Ask A Historian

[houseofcantor]

“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).”

― Otto von Bismarck

Unlike jesus.....Bismarck knew how to make a prediction.

Speaking of prognostication, what was Sulla's motivation in releasing Julius Caesar from the flaminate?

[BrokenQuill92]

Are you sad about the Library of Alexandria burning?

[BrokenQuill92]

What's your view on the Salem witch trials?

[Minimalist]

Do you think American history books are whitewashed or too Eurocentric?

Of course to the whitewashed part ( just like every other nation's) and we could hardly help being eurocentric.  It did not matter to us for instance that there were enormous social upheavals in China as we had no territorial ambitions there in the 19th century.  Plus, and this is key, until WWII we were still busy building our own nation... and shitting on the Indians and Mexicans in the process.  We dealt with Europe because of trade/commerce considerations but we were perfectly willing to sit WWI out until German submarine doctrine starting sinking our ships.  It was never about them.  It was always about us.

[Minimalist]

Who's your favorite figure in history?

I would say Napoleon.  Limey propaganda aside, a true renaissance man.

[Minimalist]

Unlike jesus.....Bismarck knew how to make a prediction.

Speaking of prognostication, what was Sulla's motivation in releasing Julius Caesar from the flaminate?

Agree about Bismarck.

Caesar was 16 when the civil wars broke out between Cornelius Sulla and his uncle Marius.  True, he was paterfamilias because his father, also named Gaius Julius, had died when Caesar was 15 but looking at it from Sulla's p-o-v he might have been too insignificant at the time to bother with and his connection to Marius was through his aunt who had married Marius.  The comment of Plutarch - writing much later - that Sulla saw "many Mariuses" in Caesar sounds like later Julio-Claudian horseshit.

Then again, maybe Sulla was just having a bad day.  Some of the decisions he made were baffling.

[Minimalist]

Are you sad about the Library of Alexandria burning?

Of course.  Xtian thugs who couldn't read anyway.

[Minimalist]

What's your view on the Salem witch trials?

Primitive barbarism.  Paled in comparison to the witch-hunting that went on in Europe of course.  I've read speculation that witch craft charges were used to oppress the more marginalized elements of society....much as the modern American police state does to minorities today.

[houseofcantor]

Some of the decisions he made were baffling.

He was a total nutbag.

And my favorite, not surprisingly. Another question: was JFK actually shot by a secret service agent, and if so, was it an accident or part of an actual conspiracy?

[Minimalist]

He was a total nutbag.

First century BC Rome was a strange place.  It's hard to convey into English exactly what a Roman meant by "dignitas" but Lucius Cornelius Sulla was a scion of the Cornelii, an old Patrician powerhouse whereas Marius was a plebian.  Who can know what Sulla thought of that or what slight to his dignitas he imagined from this low-born scum?

Curiously, when Caesar fought Pompey, Caesar was the Patrician representing the populaires while Pompey was the plebian representing the optimates.  Civil War has a way of fucking things up.