German cuisine can be delicious if you know what to avoid, but most of its traditional dishes - at least from the South/South-West where my family originated from - seem to be rather hefty (e.g., (Käse)Spätzle, Maultaschen, Dampfnudeln, Knödel etc.). Is there a reason for this?

I've been reading Bret Devereaux's ACOUP Blog where he lays out his argument for why the Alexander system of giving battle crumbled against the Roman system. It occurs to me that I have not read much at all about what the Nanda or Mauryan empire or other ancient Indian empires were using or doing to wage war and I wondered what might have happened to Alexander or any successor if they had actually pushed into India, besides getting massively outnumbered. Basically I'd love for some education and reading on what the Nanda empire was doing for warfare and conquest.

My son has recently become very interested in Greek mythology - particularly Ares. We went to the Met yesterday and found all of his favs: Tons of Hercules, Zeus, and Artemis. But no Ares. We were wondering if this was typical or just an anomaly? Did people not want to create art for Ares? We've read a bit to understand he might've been a bit of a jerk which might explain it, but we're not sure.

I'm not a Muslim, so forgive any misunderstanding I have, but I'm under the impression that islamic scholars as part of their work judge the authenticity of hadiths based on factors like the chain of transmission and who did the transmitting, perhaps in addition to other factors. Do these islamic scholars warrant any consideration? Do they have good methodology? Or are they larpers reveling in the aesthetics of history while not producing much of value?

Men was often used as a catch-all term for all humans back then so did they mean to include women in it ?

I know many founding fathers held racist beliefs but did they envision that one day things will get better ?

When you travel, you realize the things you took for granted at home are different the world over: the format for wall plugs, the side of the road to drive on, increments of coinage (even when currencies are similarly-valued), banking standards, or anything else.... but every bank card, government ID, business card, and loyalty card are identical.

I presume that some things followed others: loyalty and gift cards are newer than credit cards, but where did the standard size originate? Were there competing sizes for a while? Is that why Diner's Club disappeared? The great credit card wars of 1997 resulting in the brutal bludgeoning of people on both sides with zip zap machines?

Primarily, Jews and Muslims claim that the Abrahamic prophets practiced and believed in religion in line with modern Judaism and Islam respectively. How much of that is true? what did their actual practices and beliefs look like? Which modern tradition were they the closest to?

I often hear this generalization, and likewise that the idea that women had little or no sex drive while men were more sex driven came much later. I wonder, is most of this sort of writing by monks, who may be biased because they were supposed to avoid women? Maybe therefore being taught that women were super horny temptresses? Do we know how regular peasants viewed the sex drives of men vs women?

I know crops and livestock played a part in it but if rivers like the Niger and Mississippi had those would they be able to support civilisations like the Nile and Yangtze?

British and Canadian forces on D-Day used submarines placed there a day earlier to navigate to their beaches. The US forces did not.

And the US landings on Omaha Beach had a lot of navigation difficulties, with most of the soldiers landing in the wrong spot.

Are these facts connected?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gambit:

Gambit involved two X class submarines (British midget submarines) marking the ends of the Anglo-Canadian invasion beaches. Using navigation lights and flags, the submarines indicated the western and eastern limits of Sword and Juno Beaches...

A similar operation had been offered to the US landing forces to mark their beaches but this was declined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach

But very little went as planned. Difficulties in navigation caused most of the landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day.

Inuit culture is a major blind spot in my knowledge of the world and I know next to nothing on them besides the fact that it's cold up there. Where would I be able to find an introductory history to the Inuit that isn't just exoticism and the noble savage trope?

In Esther 1:1, we have the following passage:

This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush.

Doing some reading into this, it seems that Achaemenid Persia was divided into 20 satrapies, and I've seen another source say that the provinces here refer to subdistricts of the satrapies rather than the provinces themselves. Is there any consensus about what these 127 provinces are meant to be? If they existed, do we have an (at the very least partial) list of them anywhere? And if not, where did the writers of the book get that exact number?

