The Feed

Posted by /u/fuzzus628

Gaming historians, I know you're out there -- where did the "three pillars" RPG game design (tank, healer, DPS) originate, and how has it evolved from its earliest incarnations?

I was thinking about how homogenized a lot of modern MMORPG classes have become into these three roles, and remembering how things used to feel different way back when. When I realized that WoW is over 20 years old now, I knew to turn to this sub for an answer! When and with wha…

Posted by /u/J2quared

Comedian Steve Harvey claimed that state lotteries were created as successors to the “numbers game,” a lottery popular in many Black communities. Is this historically accurate? To what extent did state lotteries replace or draw inspiration…

Posted by /u/afrophysicist

When Euripidies wrote The Trojan Woman, a retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of the women of Troy, was there a contemporary backlash against this, similar to what we would recognise today?

In modern literature and cinema, the recasting or refocusing of stories onto women often provokes a furious backlash (i.e., some of the reaction to Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey). Was there anything similar when Euripidies wrote The Trojan Women? Was he accused of su…

Posted by /u/bruhgzinga

Why did Christian slave owners in the US not follow the rules laid out in the Bible about the treatment of slaves, and how did they justify this discrepancy?

Posted by /u/Jaredlong

Why did Albert Einstein become so famous? I understand WHAT he is famous for, but I don't understand why his work made him an international celebrity and a household name.

Brownian motion, general relativity, special relativity, E=mc2. I know WHAT Einstein is famous for and this is not a question about the importance of his scientific contribution. My question is why did Einstein reach a level of such legendary fame that his very name became synon…

Posted by /u/larrycsonka

I read in Mozart: Reign of Love that Symphonies were often chaotic in the 1700s, with people playing cards, making out, and chatting during them. Are there other accounts of this? If so, at what point did symphonies become stuffy?

In Mozart Reign of Love, Jan Swafford posits that operas and symphonies were a social gathering, often being up to 6 hours long. The music was written such that it was lowkey and allowed people to socialize with occasional big numbers to capture attention. They mention people wo…

Posted by /u/SYMPUNY_LACKING

How likely is the Mel Blanc (Voice of Looney Tunes) Coma story? Is it impossible/fake?

Cause I'm aware many people WONT know about the story - despite its ''icon status'' - I'm gonna post it here: On January 24, 1961, Blanc was driving alone when his sports car was involved in a head-on collision on Sunset Boulevard; his legs and his pelvis were fractured as a res…

Posted by /u/HollowWanderer

Why are airborne units part of the army, and not the air force?

If marines are infantry detachments deployed from ships, and are part of the navy, and paratroopers are infantry detachments deployed from aircraft, why are they not part of the air force? Edit: Appreciate this might be a bit off-topic from your regularly scheduled programming b…

Posted by /u/Big_Airline_3708

Is there any actual historical or economic validity to the "250-Year Empire Cycle" theory?

Hey everyone. I’m a dad who is fairly new to Reddit, trying to make sense of something my adult kids keep bringing up. They’re convinced the U.S. has pretty much run its course. They argue that some empires operate on a predictable "250-year cycle" and we’re officially entering…

Posted by /u/RedHeadedSicilian52

How come Christianity disappeared from the Maghreb after the Muslim conquests, but not Egypt and the Levant?

My understanding is that all of these regions had Christian majorities before the rise of Islam (though, to be clear, many of them followed extremely heterodox brands of Christianity, such as Monophysitism and Donatism). While the percentage of Christians certainly declined over…

Posted by /u/ConsciousMaybe6930

I am a pater familiās in the 2nd century CE Roman Empire. I really, really hate my eldest son for being unfilial, obstinate and arrogant and would much prefer my grandson, his son, to inherit me after my death. What can I do to make this h…

Posted by /u/hoetrain

In 1864, Christian IX reportedly offered to bring all of Denmark into the German Confederation to avoid losing Schleswig-Holstein, and Bismarck turned it down. Why would Prussia reject sovereignty over Danish territory and the Baltic strai…

I have been interested in the Second Schleswig War and the postwar negotiations. According to a documentary source citing Magne Lund & Preben Strange’s Fra Altona til Dybbøl, the sequence around late June 1864 went roughly like this: After the Danish defeat at Duebbel, Bismarck…

Posted by /u/Tiny-Stretch-5310

Was the modern design of Zeus (w/ white hair and beard) influenced by the imagery of the Christian God or was it the other way around?

My understanding (might be incorrect) is that the current image of Zeus having white hair and beard came about during the Renaissance and the actual appearance of Zeus depicted by Greeks and Romans had Zeus younger with darker hair and beard. Of course, with that information, my…

Posted by /u/tallgrasshead

While slavery from conquest was common throughout history, how often were slaves bred for the purpose of giving birth to new slaves?

Reading about slavery, it seems like it was common for empires and polities to gain slaves through violence, but how often did societies gain slaves by slaves having children?

Posted by /u/MagpieSoldier

The Battle of Towton is the deadliest battle ever fought on English soil. An estimated 1-3% of England's male population were killed in a single day. How did medieval English society react to the unprecedented death toll?

The modern upper estimate of dead is 20,000 soldiers; at the time, the reported toll ranged from 28,000 to 40,000. Surely, the people of England had a lot of thoughts and feelings about the sheer death toll of not only knights and nobility, but also the catastrophic loss of life…

Posted by /u/modular-form

In ancient Greece, was there really a sacred "Zeus's Law" of gracious hospitality toward strangers because they could be gods in disguise?

My question is inspired by Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, in which Telemachus constantly references the so-called "Zeus's Law" while the suitors-- and Odysseus in sacking Troy, thus earning divine punishment-- trample on it. Watching the movie made me want to know more of the…

Posted by /u/DarkGodCthUwU

Muslims believe that Jesus preached doctrines more in line with Islam than with Christianity; from a historical perspective does this have any merit?

For example, would Jesus have preached the sinlessness of prophets? That God is unitarian in nature like Islam tends to preach? How much legitamacy does the Islamic narrative that Jesus' doctrines would have alligned with Islam but not with Christianity have? Does any historical…

Posted by /u/Ellikichi

I'm a young woman living in Pennsylvania in 1700, and I'm in love with a man my age who lives in the same town. How do I go about catching his eye? What's our courtship look like? What are the odds I actually get to marry the guy I want?

Can I just ask him, or do I need to drop hints and try to get him to make the first move? Do I need to convince my parents first? His parents? As a woman, how much choice do I have in who I end up married to?

Posted by /u/LonelyMarch878

Why did Hitler declare war on the United States?

One thing about WWII that doesn’t quite stick to me is why would Hitler declare war on the US when it was Japan who originally did so? He was already starting to struggle on the eastern front against the USSR at that point, and I get why Hitler invaded the USSR (due to ideology)…

Posted by /u/Rare_Honey_7229

Age of piracy- what caused the end?

Been playing assassins creed black flag recently (not historically accurate I know) but it got me thinking, what actually ended the age of piracy? And the pirates who made money, were they able to just blend back into society back in England, France, Spain etc or did they have t…