And in either case, you’d have lice

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I totally wouldn’t just be another slave in the Roman empire. (Insert overly specific knowledge here)

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      1 day ago

      “Ah, a slave!”

      “I’m no slave! I’m the best damn astronomer/engineer/singer/underwater basket-weaver you’ve ever met!”

      “Oh, so you’re a VALUABLE slave?”

  • IninewCrow
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    2 days ago

    Are you kidding? … you’d most likely be one of the still born children that died at birth because being born before the modern age was a miracle that was only overcome by having as many children as possible.

  • lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    The past sucked. The present sucks too, but the past sucked. We can still do better, but we could do worse too and I think that’s important to consider when trying to avoid going back to that, but crucially, we really shouldn’t want to go back, because - in case the point hasn’t been emphasised enough - the past sucked.

    (But not in the fun way. Probably. Actually, do we have any records on the topic of fellatio? I’d not be surprised in the least if the past contained quite some sucking in that sense too.)

  • psyklax@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Take me back to 1999 and let smartphones never be invented. I’d be happy with that.

    The knock-on effects of all electronics being combined into one device and the expectation to always be online have been a disaster for the human race 😁

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    I’m the middle ages it was a sign of wealth and nobility if you owned a coat and boots.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 days ago

      Poor people were forbidden from wearing most animal furs by sumptuary laws. Cats were as high-class as you were allowed to go as a filthy poor in late medieval England. Hence the phrase “more than one way to skin a cat” - cat skinning was, indeed, a means of making money…

      • Nougat@fedia.io
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        2 days ago

        Oh get a friend? Just get a friend?? Why don’t I just strap on my friend helmet, and squeeze down into a friend cannon, and fire off into friend land where friends grow on friendies!?

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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    2 days ago

    And the conscripts were just fodder. They’d be pulled off the farms and forced into ranks and issued a sharp stick. You’d be lucky to get a spear with an actual metal point, because refined metal was scarce and expensive, and nobody expected you to live long enough to be worth investing resources in.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 days ago

      Not quite the case. While your life didn’t mean much, generally speaking, the limitations on military action in the pre-modern period come down to logistics - ie how many troops can be fed in a field army at once.

      When there’s a limit to what you can do with numbers, you have to put some effort into quality. So SOME amount of equipment was considered necessary - the idea of the mass peasant levy carrying pitchforks and clubs only really comes into play for the most small-scale of intrafeudal and clan wars and the like, and even then, not always - unmotivated troops are quick to collapse against well-armed enemies. There are incidents of some particularly poorly-thought-out peasant rebellions being eliminated by mounted knights that they outnumber 20-1, or more, simply because, in a pitched battle, equipment and training DOES make a massive difference.

      Even the uglier and more primitive forms of pre-modern states would generally see troops sent into battle with, at minimum, a metal-tipped spear and a shield. Even as far back as Ancient Egypt.