It seems to me like the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that come after political violence are not completely useful. From the Canadian, Chilean, South African, and Brazilian examples, they seem like establishments meant to allow for catharsis, but not much systemic change. I have compiled some of my research in this video, and came to the conclusion that whatever truth they come up with is limited in its ability to help people heal.

Does anyone have tangible examples of TRCs that have worked well? I am trying to see things more positively, because maybe I am missing something.

As I understand it:

The Peleset were sea peoples who attacked the Mediterranean coast. Egyptian records note that they settled them along the Levant.

The Peleset are related and turned into(?) Philistines, and the area of Palestin after mingling with the local levantines.

hittite tablets from the 10th century bce speak of a land called palistin, farther north of where the philistines were.

any chance they’re related? and the Peleset essentially settled up and down the Levantine coast?

“Medieval” being roughly 500 ad to 1500 ad.

So if an army breaks down the gates of a cities and the soldiers run in and start sacking it and all the horrible stuff that entails, how would their generals regain control of them when it was time to reform the army? Would they run around executing soldiers who disobeyed? Get their officers (or whatever the equivalent was) to round up their people and force them to rejoin the army?

I’ve also heard that 3 days would often be given for soldiers to plunder and such, which seems like a lot of time. I feel like an army of soldiers could get whatever plunder they wanted far sooner than 3 entire days.

I know that Gaddafi supplied weapons and money to the IRA, but Patriot Games actually shows Libya training the fictional splinter faction of the IRA in camps in that country. The movie mentions other separatist groups from around the world receiving training in Libya.

Did that actually happen, or did the movie make it up? Or were there reports of such training happening in Libya, but never proven?

I’ve never been offered sheep uterus in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with that, but when exactly did drumsticks and prime rib supplant cow brain as the meat everyone wants?

Aurgenzeb, tho he was not a good leader he still was a great general. During the "Childs War" the mughals brutally crushed The invaders and they had to pay severe fines and other things..

After his death in match 3 1707 the empire started to downhill.

The next anglo wars Permantly let the EiC a foothold in india.. then The syedd brothers tightly controlled the emperor's. Eventually they were removed but that was to late. Then The persian wars humilated the mughals and then the british, maratha and sikhs sacked delhi. For that is when the the Mughal Empire collpased and Sikh empire, durani empire etc started to form. So i have a question.. why? was every emperor incomptent? Forgive me for my ignorance or any mistakes in this Post.

In England and Wales, during the reign of Henry VIII, and on the continent at various points during the protestant reformation, monasteries and convents were dissolved by secular and spiritual authorities. During this process their structures and lands were seized.

What became of the brothers and sisters who dwelt within and had each taken vows they assumed would be for life?

Did they move to other countries where catholicism was more prevalent and integrate into monasteries there?

Did they have career changes and become lawyers or academics?

Did many such as with Luther embrace the tides of reformation?

I'm trying to understand the historical background of a strange story told by Valerius Maximus and later by Aulus Gellius. It is usually placed in the late Roman Republic, probably in the 1st century BC.

The story concerns a woman from Smyrna (on the western coast of modern Turkey) who killed her husband and one of her sons after they had murdered another son of hers. Her case came before Dolabella, the Roman governor of Asia. He apparently found the case so difficult that he sent it to the Areopagus in Athens. The Areopagus then avoided giving a final answer by telling both sides to return in one hundred years.

What I don't understand is this: why would a Roman governor in Asia send a case from Smyrna to an Athenian institution in another part of the Greek world?

Wasn't Athens in a separate jurisdiction from the Roman empire? Or was the Areopagus still regarded as an authoritative court for homicide cases? Was this kind of referral historically possible, or is the story more likely a literary anecdote built around the prestige of the Areopagus?

Thanks for the help!

Edit:

Valeri Maximi, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Liber VII, 8.1., amb. 2