tidbits cross time
Mar. 25th, 2022 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliThe first explosive shells were used in China, and launched from trebuchet, or else lowered into the trenches.
A large part of the force that reduced the Apaches and prevented their raiding was composed of Apache recruits.
The Roman built cities in Britain simply vanished after their withdrawal, before any invasion.
Scandinavian traders who came down to trade with Muslims would feign to be Christian, even if they were still polytheistic pagans.
General Lee, once in command, got the name "General Spade" for insisting that any troops that were neither moving nor entrenched had to be entrenching.
In Timor, it is dangerous to stir coffee with a knife. Drinking it would then cut up your insides. Also, you must not sleep at the table, but in a bed; only the dead sleep on the table.
In the Holy Roman empire, a man elected to be emperor would be Rex Romanorum et semper Augustus, "King of the Romans and always Emperor." It could be some time before the coronation, as there might already be an emperor, but whether there was or not, the man would only on being crowned claim the title Imperator Romanorum et semper Augustus, "Emperor of the Romans and always Emperor."
Some collectors of Arab fairy tales noted that the best way to garner one was to ask an informant for a tale that was all lies, from beginning to end.
The Baychimo, after several times being caught in the ice and adrift in Antarctica, was last seen in pack ice, and the wreck has never been found.
Something like 90% of the ethnic Germans in North Dakota voted for Harding over Wilson in the immediate wake of WWI. A lot of them were, in fact, Volga Germans.
Porphyry is so hard to work, requiring such high quality steel, that during the Middle Ages, all statues in porphyry were inherited from Rome; it was impossible to make them.
In Armenia, a new wife may not refer to her husband by name -- only as "him" or as the father of her child. Then, she's not allowed to talk much. It's several years before it's proper for her to talk with family and close friends in public, and she can't talk to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, which is one way to prevent improper backtalk.
Sioux leaders, shown a new, large coastal artillery piece, were unimpressed: no one with any brains would sit on his pony in front of it.
The city of Arles shrank so much after the fall of Rome that the remaining citizens simply moved into the amphitheater and used it as the city walls.
Napoleon wore violets before his exile to Elba, and soldiers took up calling him "Pere la Violette," and -- it spread. Soon asking whether someone liked violets was asking whether he would support a return of Napoleon and the deposition of the newly returned Bourbons.
Japan was able to predict the plans for invasion during World War II very accurately -- geography imposed massive limitations -- and consequently drew up defensive plans that would have made the invasion extremely costly.
King Offa of Mercia issued coins that had some very garbled Arabic script on them, apparently from the models used.
Between Sulla and Julius Caesar, the post of dictator got such a bad name that Mark Anthony proposed a law to abolish the office to broad popular support almost as soon as Caesar was dead.
Nantucket women were noted to spend a lot more time visiting other households than other women -- given that the vast majority of men were at sea the vast majority of the time.
A Greek woman who had poisoned her husband and son for murdering her other son was sent to the Areopagus for trial. There, the jurors decided to delay the trial -- for a century.
It was claimed that at the Battle of Anghiari, only one death occurred, from falling from a horse.
The Hopi would check for omens that an approaching band of Apache might be there for trade instead of raiding. A rainstorm cloud in the same direction meant trade -- which, in the arid region, was of course very rare.
In English courtesy titles, only the heir apparent can be called by the high subsidiary title of a peer, but in Scottish, a heir presumptive is also called "Master/Mistress of [peerage]".
Ares was not a very popular Greek god. Sparta was not only much more fond of Apollo (and Artemis after him), but had a larger cult for Athena.
A large part of the force that reduced the Apaches and prevented their raiding was composed of Apache recruits.
The Roman built cities in Britain simply vanished after their withdrawal, before any invasion.
Scandinavian traders who came down to trade with Muslims would feign to be Christian, even if they were still polytheistic pagans.
General Lee, once in command, got the name "General Spade" for insisting that any troops that were neither moving nor entrenched had to be entrenching.
In Timor, it is dangerous to stir coffee with a knife. Drinking it would then cut up your insides. Also, you must not sleep at the table, but in a bed; only the dead sleep on the table.
In the Holy Roman empire, a man elected to be emperor would be Rex Romanorum et semper Augustus, "King of the Romans and always Emperor." It could be some time before the coronation, as there might already be an emperor, but whether there was or not, the man would only on being crowned claim the title Imperator Romanorum et semper Augustus, "Emperor of the Romans and always Emperor."
Some collectors of Arab fairy tales noted that the best way to garner one was to ask an informant for a tale that was all lies, from beginning to end.
The Baychimo, after several times being caught in the ice and adrift in Antarctica, was last seen in pack ice, and the wreck has never been found.
Something like 90% of the ethnic Germans in North Dakota voted for Harding over Wilson in the immediate wake of WWI. A lot of them were, in fact, Volga Germans.
Porphyry is so hard to work, requiring such high quality steel, that during the Middle Ages, all statues in porphyry were inherited from Rome; it was impossible to make them.
In Armenia, a new wife may not refer to her husband by name -- only as "him" or as the father of her child. Then, she's not allowed to talk much. It's several years before it's proper for her to talk with family and close friends in public, and she can't talk to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, which is one way to prevent improper backtalk.
Sioux leaders, shown a new, large coastal artillery piece, were unimpressed: no one with any brains would sit on his pony in front of it.
The city of Arles shrank so much after the fall of Rome that the remaining citizens simply moved into the amphitheater and used it as the city walls.
Napoleon wore violets before his exile to Elba, and soldiers took up calling him "Pere la Violette," and -- it spread. Soon asking whether someone liked violets was asking whether he would support a return of Napoleon and the deposition of the newly returned Bourbons.
Japan was able to predict the plans for invasion during World War II very accurately -- geography imposed massive limitations -- and consequently drew up defensive plans that would have made the invasion extremely costly.
King Offa of Mercia issued coins that had some very garbled Arabic script on them, apparently from the models used.
Between Sulla and Julius Caesar, the post of dictator got such a bad name that Mark Anthony proposed a law to abolish the office to broad popular support almost as soon as Caesar was dead.
Nantucket women were noted to spend a lot more time visiting other households than other women -- given that the vast majority of men were at sea the vast majority of the time.
A Greek woman who had poisoned her husband and son for murdering her other son was sent to the Areopagus for trial. There, the jurors decided to delay the trial -- for a century.
It was claimed that at the Battle of Anghiari, only one death occurred, from falling from a horse.
The Hopi would check for omens that an approaching band of Apache might be there for trade instead of raiding. A rainstorm cloud in the same direction meant trade -- which, in the arid region, was of course very rare.
In English courtesy titles, only the heir apparent can be called by the high subsidiary title of a peer, but in Scottish, a heir presumptive is also called "Master/Mistress of [peerage]".
Ares was not a very popular Greek god. Sparta was not only much more fond of Apollo (and Artemis after him), but had a larger cult for Athena.