AskHistorians

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What exactly was Alexander the great's end goal? World empire? Spreading Greek/Macedonian culture everywhere? Just personal glory?	1851
Is Augustus' boast that he "found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble" all that true, or just bluster? And did he focus particularly on rebuilding the city, or did he just happen to be in charge at the right time to take the credit?	85
I keep seeing Çatalhöyük cited as the world's first city. What exactly did it have that other pre-agriculture "really big villages", like Jericho, not have if they came before Çatalhöyük but aren't cities?	67
Do we have any ancient sources that accurately describe what Carthage was like? Because it seems like most of the sources out there are Roman propaganda that try to make Carthage look bad.	67
Did foreign peoples (Gauls, Greeks, Jews, etc.) living under Roman rule really have a "wide have the Romans ever done for us?" attitude or did they actually welcome the benefits the Empire brought once they got used to it?	50
Do we have any ancient sources that accurately describe what Carthage was like? Because it seems like most of the sources out there are Roman propaganda that try to make Carthage look bad.	25
The earliest Ancient Greek statues of men and women had the men nude but the women in (big, blocky) full-body dresses. Later on, nude women statues started being made. Was this because of a big change in norms or just getting the techniques to do it?	21
A lot of writers have accused the Romans of only 'spreading civilization' to make it easier to rule the rest of the world. Valid criticism or not, did the Romans themselves thing of themselves as the 'good guys' or did they know spreading the Empire was a self-serving thing to do?	17
I noticed that in 'Against Verres' Cicero goes out of his way to call Syracuse "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all". Why pick an overseas colony over somewhere like Athens?. Was this the normal Roman view at the time, or was their some particular reason he said that?	16
The earliest Ancient Greek statues of men and women had the men nude but the women in (big, blocky) full-body dresses. Later on, nude women statues started being made. Was this because of a big change in norms or just getting the techniques to do it?	13

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