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This Thread Will Go Down in [History]

StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
It has recently come to my attention that I don't have a place to post all the weird history things that I accumulate during my average day. I know we got some big history nerds hanging around here (looking at you @Solar and @Lost Salient) and I am always trying to learn new things, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

So yeah, let's talk about old dead people.

I'll start us off, with The Glory of Rome



That video provides a pretty good breakdown, at least of the theory, of the makeup of the Roman army in the late republic and early empire periods.

Once you were in that army (as a legionary, let's say) you would be expected to serve for 16-25 years (the exact required timing depends on the year - Augustus formalized it to 16 years, but that got continually pushed out as time went on). After that time was up, you were expected to serve in an additional capacity as well, as a member of the vexillum veteranorum for another 4 years. And of course, if there was a war going on, you might not want to count on getting out in time.

And while I'm at it, here's another thing about ancient Rome (I really love Rome, okay). The city this time, rather than the empire. This video is one of my favorite things - it's a computer simulation of, essentially, what the city of Rome might have actually looked like in 320 AD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_phjB19ZEg

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Posts

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    Ooooh history thread! Super down for this!

  • Clint EastwoodClint Eastwood My baby's in there someplace She crawled right inRegistered User regular
    My favorite history is american civil war history because it presents a wide variety of fuckups and morons to laugh at, and the sobering reminder that the people in charge of important things are as flawed as anyone else, and that you should not place a great moral standing upon them just because.

    Ambrose Burnside is a personal hero of mine.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    My favourite history is the French revolution, followed by the Russian. For broadly similar reasons.

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    tynic wrote: »
    My favourite history is the French revolution, followed by the Russian. For broadly similar reasons.

    The unwashed masses rising up to overthrow the bourgeoisie?

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    tynic wrote: »
    My favourite history is the French revolution, followed by the Russian. For broadly similar reasons.

    The unwashed masses rising up to overthrow the bourgeoisie?

    "Everyone is an asshole, especially the people who insist really hard that they're not."

  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    My favourite history is the French revolution, followed by the Russian. For broadly similar reasons.

    The unwashed masses rising up to overthrow the bourgeoisie?

    for the stylish men's fashion:
    dDjCmc0l.jpgskoOdI7l.jpg

    so fetch

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    tynic wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    My favourite history is the French revolution, followed by the Russian. For broadly similar reasons.

    The unwashed masses rising up to overthrow the bourgeoisie?

    "Everyone is an asshole, especially the people who insist really hard that they're not."

    Your favorite revolution is an asshole revolution?

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    tynic wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    My favourite history is the French revolution, followed by the Russian. For broadly similar reasons.

    The unwashed masses rising up to overthrow the bourgeoisie?

    "Everyone is an asshole, especially the people who insist really hard that they're not."

    Your favorite revolution is an asshole revolution?

    I didn't say it was my favourite revolution. I said they were my favourite bits of history to read about, along similar lines to Clint, because both of them were full of assholes and resulted in a total clusterfuck.

    You're really intent on dissecting this particular frog here.

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    I like the late medieval period

    Birth of the modern states of Europe and that

  • TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    I love history.

    I am thinking about getting into reading about and playing wargames set in the Greco-Persion wars.
    Solar wrote: »
    I like the late medieval period

    Birth of the modern states of Europe and that

    Have you ever played Crusader Kings 2?

  • ChicoBlueChicoBlue Registered User regular
    I think I like the Cell Saga the most.

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    I have a soft spot for musket and pike and napoleonic warfare, anything with muskets really.

    Lately I've been on a bit of a WW2 kick.

    I'd love to know more about Rome and the Medieval period as I feel like a lot of my knowledge of those periods are confused by pop culture history notions and its hard to discern exactly where fact stops and popular fiction begins sometimes. (This was also a big problem when I was on my Japanese history kick as I was limited to English language sources.)

  • JebusUDJebusUD Adventure! Candy IslandRegistered User regular
    I've found the Decemberist Revolt to be quite interesting. Does anyone have any recommended reads about this one?

