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Best warriors of the ancient ara?

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  • #76
    For cavalry Hannibals Numidians have to be among the best, perhaps second to Alexanders Companion cavalry.

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    • #77
      I'm late to this thread but I'll throw in my dos centavos. I think the question begs some definition, and I say that based on the answers I'm seeing. One can make arguments about the quality of an individual warrior, based on culture, etc., and come up with some answers that I personally find rather meaningless. Who here would say that my Celtic ancestors lacked warrior skills and mentality; and yet, Caesar slaughtered hundreds of thousands of them. My point being that for me, it isn't about the individual, it's about echelon squad on up. I already tipped my hand but the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus said it best when of the Romans he pronounced, "their drills are bloodless battles, and their battles bloody drills."

      After the time of Gaius Marius, the Roman legions were professional organizations, run by professional officers and non-commissioned officers, with the odd exception of being mostly generaled by part-timers. Regardless, the various ranks of Centurions ran the show for all intents and purposes, and they were not people with whom a lowly enlistee would trifle. The upshot of all this was in effect, a kind of meat grinder that, when properly lead, didn't often fail at carrying the day. Add to this their wonderful engineering skills that resulted in some 50,000 miles of good roads that held the Empire together, and I find it difficult to find fault with, as someone put it, "the little tribe from Latium."

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