113
votes
Why, in ancient battles, did being encircled mean defeat?
While the total encirclement might be the most impressive thing about Cannae, remember that it's just a special case of a pincer movement where the pincer goes all the way around the enemy. A pincer ...
- 3,075
106
votes
Accepted
Why, in ancient battles, did being encircled mean defeat?
While the tactical factor (not being able to move units around) is important, the main issue is one of soldiers panicking. Remember that it does not matter what the numbers are actually; your soldiers ...
- 12.4k
101
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Roman emperors have harems?
One key lies in their treatment of illegitimacy, or bastardy. In Roman society, as is typical of the West in general, illegitimate children had no formal link to their fathers. This was true from the ...
- 97.2k
87
votes
What language did Gaius Julius Caesar speak with Cleopatra?
Most likely Greek. This is the only language which we know they definitely had in common, and both were highly proficient in it.
High-born Romans learnt Greek and Julius Caesar was no exception:
...
- 108k
71
votes
Accepted
Were Roman public roads built by private companies?
If the question is "did the roman government officials pay individuals, slave owners and groups of workers to build construction projects instead of using the government's direct manpower?", the ...
- 1,489
64
votes
Accepted
Could women be crucified under Roman law?
In Antiquities of the Jews, the ancient historian Josephus reported an incident where the Emperor Tiberius explicitly ordered a woman to be crucified:
Mundus had a freedwoman, who had been made ...
- 97.2k
64
votes
Accepted
Did the Romans eat breakfast?
It seems the issue may be with generalizing 'Romans' as single entity and not as a group which changed through time. Johnston in The Private Life of the Romans goes into the changes seen in the Roman ...
- 38.5k
62
votes
Accepted
Did the Romans leave any technical instruction manuals behind?
The only book to survive from ancient Rome on architecture is Marcus Vitruvius Pollio's De architectura, found by the Renaissance scholar Poggio Bracciolini in 1414 after being largely forgotten. ...
- 108k
58
votes
Accepted
In ancient Rome, could free-born Romans become slaves?
That is for sure an overgeneralisation, but so is Wikipedia's. There are some elements of truth in both: Ancient Rome held that freedom could not be sold, and in principle a freeborn person could not ...
- 97.2k
52
votes
Accepted
Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
The source for Sanjeev Sanyal's account is most likely Plutarch. In his Life of Anthony, Plutarch wrote:
Caesarion, who was said to be Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, was
sent by his mother, ...
- 108k
52
votes
Were Roman public roads built by private companies?
Roman roads were largely constructed by the military, at least the long distance roads between regions and cities.
The legions had work crews and civil engineers attached to them for such works, as ...
- 11.3k
51
votes
Are there historical texts in England querying where Roman structures came from?
For the Anglo-Saxons, the knowledge that it was the Romans whose city it was is less relevant than why those cities were there no more, or, well, why they were in such a poor state. However, for a ...
- 10.8k
50
votes
How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
There is a difference between abstract knowledge and "inventions". In the 17th century it was still widely believed that the ancient Greeks had discovered and formulated pretty much the sum total of ...
- 9,696
48
votes
After the fall of the Roman Empire, where did their armor go? Was it used by any dark ages forces?
I would dispute your claim that Roman armour was superior. Roman armour mostly consisted of a mail shirt of varying length and quality, not dissimilar to that of the germanic tribes that overran the ...
- 1,585
46
votes
Accepted
Why did the Roman military start to favour swords over the spear phalanx?
Actually, the Romans used the same phalanx everyone else did for a very long time. Past Hannibal.
The essence of winning a phalanx battle is to attack the flank of the phalanx. One may achieve that ...
- 556
45
votes
How did the Romans do division?
The short answer, according to Turner (1951), is: we don't know. The Romans were not interested in recording theoretical mathematics, so we don't have any written accounts how they did it. It is ...
- 4,735
45
votes
What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
The biggest difference that I'm aware of is that the Classical Greek religion was much more the religion of myths that we all know, while the Classical Roman religion had fewer personifications and ...
- 6,811
43
votes
Accepted
Why did the original Carthage never become a Roman city?
First of all, Carthage did not fall in the First or Second Punic Wars. The Carthaginians were defeated twice, and compelled to surrender to particularly harsh terms the second time, but the City of ...
- 97.2k
43
votes
Accepted
When and why did garum disappear?
Short Answer
Garum production and consumption declined because increasing instability in the late Western Empire disrupted production and trade (and not just of garum). Further, a key ingredient - ...
- 108k
42
votes
Accepted
What is the significance of barley as opposed to wheat in Ancient Rome?
If any cohorts gave way in battle, he (Augustus) decimated them, and fed the rest on barley.
(Suetonius, Life of Augustus, 24.2)
More confirmation for the practice, not necessarily always in ...
- 80.6k
41
votes
Accepted
Did Roman unmarried men have a preferred hand and finger for wearing their seal ring?
Pliny the Elder wrote about wearing finger rings in volume 33 of his Naturalis Historia. He states:
"The worst crime against mankind was committed by him who was the
first to put a ring upon his ...
- 77.2k
40
votes
How did the Romans do division?
The usage of using numerals for division neither existed nor was it necessary. Symbols were only used for recording results.
This also explains why the romans used their system because it is easy for ...
- 5,166
38
votes
Accepted
Did germophobia exist in classical antiquity?
What is germaphobia? It's an obsession, it
"is a pathological fear of contamination and germs. "
If we look for something similar in antiquity we just need to turn that onto its feet: this ...
- 80.6k
37
votes
How did ancient Roman family names survive to current day use?
I just want to address a few points that might help situate how to view these names. First, Cicero wasn't a last name, and Roman names did not follow the post-antique first-middle-last naming ...
- 1,205
36
votes
Why didn't Romans conquer/explore the African Atlantic Coast?
Because the Sahara desert goes all the way to the Atlantic coast. The Romans were not great seafarers and required the support of coastal towns to cover long distances. The Western Sahara represents a ...
- 54.7k
36
votes
How did the Druids learn the Greek language by the time of Caesar's campaign in Gaul?
They most probably got that knowledge from cultural exchange with the greek city-states from southern France, like Massilia (Marseille), which was founded around 600 BCE and had plenty of relations ...
- 494
35
votes
Accepted
What evidence is there of the vision aids people used before the invention of eyeglasses in about 1286?
Cursory netsearch brings up very common blips of history relating to the past evolution of reading aids or eyeglasses. There are some early Greek objects that have magnifying properties, although it ...
- 80.6k
35
votes
Accepted
Who was this Roman General/figure of authority who, on his deathbed, named these two regrets?
Plutarch's Lives says this about Marcus Cato:
He would likewise say ... and that in his whole life he most repented of
three things; one was, that he had trusted a secret to a woman;
...
- 5,734
34
votes
After the fall of the Roman Empire, where did their armor go? Was it used by any dark ages forces?
Roman Empire did not fall suddenly. This was a slow process which lasted centuries. And there is no sharp edge between antiquity and dark ages. The period of decline was much longer than a normal ...
- 38.4k
34
votes
What was the pound (unit of weight) initially equal to?
When in doubt about an English word - check the OED. Here is its etymology and usage history for the first sense of pound:
... This pound consisted originally of 12 ounces, corresponding more or less ...
- 71.9k
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