History Major. Cripple. Vaguely Left-Wing. In pain and constantly irritable.
Yep! In some armies, they were purely civilian (merchants, priests, prostitutes, etc); in others, they included paramilitaries as well (the equivalent of ‘military contractors’ who know how to fight but aren’t really supposed to end up on the battlefield; armed wagon drivers, artisan/engineering advisors, personal servants of nobility, etc)
That’s actually really interesting, I wasn’t aware of that.
Many Lost Causer twits claim to be ‘loyal’ American patriots in the modern day. Calling them traitors emphasizes that they have no loyalty to the polity they claim to be patriots of - their only loyalty is to racism and bigotry.
If you’re looking for a single person, I’d point more towards Augustus (or, controversially, Cato)
Caesar pulled a lot of shit, but he was also a fairly cautious political operator by the standards of the Late Republic. The desperation of the conservative faction to prevent lawful reform - especially the intransigent hypocrites led by Cato - started the civil war.
Ah, I disagree, but it’s always based to see a Carthago servanda est enjoyer 🙏
Other than the Great Fire of Rome, most of the tragedies of Nero’s reign were his own damn fault.
Caesar was neither the first dictator nor strongman of the Late Republic. You could just as easily cite Marius, Sulla, Cicero, or Pompey.
“The Senate” would be a correct answer, for one, continually undermining the democratic aspects of the Republic for their own oligarchic power. “Augustus” I would also regard as more correct than “Julius Caesar”.
The poster is Chinese, and regularly writes about struggling with cultural expectations with regards to traditional Chinese familial norms. If I wrote that white American family cultural norms were fucked, as a partly-white American, would that make me racist? Not only that, but families are placed at the midpoint, not the fucked-up ‘end’ of the drawing.
That’s an easy question for me to answer!
No.
“Civic neutrality is when the people I want to marginalize are marginalized”, it would seem
That would be really terrible if rulers today still made grandiose displays of piety while violating the basic precepts of Christianity, only invoking the actual rules of the religion when it’s time to hurt some people for the crime of being weaker and different than the Christian powers-that-be!
“Okay, you’re ungrounded for precocious political awareness, but just this once”
Explanation: A common topic of debate for medieval history enthusiasts is the superiority of the bow or crossbow over each other.
In practice, the two were widely used together in armies. I’m reminded of a 13th or 14th century part-time London mercenary who owned both a shortbow (as the tradition of the longbow was still developing in England) and a crossbow.
Now, full disclosure beforehand - I love the crossbow much more. I fucking love CIVILIZATION, I love ENGINEERING, I love PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS
But it was seen as much less of a ‘choice’ of which was superior and more a question of which was available. As the medieval period wore on, the crossbow became preferred for war due to increasing technological refinement increasing power and fire rate, but well into the gunpowder age, very often requirements for vassal call-ups was to equip an archer or crossbowman, rather than a stark demand for one or the other. Clearly, the distinction was not vital for the purposes of most feudal armies. Mercenary groups and some city militias sometimes made demands of one or the other - typically of the crossbow, which was easier to learn and more useful in sieges (besieged or besieging) - but most polities simply required a certain percentage of troops able to harry the enemy at range.
The crossbow, as a more mechanically complex and expensive weapon, was common amongst urban militias (typically made of moderately prosperous artisans) and professional soldiers (who could learn the use of the weapon upon taking up the often-not-respected career of a mercenary), as well as being peerless as a weapon for the defense of castles (due to the ability to aim for a prolonged period without straining the soldier). The bow, as a simpler weapon which requires regular use to be proficient in, but has fairly low maintenance requirements, was more common as the weapon of levies and rural militia, who would use the weapon to hunt for game (rabbits and the like legally; larger game often illegally).
The English use of the longbow - starting in the 13th century AD, but taking some time to become fully established - is a rare exception to the generally lackadaisical “either/or” enforced by most feudal polities of the period. The English use of the longbow required a vast swathe of England to be mandated to train with the weapon regularly, even in peacetime, just to maintain a body of men with the requisite expertise - not always an easy demand to enforce.
Explanation from Original OP:
Context: The Battle of Keresztes was fought in 1596 between Austrian Habsburg forces under Maximilian III and the Ottoman army led by Sultan Mehmed III. The Habsburg army succesfully broke the Ottoman lines, but instead of pursuing the routed forces, decided to loot the Ottoman treasury in the camp. The camp followers defended with everything they could and their sudden attack made the surprised and confused Austrians retreat. The cries of “the Christian enemy is fleeing” were heard by the Ottoman troops still fighting what seemed like a losing battle on the frontline. The boost of morale allowed them to recover the battle. With a major action from the Ottoman artillery cannons, the Ottoman forces started another attack on the Austrians across the front and the remaining Ottoman cavalry outflanked the Austrian-Transylvanian army, routing them.
It really has a strangely poetic cadence.
“Queer up” also sounds like “Gear up”
“We’ll be dry as a bone, I promise!” - Man heading into the water at a 70 degree angle
Gorgeous view!
A sign of fertility, and thus good luck and good health!
Also funny, and Romans regarded humor as warding off bad luck as well (hence why children were encouraged to make bawdy jokes at weddings - gotta start off the marriage with laughter and good luck!)