askhistorians

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In HBO's Rome there is a dedicated man who reads announcements in the Forum for the public. Did such "forum announcers" exist? Were they commissioned by the Senate? Did they belong to a specific organisation?	1051
In 415 BC, all Hermes statuettes were desecrated a night before an Athenian expedition was due launch. While it caused great alarm as a bad omen, would it occur to people that it might have been an elaborate sabotage (or other reasons) precisely aimed for this "bad omen" approach?	77
For lack of a better word, why were Romans so "proud" of themselves?	49
Vetoing in the Roman Senate	49
At the Battle of Cannae, as with Trebia, Gallic allies were placed in the center. At Cannae especially, the center line suffered the brunt of the attack. How aware were Gallic chieftains of Hannibal's battle plans and their role in it?	39
As I understand, the Roman electoral system was "rigged" to heavily favour the rich (where a huge majority of the population collectively getting one vote, etc.). Did any Senator or Tribune try to change or remove this in direction of a more direct democracy?	38
Tolstoy the author and Spinoza the philosopher both reach the same conclusion about the Bible. Do we know whether Tolstoy ever read Spinoza?	17
Perhaps this is a question suited for an economics subreddit, but: "How did Ancient Greek cities who had no silver or gold mines have minted currency, if at all? Was the only option to melt and re-mint the currency they obtained via trade?"	15
I once saw a comment (here) which said something like : "... during training an officer spread a white sheet as large as a line infantry unit 100 meters away from his own line; almost all muskets hit their targets", meaning muskets were not THAT inaccurate. Can anyone help me clear this point?	11
How much did Rome know about the Gauls and Germans before the unification of Italy, i.e. before they started sharing borders with them?	10

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