    I write you a story
    But it loses its thread
  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I like Rome, obviously, and Europe from about 1450 to 1750. My American history is very hodgepodge, honestly. I once read every single piece of writing by John Wilkes Booth, but I could probably only name like three battles from the American Civil War (and I learned those from a punk rock album).

  • ChicoBlueChicoBlue Registered User regular
    The Battle of Fuck the Man was especially brutal.

  • Duke 2.0Duke 2.0 Time Trash Cat Registered User regular
    Thread for laughing at people who mixed up Winfield Scott and Winfield Scott Hancock

    laughing at me

    VRXwDW7.png
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    Uriel wrote: »
    I love history.

    I am thinking about getting into reading about and playing wargames set in the Greco-Persion wars.
    Solar wrote: »
    I like the late medieval period

    Birth of the modern states of Europe and that

    Have you ever played Crusader Kings 2?

    @Uriel

    You and I should really sit down at some point and figure out VASL. It's a computer program you can play most board wargames online with.

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    History is dumb. What happened in the past? Nothing. They didn't even have Instagram.

  • TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Uriel wrote: »
    I love history.

    I am thinking about getting into reading about and playing wargames set in the Greco-Persion wars.
    Solar wrote: »
    I like the late medieval period

    Birth of the modern states of Europe and that

    Have you ever played Crusader Kings 2?

    Uriel

    You and I should really sit down at some point and figure out VASL. It's a computer program you can play most board wargames online with.

    That would be rad!

  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I'll start us off, with The Glory of Rome

    If you've got a hundred or so hours to kill you are encouraged to burn a chunk of them on the History of Rome podcast, in which an amateur Roman history enthusiast gets annoyed that nobody's talking about the full span of these dudes' history and proceeds to solve that problem at some length. Once he finds his voice they're pretty interesting - and entertaining when he stumbles into the more "oh, FFS you morons" stages of Roman infighting (i.e., the second century BC through the fifth century CE inclusive).

    It was my background audio at work for a few months.

    (He's also started another series on historical revolutions, but I haven't checked that out yet.)

  • TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    Zibblsnrt wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I'll start us off, with The Glory of Rome

    If you've got a hundred or so hours to kill you are encouraged to burn a chunk of them on the History of Rome podcast, in which an amateur Roman history enthusiast gets annoyed that nobody's talking about the full span of these dudes' history and proceeds to solve that problem at some length. Once he finds his voice they're pretty interesting - and entertaining when he stumbles into the more "oh, FFS you morons" stages of Roman infighting (i.e., the second century BC through the fifth century CE inclusive).

    It was my background audio at work for a few months.

    (He's also started another series on historical revolutions, but I haven't checked that out yet.)

    Both these are great podcasts.

    History of Rome I marathon-ed through in about a month total.

    He's on the Haitian Revolution right now but he's also covered French, American, and the English.

    I wonder which he is doing next? I forgot if he has said already.

  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    I loved HoR, if just because the sheer scope let him bring in so much nuance that you almost never see in even textbook-level overviews of Roman history, like how he started the whole thing with a discussion of the ambiguities of history-versus-myth-versus-legend that we get mired in when looking at the very beginnings of Rome.

    Also, I love that he has no patience whatsoever for the whole "Rome fell because of (one thing the speaker dislikes)" mindset that is annoyingly default still. Basically the bookends of the whole thing are great.

    I definitely need to start in on Revolutions. I do have a fairly turn-the-brain-off-and-engage-autopilot stretch of tasks coming up at work this spring...

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Rome fell because geese have no place in political decision-making.

    There, I said it.

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Like seriously, how did people know when Merriweather Lewis was at a 24 Hour Fitness if he couldn't check in to Facebook?

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I actually really disliked History of Rome

    The beginning was really good, but it quickly turned into a history of what emperors did podcast, and I already know that and also don't care about it

  • TallahasseerielTallahasseeriel Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I actually really disliked History of Rome

    The beginning was really good, but it quickly turned into a history of what emperors did podcast, and I already know that and also don't care about it

    Yeah, I could see that not appealing.

    But for what it ended up being I didn't mind it so much, probably because I didn't know so much going in.

