mentions war, what i enjoy in history
i have very little interest in war, but i ADORE historical farce
and war is one of the most farcical pursuits of humans
mentions war, what i enjoy in history
@daylight like that one time liechtenstein's army of 80 men went out to fight in the austro prussian war in 1866 and came back with 81
re: mentions war, what i enjoy in history
@pup_hime yeah or that a unit in the american civil war dressed up as french senegalese troops for some reason and were called the FIRE ZOUAVES which implies an elemental attack
re: mentions war, what i enjoy in history
@daylight ugh there was a factoid about the only victim in a (war? battle?) being a coffee pot but i cant remember the details
re: mentions war, mentions animal violence
@theoutrider @pup_hime @daylight
I think my favourite one is the Battle of Drepana:
The head of the Roman forces, Publius Claudius Pulcher, heard that the auspices (sacred chickens) foretold that the battle would be a disaster, and threw the sacred chickens into the sea, ordering everyone on to battle anyway.
The chickens were absolutely right: He lost horribly, and gave Carthage a huge victory over Rome.
Pushing his troops from "We're all going to die!" to "We're all going to die! And the gods hate us!" probably had some part to play in that.
re: mentions war, mentions animal violence
@pastelbat @theoutrider @daylight (bc cats were sacred to the egyptians, as im sure you're aware)
re: mentions war, mentions animal violence
@pastelbat @theoutrider @daylight speaking of animal violence, supposedly in the battle of Pelusium in 525BC (egypt vs persia) in order to capture the city persian soldiers carried cats in front of them to stop the egyptian defenders from shooting them (and it worked extremely well)