Greatest Warrior and Greatest Military Genius before 1900

[Boaz]

thad, I cannot disagree that he faced debacles and destruction in the face on a number of occassions. But somehow he avoided disastrous defeat in the field time after time. Call it luck. Call it fate. Chalk it up to inept enemies. Mark it down as intelligence. Call it whatever... Somehow he was either victorious or escaped in every battle.

Maybe it was the literary heritage of Rome that allowed Caesar to win. He learned the lessons of war from written history. Did the Gauls, Britons, or Germans have books of military history? No. But Caesar had read of Horatio at the Sublican Bridge and knew that you can retreat to fight another day. He'd read about Fabian and he knew how defeat saps national will. He'd also read about Marius and he knew the value of siegeworks. He knew about Cincinnatus and seizing the initiative. Scipio Africanus. Sulla. He'd also read the military histories of Macedonia, Carthage, Sparta, Thebes, Athens, the Persian Empire and more.

In the end, I'd say Caesar's greatest quality was that he commited himself to his craft. He hardly went halfway, if ever.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Napoleon was a great man for quotes. Here is a favourite:

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them​

Also, one thing that has been mentioned littled in this topic is LUCK. This more than anything, is the difference between the good and the great.

 

[Mirannan]

Im not saying he didnt. Alexander was great thats for sure.


Im just saying you should judge in this thread Alexander and all the others by what they did military wise. Not how great their empire was when they took power.

Think more like scholars.

There are many great generals that arent populary known to us cause their greatness couldnt do anything cause of the time they lived in. For example this guy


Flavius Belisarius was one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire and one of the most acclaimed generals in history. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian I's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Western Roman Empire, which had been lost just under a century previous.

Although comparatively less well-known than other famed military leaders such as Hannibal, Julius Caesar, or Alexander the Great, his skills and accomplishments were matched by very few other military commanders in history.

He was also the last Roman general to be granted a Roman Triumph.

I was going to mention him. Might also be worth mentioning (this is an SF forum after all) the alt-hist series with him as the protagonist.

 

[Gramm838]

Lets not forget we English have had only one King with the epithet 'Great' - Alfred; and look what he did through his lifetime to deal with the problem of the Norse invasions, and the job was completed by his Grandson Aethalstan.

However, if you look at who changed the world forever through military prowess (something no other military leader has ever done), it would have to be William the Conqueror - imagine how different today's world would be if England had stayed Anglo-Saxon in 1066...

 

[Tor__Hershman]

Greatest military genius, would be, to me, Marcus Aurelius
&
the greatest warrior, albeit in the field of the war for peoples' minds, IMO Giordano Bruno.