This idea grew out of the other historical general thread that was focused on the campaign. Wouldn't it be nice to have a whole roster of generals to choose from differing in costs and abilities like in ETW? Even better combine those generals and the retainer system of shogun 2 so that differing abilities could be attached to generals as a way to differentiate them. So if you take Jugurtha for instance, he might be a 3 star general that grants you an attack bonus to cavalry. Hannibal could be a 5 star that gives your mercenaries a bonus, and so on.

Imagine constructing your army and instead of just some generic general you can choose say..

Caesar
Antony
Hannibal
Pyrrhus
Marius
Scipio Elder & Younger
Vercingetorix
Caratacus
Arminius
Spartacus
Pompei
Agrippa
Tiberius
Phillip V
Hamilcar
Jugurtha

I think that would be pretty interesting, and the debate as to which general is best for which army type would be half the fun. If I want to build an army based on speed, would Caesar be a better choice than Pyrrhus? If I plan to ambush should I take Arminius? etc etc.