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r/AskHistorians

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to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
What did the Byzantine Romans think of Latin literature? Did they read Greek translations of Cicero and Caesar?
LGBTQ History
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Procopius reports that the Vandal king Hilderic was “a very particular friend and guest-friend” of the future emperor Justinian. Should we understand this to mean that Justinian was hanging out in Carthage, or Hilderic in Constantinople?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
When foreign dignitaries had business with a Roman/Byzantine emperor, where were they put up? Did they pay for their own lodgings, or did the imperial palaces have guest quarters, or did local courtiers volunteer to host them?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
What are the origins of church bells (or other bell towers that were rung to summon a community)? Did they originate in medieval Europe, or were there similar town bells in ancient Greece, Persia, or elsewhere?
in Greece
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
If the Greeks painted over their statues anyway, why did they generally choose pure white marble for sculpting? Were there parts of statues left exposed?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
When the Greeks and Romans founded new cities as military colonies, did they initially consist of entirely free inhabitants, or were they provided with slaves (or the funds to purchase them)?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Many classical literary works began as private letters or commissions. Was “publishing” these works a formal act, or was the difference between public and private circulation just a matter of degree?
Great Question!
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
In his “Indica”, describing India in the time of Alexander, Arrian makes continual references to the conquest of India by Dionysus—as if it were a real event the Indians themselves used as an historical epoch. Is this “Dionysus” a Greek interpretation of a local Indian mythical figure?
in To, India
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
In the late Roman/Byzantine empire, “rhetoric” was considered the most advanced school subject. As taught at the time, would it have more closely resembled literary theory, practical writing lessons, or something else entirely?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Before the Kushan Empire consolidated the region, the Indus Valley and adjacent parts of Central Asia were home to a mishmash of Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians, and other local and foreign rulers. Did these groups coexist in some kind of overarching framework like European feudalism?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
The first recorded contact between China and Central Asia was during the Han dynasty (139 BCE); but the name of China in Central Asia was derived from the earlier Qin dynasty. Does this imply unrecorded contact between Qin and Greco-Bactria, or did the Han call themselves “Qin” to foreigners?
in China
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Did the Achaemenids and Sassanids understand “Iran/Eran” to refer to all the same peoples that modern linguists call Iranian speakers? Would they have included the Sakas, Sogdians, etc?
in Iran
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
In the Roman Empire, wealthy families typically had lavish country residences. Was this common in classical/Hellenistic Greece as well, or did upper-class Greeks live exclusively in town?
in Greece
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
To what extent did contemporary Turkish and Arab astronomers follow the developments around Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton?
Great Question!
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Why does Huns’ attack on the Burgundians in 437 and their attack on the Visigoths in 451 have opposite weights in oral epic and written historical traditions?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
When the Parthians and Kushans first conquered the easternmost Hellenistic kingdoms, they retained elements of Greek culture (like art and language). What was life like for actual Greeks in those empires?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
In pre-Columbian North America, was there long-distance trade for peppers and other Central American spices similar to the spice trade in the Old World?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
For a typical medieval walled city, was the city’s population proportional to the length of the wall, or the area enclosed by the wall?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Henry the Fowler of Saxony is credited with switching from a Carolinian-style central monarchy to the decentralized system of duchies that persisted in Germany to early modern times. Was this system based on earlier Saxon institutions?
in Germany
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
During the Hundred Years' War, why would French commoners like Joan of Arc have supported the Valois claim to the throne over the Plantagenets?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
What was France’s vision for Algeria’s future, before it became independent? Did they expect Algerians to assimilate to French culture? Or become a service caste and source of cheap labor? Or remain as they were, while France just used their land and resources?
in Cast, France
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
When reading Soviet historians, I’ve seen the works of Engels cited more often than Marx. Was there a political reason for this, or did Engels contribute independent historical theories that have been overshadowed in the west by his association with Marx?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
Did ancient Egyptians commonly refer to their own dynasties using ordinal numbers, or was that a system adopted by later historians?
in Egypt
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
The Romans created the office of emperor because they were nominally opposed to kings. Do other cultures make a categorical distinction between kingdoms and empires, or are we projecting an accident of European history onto the rest of the world?
to r/AskHistorians by AbouBenAdhem
11 months ago
The Confucian classic Book of Documents describes a method of policy-making combining five inputs—the king, the ministers, the people, and two forms of divination—with a list of how to resolve discrepancies between them. Was this method commonly used in imperial China?
in China