askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
There's a Roman inscription memorializing a Roman soldier/centurion who worked in a prison. Would this be a military prison? Did Roman prisons hold more than a few very high-value prisoners (Vercingetorix )? What do we know about Roman prisoners and how prisoners were treated?	1
Did politicians involved with the Treaty of Versailles, or outside observers, view it as a vindictive mistake that would backfire when it was signed? Or did the desire to punish Germany leave people credulous?	1
Plato was in favor of what we would call "eugenics," and wanted to maximize the number of people born from intelligent and beautiful parents. Did the Nazis base their eugenics program off his ideas?	1
Soldiers of the classical era had long pikes, but none of the elaborate polearms developed in medieval times. Did the Romans and Greeks lack the metallurgical technology to make more complex polearms?	1
In most of Europe, people take all or most of August off. When did this practice start? I was once told that the practice relates to the emperor Augustus and that lands once ruled by the Roman empire tend to take August off. Is there any truth to this?	1
Did Arabic, Chinese, or Persian serve as a widespread lingua franca across large geographic areas, as Latin did in Europe?	1
Why have 107 countries recognized the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a "a state" with no borders and only little land, and granted it status in the UN? What makes this organization special and worthy of recognition?	1
Leonardo Da Vinci's famous "vitruvian man" was inspired by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In what way did Vitruvius inspire Da Vinci's drawing?	1
Martin Luther King Jr. is honored with parades, days off from school and work, and various other remembrances on January 15. How long did it take before the Southern states willingly honored MLK in this fashion? Was there a lot of resistance?	1
Contemporaries compared George Washington to the American Cincinnatus for his choice to lay down power on multiple occasions and return to his farm. Was Washington purposefully trying to emulate Cincinnatus?	1

« < > »