Paul Is History

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

Currently reading “Seutonias The Lives of the Caesars” and will post random insights on Roman Emperors here as I come across them. Currently reading about Emperor Claudius who ruled from 42-54 AD

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@ConsulofRome_ When his cabbage farm calls for him

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@RealBobbyPlays Like do people not know you can literally take a screenshot by holding down two buttons on your phone?

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

Did you know the US used the gas chamber as a method of execution? They executed nearly 600 people in gas chambers between 1924 and 1999, using hydrogen cyanide, the exact same lethal gas found in Zyklon-B.

The US never stopped using it during World War II, gassing around 150 prisoners on American soil.

In some cases, two people were killed at once.

The last to be killed was a German national, Walter LaGrand on March 3, 1999. Convicted of murder & armed robbery in Arizona, he chose the gas chamber over lethal injection specifically so his lawyers could challenge the method as "cruel and unusual" by citing the horrors of Nazi Zyklon B. The legal gamble failed, and his execution took an 18 agonizing minutes.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

This is the Turin erotic papyrus, the only surviving Egyptian erotic scroll. Original and AI-enhanced:

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

I think time perspective is needed. Rome fell almost 400 years after Nero, and long after the main capital of the empire had moved to Constantinople which didn’t fall for another 1000 years after that. The capital of the main Roman Empire never fell unless you count the 1400s. Julius Caesar could justifiably lay claim to the Constantinople empire as the real continuation of what he started. Once Constantine made the decision to move out of Italy it was inevitable the Western side would decline in importance. But the reason the empire split in the first place is not because it was in decline but it because it was too successful and too large for one emperor to handle so Diocletian appointed separate Eastern and Western leadership.

The likes of Caesar and Nero must be the only people in history blamed for something that happened hundreds of years after their death.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

Yeah I get you. The fact is the Republic did collapse though so I find those arguments that it could have lasted longer a bit strange. Personally I think moving the capital away from Rome always made it vulnerable. It was never going to be the same once it was no longer the capital of the major empire of the world. Constantinople continued as capital of one Roman Empire and its successors for 1100 years.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

There was no real incentive to invent, it was very difficult to move upwards in society even if you did invent something. If you weren’t born elite the only way in was through military glory or politics. The amount of people provided with the educational level to make those breakthroughs was low. Also Rome didn’t have easy access to much coal, which fueled the Industrial Revolution. They used charcoal which wouldn’t work for an industrial revolution.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@UpdatingOnRome Depends who’s PoV. It was good for Rome and horrible if you were a Gaul.

Although after a long time you could certainly argue that Gaul developed and living standards improved but like with all of Roman society there was a massive divide between elites and poor and slaves.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@marko2te @UpdatingOnRome It lasted for another 527 years after Caesar conquered Gaul. That’s almost the same time as between now and Columbus. Roman Empire was enormously successful and lasted far longer than British Empire for example. Its large size is one of the reasons it lasted so long.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@grok @NoahsArk1000 Could he have been a spy?

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@grok @RickyTheGuido Tell everyone about the massacres that happened there in the 20th century

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@gergomoricz @hi_kaank Yes. Is there something wrong with that?

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@CENTCOM Gimme my money

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

One possibility is that this ship was carrying olive oil. Ancient people used olive oil for cooking, preserving food, bathing, cosmetics, perfumes, medicine, religious offerings,

Greek athletes coated themselves in olive oil before exercising, and some athletic champions received huge quantities of it as prizes.

[David Miano @DrDavidMiano]

An ancient shipwreck has been discovered near the Mediterranean island of Kekova, and analysis has determined it is between 4,400 and 4,700 years old (Early Bronze Age), thus making it the oldest known shipwreck in the world. It has already been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records. https://t.co/i6hLLmITnU

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@Alex_TheMortal Congrats, great account.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

Part 2 of a series on Irish History. It’s 8000 BC and Irish Mesolithic Irish hunter gatherers have arrived. What did they hunt? How did they build their homes? A lot of clues come from Mount Sandel near Coleraine in Co. Derry, the earliest known human settlement in Ireland.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

Did you know Adolf Hitler's family had a Jewish doctor?

In 1907, Hitler's mother Klara was dying from breast cancer in Linz, Austria. Her doctor was a Jewish physician called Eduard Bloch. Bloch treated her during the final months of her life, including using treatments intended to ease her suffering, until she died aged 47 on 21 December 1907.

Hitler was devastated but remained grateful to the Jewish doctor for the care he had given his mother. Years later, Bloch recalled Hitler thanking him and saying that he would "be grateful to you forever".

There is a story sometimes repeated about Hitler: that his hatred of Jews began because a Jewish doctor failed to save his mother. That's not true.

30 years later, Hitler was dictator of Germany and the Nazi regime was systematically persecuting Jewish people. In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria and now, Dr Bloch was a Jewish man living under the dictatorship of his former patient's son.

But Hitler remembered him. Bloch and his family received special protection from the Gestapo and were treated differently from other Austrian Jews. Bloch was eventually permitted to leave Nazi-controlled Europe and emigrated to the United States in 1940.

There is an uncomfortable parallel with something Heinrich Himmler said a few years later.

During his infamous Posen speech in 1943, Himmler complained that Germans supposedly supported antisemitic persecution until it involved a Jewish person they actually knew.

As Himmler put it: "Everyone has his decent Jew."

Himmler wasn't arguing for compassion. He was condemning people for making those exceptions while discussing the extermination of Europe's Jews.

Yet Hitler himself had his own exceptions.

Below is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, built right beside where the evil dictator spent his final months.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@realDonaldTrump He was right this time!

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

History on X mostly consists of:

Asking Grok what's up with this some ancient large monument or natural structure.

Grok gives a perfectly good explanation or if it's not sure, summarises different theories.

Proceed to argue with with the AI bot which keeps giving reasonable answers and possibilities based on the evidence.

Finally give up and tell Grok it's clearly being programmed by the archaeology elites to give fake answers.

Rinse and repeat.

[Paul Is History @PaulIsHistory]

@SelfishGamingCo @riqsz5 “If not for those stupid airline safety regulations, we’d all have cheaper flights. We’d die more often but who cares”