Greatest Generals - Napoleon, Alexander, Hannibal or Caesar

[Ares1000]

No that was in regard to what visiar wrote.

Genghis Khan had Generals going on their own campaigns conquering lands for him, he didnt lead every campaign him self like Alexander did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xaf4gON8mQ if you dont want to watch it all you can go to 6:45 and i quote: Never again would one man conquer so mutch.

Persia was a Empire with millions and millions of people, Greece is tiny compared to it, so for a boy at age 20 to conquer the biggest empire the world had seen up to that time is pretty damn impressive.

[Ulysses]

But didn't Naps start off with less favourable resources and opening condition than the other three ?
I mean, Hans, Alex and July already had their respective elephants / phalanxes / legions set up for them by their predecessors.
This doesn't make them less of military geniuses, though ...

My vote for Napoleon.

[gutter-rat]

Hannibal - great name

[Senex Civis]

Have you listened at all old bean, Alexandoros Had a far larger empire for his time, as they didn't know about much of the world, also, he commanded his whole expansion, unlike good old Gengis who used many experienced commanders to do his bidding. Thoroughly beaten I think old bean

Regards Senex Civis

[Darsh]

Napoléon won more battles than Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar and even if he didn't conquer most land mass than Alexander, his Empire was much more rich and populous.

[MrDogbert]

And the generals and armys of his time were very good.

[Clodius]

Nope - the size of empires are measured in square miles or kilometres and Genghis's was indisputably bigger.

Attempting to relativise this leads you nowhere - if conquering a higher percentage of 'the known world' is the measure then someone like Shih Huang-ti the first emperor of China probably wins.

As he regretted on his deathbed Alexander well knew that he had more worlds to conquer - the whole of the Western Mediterranean was part of his known world as was the great civilisation of the Ganges valley, the cities of the Tarim basin, the kingdoms of the Sudan, the Scythian Steppes.

And Alexander also used his many veteran generals to expand his empire - Antipater fought a major war in Greece against Sparta, Antigonus was left to actually complete the conquest of Asia Minor while Alex headed for Syria and Egypt, Nearchus was sent with a fleet all the way from the Indus to Iraq, Parmenio was left to complete the conquest of Iran etc.

If you change the goalposts to population Genghis conquered North China which was almost certainly more populous than the entire Persian empire.

Plus he had to face great armies of horse archers of the type that actually gave Alexander such trouble in Sogdiana that he abandoned any attempt at conquering Central Asia and marched into India instead.

In addition his generals ranged far farther than the map shows - Subotai and Jebe raided Russia, Georgia and Persia.

[Senex Civis]

Ah, but there Old bean, id would thoroughly say you are wrong, yes, Genghis Khan's Empire may have been bigger, but Alexandoros had a vast swathe of land that relied on him too, almost doubling the size of his Empire, If you look it up, the land that relied on him reached the fringes of eastern Europe and much of northern Africa, as well as the entire west of Asia.

"In addition his generals ranged far farther than the map shows - Subotai and Jebe raided Russia, Georgia and Persia."

They raided, they did not capture.


Regards, Senex Civis

[Senex Civis]

Oh yes Old fellow, and heres a picture of what most of his Empires size was, not including the whole western flank, as i couldnt fit it in, the dark grey is Genghis Khan's, crudely drawn black circle is Alexandoros, i dont know if this Attachment will work

[MrDogbert]

That map is not right at all

[Senex Civis]

And you might want to prove me wrong, Chap, That map is splendid, did you spend an hour researching it? no, i didnt think so. Its is the general area, not the exact area.

[MrDogbert]

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342alexanderthegreatmap.gif

[Senex Civis]

That area isnt just his Empire, if you had read the previous posts Old chap you would know, i said the regions which relied on him as well, almost doubling the size of his empire.

[MrDogbert]

Not his empire then and more to the point saying they relied on him is weak at best.

[Senex Civis]

No, it isnt its known fact, a large area of his so called "Empire" wasnt fully owned by him, much of this type of land
has never really been used on maps, if it had been, im afraid you would find that his Empire was much larger than you
clearly Dilusionally think it was, And yes, it was classed as part of his Empire at the time, they were contolled by factions
loyal to him at the time, but back then, they were considered part of his "Empire", making it far larger than you seem to
think.

[Visiar]

Alexander also had less time than Ghengis Khan right?

[Senex Civis]

Exactly visiar, Old chum. Alexandoros also had protectorates if you will, effectively doubling his empire size.

[MrDogbert]

Well if you think he controled thru protectorates close to all of the mediterranean, north africa, Arabian Peninsula and the Balkans then i dont think i am the only one who is clearly Dilusionally.

[Senex Civis]

He did control through protectorates mostly, and i said PART of north Africa, and he controled the TOP HALF of the Arab peninsula.

[MrDogbert]

I know what you mean but that map is silly has parts even with protestorates he didnt control at all.