AskHistorians

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What was the Roman conceptualization of nationhood? Was Rome the nation and the empire its subjugated allies? Or was the empire a holistic entity on its own? Or was it something else entirely?	42
Throughout history upper-class folk married their children to secure alliances. And while I understand it from an informal or emotional standpoint, I simply don't understand how your son sleeping with my daughter was supposed to make you more loyal on matters of geopolitics? Can someone explain?	41
If the Ottomans were so into strict Islam and Sharia law, why was it okay for the Sultan to have a chamber full of women and that derives it's name from the word "Haram"? Also, given that they were okay with the Harem, why is its name derived from "Haram"?	36
In Martial's epigrams, is the name 'Lesbia' supposed to have sexual connotations to it? I ask due to the fact that in the epigrams she's clearly a prostitute, but her descriptions lacks qualities associated with a Lesbian. 'Lesbia', 'Lesbian', any relation?	24
How did roman girls view marriage? What do we know about how their parents viewed their marriage (on a personal rather than economic/political basis).	23
Around the time of the original KKK's founding, where there other hate organizations born from the same soup of material/cultural/political conditions that birthed the Klan? Ones that simply didn't survive as long as the KKK did?	21
In Rome, what aspect of marrying your daughter off actually secured an inter-family alliance?	21
During the American civil war, the northerners were on the side of black emancipation, but given how insanely racist everyone was back then, what exactly was their position on blacks? How 'progressive' would they have been compared to people today? What did they think of anti-emancipationists?	18
Given how frequent men died in their society, did ancient Roman authers ever write about their society having to deal with One Child Policy style "Leftover Women" problems? How did this male death rate not create a gender imbalance, and if it did, how did it affect Rome's male dominated culture?	18
What was life like for rural plebs in Rome? I understand life for urban plebs: the daily job search, the insulae, etc; but what was life like for their rural brothers and sisters?	12

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