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To what extent is the phrase "hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times" historically accurate?
When I look at some of ancient helmets I have a feeling they were easy to fall off.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/26/d0/4f/26d04f869074519cc50e5ffebdee7cdd.jpg
https://deadliestblogpage.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/1spartan-hoplite-pilos-helmet.jpg
When warrior was hit in the face and hence his head went backwards, how such helmet with no strap managed to stay on its place?
I'm so confused about the Byzantine Empire, did they exist after the fall of Constantinople or did they always exist? Maybe I misread the book but I was reading Nigel Cliffs the last crusade and I thought I read that the fall of Constantinople created the eastern roman empire which was byzantine and the western roman empire which was the holy roman empire and now I'm doing some research and I guess they always existed during Romes peak. Would be nice to have some clarification
Were the beards of the Teutonic and Templar Orders an official rule or an entrenched custom?
Need some info for my grad school thesis, which is a creative writing project... I've looked on all the usual lists/sites about peerage, but this is a specific case, and I want to double check.
Thanks so much for your help!
For a reader of, say, Livy, what would be a good entry point to classical Chinese histories? Would they find The Commentary of Zuo to be accessible?
Was British Colonies gaining independence after World War II tied in any way to the financial losses faced by the Empire? Did advisors highlight the fiscal burden of administering some of the old Colonies?
I was watching clips from that HBO series Rome, and there is someone smoking from a pipe casually. Did the ancient world have tobacco, and if not what would someone smoke back then?
Hi, hopefully this is the right place to ask this:
Does anyone know how Sultans were referred to? Like the Her Majesty, Her Royal Highness equivalent for Sultans? Cheers
The year the Battle of Marathon was fought is known as 490 BC today, but what would an Athenian who participated in the battle have called the year at the time? Do we know?
(I asked here: http://redd.it/aksa51 but it was removed, perhaps it's better to ask here.)
I'm looking for the term used for a specific classification of medieval knight that could hold a bridge by themselves. They'd wear heavy armor, swing a large axe or similar, and get paid double/triple to do so. I'm pretty sure I read about them on this sub-reddit, but I've been searching for hours and can't find the thread.
When I went to Giza several years ago, I noticed broken pieces of pink granite all around. The guide told me the pyramids used to be cased in granite, which is contrary to all I'd ever learned about them. Can anyone tell me why there is shattered pink granite all around the area?
I recently remembered reading somewhere that when Columbus (or maybe a different explorer) returned to Europe they had written down that the natives they had contact with did not experience a significant amount of pain during childbirth. Does this hit anyone else's memory or does anyone have a source for this? I want to say it was in a Jared Diamond book or James C. Scott book but I'm not entirely sure.
We recently discovered this photo of my grandpa and were curious if we could determine his rank or unit based on this sole surviving picture of him in uniform. He’s the fellow in the middle with the accordion.
Our best guess was that it was taken in Holland just before the war ended.
Anyone got any good book suggestions to read about Andrew Carnegie? Doesn't matter if its a biography, about his foundation, or whatever. Just got a bee in my bonnet thinking I only knew the sort of pop culture stuff and was interested in reading more about a guy founding/funding so many libraries.
According to the wikipedia article about the Sybiline Books they were consulted after a "shower of stones rained down and darkness filled the sky during daylight". Do we know what it referrs to?
On a similar note, it says that they also reached out to them after " reports that large numbers of Appius Claudius' army had been struck by lightning ". What do we know of this event?
I was curious of Hawaii's population pre-discovery of the islands. Anyone have an idea of how many people might've been living there?
How did the armies of the classics era and medieval periods tell each other apart in battle? Example: Roman civil war.
What did Theodore Roosevelt actually sound like, accent and drawl wise? Every impression I've ever heard of him seemed like just an impression of Teddy from Arsenic and Old Lace, and I can't imagine his accent was historically accurate.
What was a Reichsmark worth in 1931?
My mom recently discovered this bracelet she had. She got it in college at a "hippy shop". If anyone can translate the text, please do. She wants to know what the bracelet says.Here is the bracelet
edit: I realized that the bracelet might have been upside down. Here is another picture of it
Do other, non-western cultures have the same fascinations with decades old serial killers?
In the middle of the 20th Century, what was the density of bridges per kilometer on the Seine, Rhine, Oder and Dnieper rivers?
In feudal Europe, noblemen were often able to exercise power over and make use of the lands and properties of his wife. The Latin phrase for this was jure uxoris, or "by right of his wife."
Did the inverse of this ever exist?
What would be the Latin phrase for "by right of her husband?"
Did Solomon reign as king of Israel between 970 and 931 BCE? This is when Wikipedia says his reign was, is this accurate?
Specifically in relation to Dutch and Portuguese activities in the Mozambique Channel region the from the mid 18^th century, were particularly ethnic groups targets for enslavement in the East African-Indian Ocean trade networks?
Hello,
This might be too broad of a question to ask in this thread but also felt like it was too small for its own post. What are people's recommended ways to get into Chinese History? Primarily 20th Century history and how they became a Communist government.
Hello. My question is: when were pockets introduced to uniforms for privates/low ranks in the Red Army?
Edit: I am wondering, because I want to make a historic kit for Airsoft, and I want to switch on and off from officer and private
I'm trying to find illustrations or original manuscripts describing a particular Egyptian myth. Specifically looking for a portrayal of Set killing Osiris and Horus' journey into the underworld to bring his body back.
Anyone able to point me in the right direction? Appreciate any help!!
are Mapuche native Americans?
I read somewhere that although Hitler hated Jews etc. etc he wasn’t the one who came up with the idea of concentrating camps or run it. So my question who was the one who ran the whole thing?
What was the purpose of Operation Hannibal?
How did succession work for a European Lord who had twins or triplets? Was there a uniform was to determine the heir?
I was curious how in times before modern archaeology that scholars knew a lot about ancient civilizations. How did the information pass on about something like the Egyptian dynasties for people to write about in the 1700s? Obviously people weren't undertaking massive, focused translation efforts. My understanding is that a lot of real 'historical' work in the way we think about it didn't really start until the mid 1800s.
So, everyone knows the classic “neither” and “if” Laconic phrases that the ancient Spartans responded to Philip II of Macedonia with. However, I’m curious to know what the most accurate translation of “if” and “neither” - in the context of the Spartans’ response to Philip - would be in Ancient Greek characters. How would it be spelled? I’m looking to get a tattoo of one of those words and am curious. Thank you! This is my first Reddit post on my new account, and my first post on /r/askhistorians so if I formatted this incorrectly please don’t delete, I’ll fix it ASAP.
For reference -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconic_phrase
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Sayings_of_Spartans*/main.html
By the early 18th century, were there any spanish royalty or nobility who were spanish in origin? It seems they were entirely Hapsburg or Bourbon. Was there anyone left who was not a foreigner but actually spanish?
Is Queen Elizabeth II related to such kings as Alfred the Great and Æthelred the Unready?
Greek general whose body was recovered before it could be mutilated
