Crastinus

no one did more with less then Sertorius.

well Livy even talks about how the African elephants were smaller, atleast in comparison to the asian ones that Antiochus the Selucid king used against the Romans.

Stephen Dando Collins has written books on specific legions. He follows the legion from its raising til its end, i think so far hes only done Caesar's 10th, Pompey's 6th and the 13th which was annihilated in Gaul under Caesar's legates Sabinus and Cotta and rose to fame figting in Britian against Boudicca. They arent bad reads, good books if u dont mind him calling the officers Colonel's and such.

Just a good old fashioned regular infantry man, after my enlistment is up id prolly decide to stay and become part of the first cohort. Never considerd myself much of a leader anyways.

id say the battle of Tours (Poitiers) in 732. It could be debated that the Franks under Charles Martel saved Europe for Christianity, but it certainly ended the second Moslem front from North Africa-->Spain--> Western Europe. The battle is oft overlooked in my opinion and deserves mentioning.

I have to agree that the early Roman leagions probaly wouldnt of been able to withstand Alexander. There is a chance though, i mean Alexander died at about what 323 B.C. so if in ur situation he would of recoverd then he would of campaigned against Rome not that long after. Yet in 280 the Romans were able to contend (though they didnt really beat him but bled his army dry) with Pyrrhus who was a great general himself and fought in much the same way as Alexander did and with basicaly the same Phalanx/Cavalry/Elephant formations.

I am also gonna have to vote for Giap. The Vietnamese overcame incredible disadvantages in supplies and Technology. with it being said though i dont think the Vietnamese strategy was always effective, i mean the Tet Offensive was a terrible failure. What really won them the war was there tenacity compared to the lack of it on the other side, whether it be French or American. Honestly im not impressed with the list, i mean Dayan did some great things for the Israeli army in multiple of there wars, with that being said he was a big proponent of the Bar Lev Line along the Suez (which if u dont know what that is think Maginot Line but surrounded by sand instead of grass, it also worked about as well), i think this was a big mistake because the one advantage the Israeli's had was in the flexibility and mobilty of there armor. If it wasnt for Sharon crossing the Suez and cutting off the Egyptian third army things in the war might have been very diffrent.

Im no writer so bare with me: My name's Bob and i just joined the Forum today. Im a 21 year old History/Sociology Major living in NYC. I love everything about Ancient Rome, ever since i was 10 years old i have been infatuated with the place. My main intrest is in warfare, i find all warfare throughout history to be fascinating and i dont think it really gets any better then the Roman Legion. Ive read all the old historians and am currently teaching myself Latin so i could read it as it was written (i doubt there can be anything better then reading Caesar's Commentaries in Latin). I really really am exited for this forum, it would be nice to talk to others with similar likes, my girlfriend thinks im crazy especially when i told her that i wanted to name my 2 sons Tiberius and Gaius after the Gracchi (not that i plan on having kids anytime soon, or getting married for that matter, i am way way to immature to settle down and start a life). I a prolly gonna spend most of my time commenting in the Gloria Exorcitus cause thats what i spend my time knowing and what i find intresting. ooh also most of my knowledge comes from just book reading, although i have visited Hadrians Wall, Alesia and Masada. As im sure u can tell im not a good writer, but i hope somewhere in that rant u get a picture of why i joined. and also i think this place is great .

Everyone always sleeps on Quintus Sertorius. He didnt enjoy the benefit really of commanding superior troops against the enemy, it was often quite the opposite when he had to face the legions of Metullus and Pompey. he developed the necessary gorilla tactics to cope with them in Spain. If he was given a bigger role in the war against Sulla rather then the shmos like Carbo who faced Sulla then the war may have turned out very diffrently. that is pure conjecture though, what is fact though is that he in a foreign land with foreign forces was able to cope with 2 competent Roman Generals (yah i called Pompey only competent, its really a discussion for another time though if u wanna argue that). And remember he wasnt vanquished in battle, he was assasinated by the vile Perpenna. I may not even think he was the best but he was certainly my favorite.

I am going to have to agree with Gaius Paulinus. Caesar was at a 2 to 1 disadvantage at Pharsalus. Also these werent Gauls or Dacians that he was fighting but rather trained Roman legions facing him, grantd they werent as seasoned as Caesar's gallic vets but still. And even though it proved his undoing Pompeius Magnus also had a 7 to 1 advantage in Cavalry.