AskHistorians

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Did people of average means and education embrae Epicureanism, Cynicism, Stoicism, or the other philosophies of life that flourished during antiquity, or were they mostly a pursuit of the rich and powerful?	419
Hesiod tells us of Atalanta, a fast female runner who "rejected her equals, avoided marriage with men who eat bread." What does this mean?	416
William Wallace seems to get all the press, but Robert the Bruce actually won independence for Scottland. Is there a good reason why Wallace overshadows the king?	414
Garum — a fermented fish sauce — was ubiquitous and beloved by the ancient Romans. Even the poor could afford it. Why did Garum fade away with the fall of the empire, since it was pretty easy and cheap to make from fermented fish bits?	405
The Odyssey opens with unwanted suitors making strange demands on Penelope while eating Telemachus out of house and home. Would their demands have seemed reasonable to ancient Greeks?	400
Was it easy to cut the aqueducts to an ancient city like Rome or Constantinople during a siege and so force the populace to surrender from thirst? If so, why wasn't this the go-to strategy for forcing a surrender?	383
Why was the union crippled by such incompetent generals during the early stages of the Civil War?	381
I'm a roman soldier looting Carthage at the end of the third Punic war. What items might I look for to maximize my take?	377
The Sutton Hoo burial mound was from the English dark ages, but contained items from Byzantium, the Middle East, and Asia. Does this mean England maintained a vast trade network even after the western Roman Empire had withdrawn and barbarians had seized much of the territory on western Europe?	374
Was Deism actually popular in the United States, or only among the narrow elite and the founding fathers? How quickly after the revolution did it fade away, and what caused its decline?	374

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