Trajan

Or: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Emperor Trajan (heh), Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen, Ariovistus, Pompey the Great, Nana Sahib, William Wallace, Charlemagne, Peter the Great, Aleksander Nevsky, Joan of Arc, William the Conquerer, etc.

Or more contemporary: Lee Christmas, Gustavus Adolphus, Johan Tserclaes, Henry Bouquet, etc. (haven't the patience to name them all)

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"No I do not. In the case of massacre: what difference will it make?"

TopHatter

Ah yes, very good

Maximus

Flavius Aëtius? The Roman General. The last of the Romans.

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Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.

sparten

WHat about Cyrus the Great, creator of the first empire in History. Alexander tookm his title; the Great after he conquered the Perisan Empire.

Flavius Belisarius, nearly restored the Imperium Romanum, defaeting enemies many times his size.

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"Any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy, which qualifies life for immortality." ~ George William Russell

Maximus

sparten

I did say "restore" Imperium Romanun, which is very Belisarius, rather than save Imperium ROmanun, which is very Aetius.

Trajan

*smacks head* I completely forgot about Belisarius! Eeek! He kept the Eastern Empire together at a crucial time. Without him...who knows what would have happened.

Maximus

Yeah! And the stupid emperor Valentinian slained him with his own hand for that. After this someone told the Emperor the following:

"You have acted like a man who has cut off his right hand with his left."

beansprout

Wheres Hannibal and Sun Tzu? T_T

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He conquers who endures - Persius

FullTank

Chandragupta Maurya.

Chandragupta succeeded in bringing together most of the Indian subcontinent. As a result, Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and the first genuine emperor of India.In foreign Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokuptos (Σανδρόκυπτος), Sandrokottos (Σανδρόκοττος) or Androcottus.


His achievements ranged from defeating Alexander's Macedonian satrapies and conquering the Nanda Empire to defeating Seleucus Nicator and establishing centralized rule throughout Southern Asia by the time he was only about 20 years old.

Merovee

I also ask: Where is Hannibal?

My vote goes for Caesar either way, he was a brilliant general, like the best who can conquer without spilling blood at times as when he took his gamble and crossed the Rhine.

His qualities though derive from his ability to adapt to change, the speed in which he was able to move an army, and his ability to win the devotion of his soldiers (increasing their pay did not hurt.)

Did he not lend his name to the titles of Kaiser and Czar as well?

ba1025

Belisarius obvious reasons. he was under financed out manned and still took down the vandals , conquered southern Spain and had Italy well in hand when court intrigue took him down. Plus he was so noble. Even when he could of possibly struck Justinian down when he was recalled and put on trial he didn't, instead he came out of retirement later and again saved the empire. You could argue Heraclius as well. No roman General had been able to solve the Persian question. he destroyed Persia as a power it's just lost in the rise of Islam. plus once again he was outnumbered and out gunned and prevailed by doing the unexpected.

ba1025

ast Roman general who led Rome's reconquest of the West. Though given inadequate resources by the jealous emperor Justinian I, Belisarius achieved notable victories against the Persians, Huns, Vandals, and Goths.

Born in the Balkans, Belisarius served in the emperor's bodyguard, and at age 25 received command of the Roman army in the East. He defeated a superior force of Persians at Daras in 530 and although he was defeated at Callinicum in 531 his reputation remained high. His firm action during the Nika riots in Constantinople in 532 saved Justinian from being overthrown. His greatest and most complete triumph was the rapid conquest of the Vandal North African kingdom in 533–34 with only 15,000 men. In the campaign against the Ostrogoths in Italy that followed, Belisarius secured Sicily with barely a struggle then, following a brief interlude to deal with a rebellion in Africa, took Naples and Rome. In 537 he showed great personal courage, inventiveness, and leadership to hold Rome against a Gothic siege. After throwing the Goths back from the walls of Rome, he took the offensive and forced the surrender of the Gothic king Witiges at Ravenna. The Goths offered to make Belisarius the western emperor, but he refused.

Despite Belisarius' loyalty, Justinian saw him as a potential rival and recalled him to deal with a Persian threat in the East. Over three years Belisarius recovered lost Roman territories in Syria and Mesopotamia in a war of manoeuvre with no major battles. Belisarius' absence from Italy led to a Gothic resurgence and he was sent back to deal with it, but Justinian remained suspicious and refused to give him enough troops to destroy the Gothic kingdom completely. After five years of fruitless campaigning, Belisarius was recalled and replaced by Narses who brought the campaign to a successful conclusion.

Belisarius was recalled from retirement in 559 to defeat an army of Slavs and Bulgars who had invaded Moesia and Thrace and reached the walls of Constantinople. Despite saving the capital, Belisarius continued to arouse the emperor's jealousy and he was charged with treason and imprisoned in 562. Although later released, he was never again employed in Imperial service. He died 13 March 565.


There's a man who can do a lot with a little

xunil

"Wu Di" is not a person's name. In Chinese, "Wu" means military, "Di" means king. Wu Di's real name is "Liu che". "Liu" was the family name, and "che" is the given name. Because "Liu che" was famous of his militry achievements as a king, so the succeeding king gave he the name "Wu Di". In China, it's not appropriate for the descendants to call their ancestors by real name. "Liu che" was the fifith king of Han dynasty. He never fought in the warfares. It was his generals beat the Huns. The most famous two were "Wei qing" and "Huo qu bing".

"The Art of War" we see today is not written by Sun Tzu himself. It was written by another general "Cao Cao" in the "Three Kingdom" period. Because after hundreds of years, there were many versions of "The Art of war" in the Three Kingdom period. So Cao Cao summarized all versions of "The Art of war" and wrote the book we see today.

In China, Sun Tzu is not famous as a great general, but famous of his book.