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I mean, it was just a problem for me because like

    I took four years of Latin in middle/high school

    I learned all about the major emperors (as well as a bunch of other cultural stuff, which I find way more interesting)

    And then I became a history major, and I began to spurn the king focused narratives

    So it was a perfect storm of things I wasn't very into

    But I know Roman history isn't very widely taught, and it's very much a personal passion for me, so it makes sense that someone else talking about it would rub me the wrong way

    I've heard enough praises of it otherwise to know that it's a good recommendation for most people

  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I actually really disliked History of Rome

    The beginning was really good, but it quickly turned into a history of what emperors did podcast, and I already know that and also don't care about it

    His favorite periods are the Early Republic and late antiquity, and it definitely shows. Most of the Empire was background to me aside from focuses on a few of the big figures, and I started paying attention again when he got into the things-falling-apart phase.

    Both are annoyingly overlooked periods too, generally; there's so much more than "and then the Romans threw off the Etruscan yoke" at one end and "Goths OP plz nerf" at the other. He was definitely doing the straight chronological narrative towards the end, but I thought he did a good job of getting across how increasingly multiethnic the late Empire was, and how literally Byzantine the political and family ties were getting in the 400s.

  • LalaboxLalabox Registered User regular
    Hamilton has given me a newfound appreciation for the founding of the united states. Just how bloody unable anyone was to agree on even the simplest things. We briefly touched upon the american revolution as part of revolutions in high school history, but yeah.

  • LalaboxLalabox Registered User regular
    although we never covered the russian revolution in compulsory history, which is a pity, because then I would have gone on and on about how my great grandfather fought in that one on the white russian side, and that I had his diaries of their gradual loss, and his fleeing the country.

  • SkeithSkeith Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    Rome fell because geese have no place in political decision-making.

    There, I said it.

    For a second I thought you were following the Glorious Edict but then I remembered that ritual (which, as far as Roman ones go, was pretty mundane if you think about it).

    aTBDrQE.jpg
  • Desert LeviathanDesert Leviathan Registered User regular
    Has anyone else been following the Extra Credits: Extra History videos on YouTube? They're surprisingly meaty for such a short format, and the topics are voted on by their patreon supporters, so there's been a pretty broad selection of periods and regions.

    Their series on the first crusade was especially fun for me. That's kind of an area of personal focus, but I knew all those stories as individual pieces and hadn't seen them assembled into such a glorious tapestry of "WTF?!" before.

    Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited April 2016
    Yeah the Extra History stuff is really fun and a great overview of some neat topics.

    Their stuff on the Sengoku Jidai was very fun.

    I wonder if there is a good Japanese history podcast out there.

    I've been listening to a WW2 history podcast for my school commute but it's starting to get into the minutia of hour by hour troop movement which is interesting but I can't really keep it all in my head while keeping my eyes on the road.

    Inquisitor on
  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    My favorite historical period is probably ancient Greece.

    It was a very wild time!

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
  • DysDys how am I even using this gun Registered User regular
    Gonna post this again because it's neat and still makes me laugh.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o

  • PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    Extra History is the best, and it's all thanks to Walpole.

    Steam: Polaritie
    3DS: 0473-8507-2652
    Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
    PSN: AbEntropy
  • Duke 2.0Duke 2.0 Time Trash Cat Registered User regular
    Skeith wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    Rome fell because geese have no place in political decision-making.

    There, I said it.

    For a second I thought you were following the Glorious Edict but then I remembered that ritual (which, as far as Roman ones go, was pretty mundane if you think about it).

    You had better not decry the Sacred Geese!

    VRXwDW7.png
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited April 2016
    pff. What are they gonna do? Let the Gauls pillage me?

    ... if only.

    tynic on
  • ChicoBlueChicoBlue Registered User regular
    They'll set the Gulls upon you.

  • ZellpherZellpher Registered User regular
    I'm in my last semester of uni, majoring in history. My historiography class is tracking witchcraft accusations etc. from classical times until the cold war. I just did a big paper about a book on Nider's Formicarius and my final project is going to be (hopefully) about the Malleus Maleficarum. I like old-ass books and want to do archiving for my master's. History is rad.

    Also sad.

This discussion has been closed.