

/u/swikade69 talked about Japan's plans for Siberia after WW2

/u/Ornlu_Wolfjarl talked about Soviets being able to transport millions of troops across Siberia quickly, and form supply lines

/u/TenMinuteHistory talked about which cultures did Russia encounter as they pushed eastward through Siberia towards the Pacific

/u/sheehanmilesk asked Do any examples of the Tianqi Emperor's carpentry still exist?

/u/Intern11 asked Was the fall of the Roman Empire good for Roman farmers?

/u/gentle_mutilation asked Were there any professional robbers during the Pax Romana? Are there any well-known "heists" in or around this time, and if so, what was the public reaction to them?

I'm still very curious about this unanswered question by /u/capable_duck: Has there been any follow ups to the commercial child porn stars of the 60's and 70's?, though I suppose if the answer is "no", it may be difficult to write an acceptable answer here. I believe it was also cross-posted to /r/AskSocialScience.

/u/shinkirou_ answered The Last Samurai led us to believe that the United States played a huge role in the Satsuma Rebellion and presumably the Boshin War, is there any truth to this and did the U.S provide that many foreign advisors and weaponry? (and I added a few more details) yesterday.