PugJesus @ PugJesus @lemmy.world

Cripple. History Major. Irritable and in constant pain. Vaguely Left-Wing.

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

I think it's from the show Umbrella Academy. But I've only ever seen the meme, so I couldn't swear to it.

(Note: silver and gold are actually generally worked before bronze in most societies)

(Note: silver and gold are actually generally worked before bronze in most societies)

... could we get that water-into-wine miracle back instead? I think I might need it.

It's funny, because almost all of our war plans were predicated on the idea that widespread use of this game-changing weapon simply would not happen in the case of a serious war with the opposition (with NATO plans having limited allowance for usage of nuclear weapons if overrun in Germany, but with the presumption - or hope - that the Soviets would not respond to that with an all-out nuclear assault).

Whether it was a correct or incorrect assumption, it is curious how mankind deals, psychologically, with these ever-advancing weapons and countermeasures.

True brilliance at work

I mean, Decimus Brutus is still a Brutus.

There are several subtler details here which show an attention to historicity that tickle me pink (the artist, Angus McBride, was a very highly respected historical illustrator, so it's to be expected from his work).

First, note the Germanic tribesman with a knobbed wooden club - such primitive weapons were still common in Germanic warfare, even against outsiders, in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Quite the technological disadvantage - but a club can still bash in skulls and break bones!

Second, note that both of the Roman shields still have their leather marching covers on (used for protection from the elements, and usually removed before battle), signifying the suddenness of the ambush - and a dropped pack in the bottom-right corner. Likewise, one of the Romans still has his cloak on - again, worn for protection from the elements and usually removed before battle.

Third, note that one of Roman soldiers is wielding an axe-like weapon - this is a dolabra, an entrenching tool that was sometimes used in extreme circumstances as an additional weapon.

Fourth, that the Germanic tribesmen have a mixture of native style blades and Roman-style blades - both the fact that a betrayal of Roman 'allies' were key in this battle, and that there was widespread blade smuggling along the frontier, are responsible for this detail. Many weapons found in this early iron age period for the Germanic tribes were not just Roman style, but actually Roman-made. Later Germanic tribes would develop a more robust and distinct bladeworking industry.

Love this drawing.

What's important is not what the Tiananmen Square protesters were standing for, it's that they stood against the government, which is unacceptable!

More seriously, the protests and demands of the student protesters were multifaceted, but opposition to Dengist reforms were widespread in the protests, yes. However, many of the protesters were also strong supporters of the recently deceased Hu Yaobang, who was a strong supporter of Western style liberalization.

Explanation: Tax collectors were, historically, often hated because of abuse of their powers. Roman provincial tax collectors (at least before large-scale reforms during the Empire) were especially hated because their entire position was predicated on the abuse of their powers.

A bit of background for both Rome and the Christianity reference here - in the Late Roman Republic, there was no massive bureaucracy available to administer Roman provinces. Things were just kind of dealt with ad hoc - one means of doing so being the enlistment of private companies/businessmen to fulfill public services that were covered by offices in Rome but unorganized in the provinces, such as maintaining roads or collecting taxes. These folks were known as 'publicani', and were incentivized in their task by being allowed to keep all the 'excess' once their job was done. In the case of building, this encouraged cutting corners - in the case of tax collecting, it encouraged... well, outright extortion. Every coin in excess of what the Republic expects from you is your's to keep - so squeeze those provincials for everything they're worth!

For obvious reasons, these publicani were disdained by ordinary Romans (and politicians), and utterly despised by provincials. In the Christian Gospels, Jesus Christ convinces one of the publicani to turn over a new leaf and become an honest man - a much more difficult and compelling miracle than water into wine! Who could find a good man underneath the skin of one of the publicani!?

As the Roman Empire replaced the Roman Republic's ad hoc provincial system with a more structured and formalized one, many of the functions of the publicani, especially tax collection, were devolved to local cities who were loyal to Rome instead of private companies. A much more tolerable situation for the provinces.

Explanation: Tax collectors were, historically, often hated because of abuse of their powers. Roman provincial tax collectors (at least before large-scale reforms during the Empire) were especially hated because their entire position was predicated on the abuse of their powers.

A bit of background for both Rome and the Christianity reference here - in the Late Roman Republic, there was no massive bureaucracy available to administer Roman provinces. Things were just kind of dealt with ad hoc - one means of doing so being the enlistment of private companies/businessmen to fulfill public services that were covered by offices in Rome but unorganized in the provinces, such as maintaining roads or collecting taxes. These folks were known as 'publicani', and were incentivized in their task by being allowed to keep all the 'excess' once their job was done. In the case of building, this encouraged cutting corners - in the case of tax collecting, it encouraged... well, outright extortion. Every coin in excess of what the Republic expects from you is your's to keep - so squeeze those provincials for everything they're worth!

For obvious reasons, these publicani were disdained by ordinary Romans (and politicians), and utterly despised by provincials. In the Christian Gospels, Jesus Christ convinces one of the publicani to turn over a new leaf and become an honest man - a much more difficult and compelling miracle than water into wine! Who could find a good man underneath the skin of one of the publicani!?

As the Roman Empire replaced the Roman Republic's ad hoc provincial system with a more structured and formalized one, many of the functions of the publicani, especially tax collection, were devolved to local cities who were loyal to Rome instead of private companies. A much more tolerable situation for the provinces.

Explanation: Abraham Lincoln, a leading antislavery advocate and president during the US Civil War, chose a Southern Unionist - a man from the South who had chosen to side with the North during the Civil War - as his VP - one Andrew Johnson. Unfortunately, Andrew Johnson was a cad utterly devoid of redeeming qualities other than the fact that he was the only Southern Congresscritter from a 'seceded' state to remain loyal to the Union. Unfortunately, with politics being very tribal, that was not nothing in electoral considerations. Lincoln, during the 1864 election, was uncertain of his popularity, and up to the last metaphorical minutes of the election, was deeply concerned that he would be defeated and the prosecution of the war handed over to incompetents.

It's hard to read anything other than naked opportunism in choosing Johnson as VP - especially as the official Union Party platform had become even more radical on civil rights than the Republican Party's previous platform. Fire up the base and simultaneously offer an olive branch to the conservatives. Lincoln won the '64 election pretty comfortably, and it's likely that he didn't need to appoint Johnson as VP - who would have been a nonentity, except that Lincoln was assassinated shortly after the Civil War ended, putting Johnson into power during one of the most important eras of American history.

Fuck Johnson and his whole Southern bootlicking white supremacist ideology.

Neat!

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

No, not at all. I'm going to assume this is ignorance rather than malice.

No 4d chess on this one, I'm afraid - Romans had a tendency to keep naming conventions after they stopped making sense. Although arguably that's done by a wide variety of cultures, come to think of it...

A draco standard - Scythian in origin, they were used by the Persians and Romans because the standards made an eerie whistling sound which frightened horses who weren't trained to get used to it.

https://www.galeriekevorkian.com/portfolio/bassin-tas/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge#Caissons_2

Due to the extreme underwater air pressure inside the much deeper Manhattan caisson, many workers became sick with "the bends"—decompression sickness—during this work,[90] despite the incorporation of airlocks (which were believed to help with decompression sickness at the time).[100][101] This condition was unknown at the time and was first called "caisson disease" by the project physician, Andrew Smith.[102][103] Between January 25 and May 31, 1872, Smith treated 110 cases of decompression sickness, while three workers died from the disease.[54]