Most Roman sources offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign. The historian Tacitus claims the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed that the Great Fire of Rome was instigated by Nero to clear land for his planned "Golden House". Tacitus claims that Nero seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and had them burned alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice but by personal cruelty. Some modern historians question the reliability of the ancient sources on Nero's tyrannical acts, considering his popularity among the Roman commoners. In the eastern provinces of the Empire, a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return. After his death, at least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as "Nero reborn" in order to gain popular support.
Light and Fire%3A Sex Lives of Modern Dynasties
The Takabara were a rare unit who were a tough type of peltasts.[204] They tended to fight with their own native weapons which would have included a crescent-shaped light wickerwork shield and axes as well as light linen cloth and leather. The Takabara were recruited from territories that incorporated modern Iran.
Power and energy: 1 watt of power uses 1 joule of energy per second; about 740 watts in 1 horsepower; 3,600 kilojoules (kJ) or 860 kilocalories (kcal) in 1 kWh of energy, sustaining 1,000 watts for 1 hour. For example, a 100-watt incandescent light bulb illuminates a room; 80 watts sustain human basal metabolic rate, using 6,900 kJ or 1,650 kcal or 1.92 kWh of energy per day; rice and maize have an energy value per kg of 15,280 kJ or 3,650 kcal or 4.25 kWh, wheat has nine-tenths this energy, and beef has two-thirds; crude oil and natural gas provide a heat value per kg of about 45,000 kJ or 10,750 kcal or 12.5 kWh, coal gives nearly half this heat, and firewood one third.
The strictly patriarchal system of the Zhou and subsequent dynasties reversed the position that women occupied during the Shang dynasty. The Confucianists especially extol man as the undisputed leader and head of the family, as strong and active, symbol of light and superior to woman who is weak and passive, symbol of darkness. Yet, all the centuries of Confucianist doctrine could not succeed in eliminating the mother image from the Chinese subconscious. Throughout the history of Chinese thought and religion one finds a persistent counter-current, later consciously canalized in Daoism, that praises negative as superior to positive, Yin to Yang, inactivity to activity.
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