askhistorians

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How seriously did the ancient Romans take it when someone was declared a god? Did people actually pray to Julius Caesar, hoping for divine aid? Or was it more of a posthumous honour?	1560
Did the people of the British Isles refer to the Viking who plagued them as "Northmen"? I'm asking because, well, to the Brits the Vikings were coming from the east.	1478
How accurate is the "We Have Always Fought" article?	999
Just how did smoking tobacco become such a massive worldwide phenomenon?	996
Apparently, Mark Twain blamed Sir Walter Scott for the mindset within the American South that led to the Civil War. Is this completely nuts, or is there some truth to be found behind exaggeration?	580
In the movie Tombstone, no one ever objects to being close to Doc Holliday, even though he's visibly wasting away from tuberculosis, and coughing all the time. Is this accurate for the late 19th Century? Did people still not understand that coughs were infectious?	449
In the original Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes and Watson keep addressing each other by their surnames, even after decades of friendship. Was this typical etiquette in the West? And if so, when did it peter out?	404
Were the Vikings actually unusually brutal for their era, or does their reputation owe more to Christian progaganda? NSFW	344
Viking-era Norsemen: Did they consider entities like Fenrir, Surtr and the Jotnar to be villains and enemies of mankind like Christians do with Satan?	268
How did "Goth" go from referring to a Germanic tribe in late Roman times, to referring to an aesthetic that combines, among other things, gloomy music, stylized Victorian fashion, old buildings, and punk.	260

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