Napoleon:
New French Elections 1816
"The fundamental problems of the restoration were essentially extra political in the narrower meaning of politics. Louis 18th recognized clearly what they were and when he wrote his brother in 1817, he did not intend to be the king of a divided people. All the efforts of my government, he said are directed to the effort to fuse the two peoples who exist too much in fact, into a single one, and when happily, the 100 days had broken that spell of general reconciliation, which had only operated for a moment in 1814. Now a White Terror raged in the south before the central government was able to gain control. *Something* in the chamber of Paris demanded that chains, executioners and tortures, defenders of humanity, he cried, learn how to shed a few drops of blood to spare torrents of it. Doubtless to the disappointment of such real enthusiasts, the legal proceedings resulted in only a few thousand imprisonments...
There's great evidence to indicate that Ney’s execution was simply staged. He fell before the shots were fired, no coup de gras was applied after the firing squad. Was quickly, the body was loaded quickly on the cart and left and not very long later on, a gentlemen lands in the United States, who knows an awful lot about Napoleonic history"
How the French Government Manipulated [Elections]
"To attain a reliable body of supporters, the government had to resort to methods of shall we say, electorial management. And some of these had actually been used experimentally under the Directory and were to become classic government steps in the 19th century of France. Reducing the taxes for example of known opponents for the purpose of robbing them of their ability to vote was a common device. So if you made enough money somehow or another in order to keep you from voting, they looked over your taxes and and reduced it. To prevent appeals against exclusions, the lists of electors might be posted up only at the last moment at night, not in alphabetical order and at a height on a wall that made them unreadable without a ladder. The perfects who managed the elections for the government saw to it that all government servants voted for the right candidate. Electoral meetings were prohibited. The Electoral colleges were presided over by officials and although the ballot was in theory secret, supporters of the government took care not to conceal their votes. Once in the chamber, the function of the deputies were limited. Choice of ministers rested in the hands of the king. And the cabinet system was as yet only imperfectly evolved"
Ancient Warfare:
The Sling in Ancient Warfare:
"You will find some of these lead bullets with markings on them. Some of the Greek ones actually say in Greek, take that. Some of them have the name of towns on them. Some of them have the names of the commander or the general so that when you got hit, you knew who was doing it to you, which is kind of interesting"
Helenistic Elephant Warfare Part 1:
"Numerous accounts report that prior to battles elephants were given large amounts of wine to increase their aggressiveness, but this is probably the reason they have a tendency to rampage in the nearby friendly units when they're wounded or become distressed and disoriented."
Silver Shields Part 1:
"At this time, the youngest Silver Sword were about 60, some 70 and a few older. Well how in the world do they hold up in this kind of combat? Ancient sources insist they were still unsurpassed in combat prowess. Physically, the single collision of a hoplite or a phalangite phalanx was ideally suited for men of all ages as the troops only required enough stamina for a single day's fighting. It is logical to conclude that the Silver Shields doing battle in much the same way as hoplites and not needing to be as nimble as they were when they were the hinge unit, could function very well over the course of a couple of hours of battle. The Silver Shields may even have discarded their 7 foot long dori and were now using the large sarissa and as a phalangite it wouldn't have to require them much agility at all. All they needed to do is to be able to hold it and poke and push"
Silver Shields Part 2: "The Silver Shields were simply unstoppable. They were not checked and charged directly into Antigonus’s main phalanx. ‘The Silver shields were so superior in skill and strength that of their own men they lost not one of them, but of those that opposed them they slew 5000 and routed the entire main phalanx of Antigonus’s centre’...
Unfortunately, the rest of Eumenes’s army was not as fortunate. His cavalry on the far left had been driven off and in the dust Antigonus’s cavalry was able to capture the baggage train of Eumenes... the next day Eumenes wanted to restart the battle. After all Antigonus’s phalanx was destroyed. So Eumenes thought that the Silver Shields plus his cavalry could turn the tide. Ah but Antigonus held something special, the baggage. Which meant that was the Silver Shields’ baggage. That was their money, that was their wealth, but it was also their wives and their children... So they moved quickly on Eumenes...
The Silver Shields were now in Antigonus’s service but they were very dangerous. So [Plutarch] says that they were sent to the satrapy or the province of Archicoa [sp?], which is in Southeast Afghanistan. There the governor was ordered to send them on dangerous missions so that they would gradually be destroyed and certainly would not return to Macedonia. There's some discussion that they would break them up into smaller units so they could be easier to remove. Plutarch may have stretched that a little bit to give them a little better background.
It is not really likely that Antigonus would have done something like that to this special group. They are old enough, by just sending them off to a distant area, they could simply live out their days without causing Antigonus any more trouble. In that area Afghanistan, which includes Bactria to the north, and whatever, there are a lot of Macedonian troops that retired there to their own villages and trained their own sons. And then years later you would have some of the other successors would recruit their sons to come in and join them in battle. That's how they got, reconstituting the Macedonian army, so that's a possibility"
Miscellaneous:
Jesse James:
"Mom's gonna make a little money off of this deal... Jesse James's mother charged 25 cents a head to come and see her son's grave. Now, the grave is also covered with some pebbles from the local creek. She would allow people to take those pebbles for 25 cents a piece. Of course, when they ran low on pebbles, she just went down to the creek, got more pebbles and covered it over."
Mansa Musa:
"Many of the other West African kingdoms, their leaders didn't use gold as an emblem. It was too common. They use the rare metal - copper. Great trading network, you actually have trading from West African kingdoms to the north. One of the things that they're desperately in need of it is salt. And they will trade gold for salt pound for pound... A lot of gold in Western Europe, that is going to come from West Africa. And that's going to be the main source of gold until the discovery of, you know, the New World… this idea that the Europeans disrespected these West African kingdoms really isn't true. That's going to take place later, much later but they were revered because of the kind of financial power that they possess"
Teapot Dome Punishment:
"The Inca Empire, if you are a government official and you committed any crime no matter how petty they executed you because they wanted everyone to be sure that they were were fairly treated."
Fritz Haber:
"[He’s] really helped humanity, now he becomes a killer for humanity. And it appalled his wife, his wife was just stunned. Actually called, said that he had prostituted his knowledge from the benefit of man, to the destruction of man and begged him to stop. But Fritz was a very patriotic individual, wanted to help his country, and he refused to stop. And a short time later, his wife committed suicide."
