Greatest Conqueror Ever

[monkspider]

Damn, I must have missed it. I saw Grogs post on nukes which was kinda funny.

PS- This entire discussion assumes that the Mongols, in fact, existed. But of course, in reality, they did not.

[Kidlicious]

Was Cyrus the Great up there? My World History professor liked him.

[DaShi]

Bill Gates should be up there.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by monkspider
All Alexander did was conquer a bunch of lightweight scrubs, he couldn't even beat the Indians. Hell, the British beat the Indians.

Wow! Myth upon myth.

One could hardly call the Persian empire, the superpower of it's age, lightweight.

Darius II was a poor leader but the empire threw everything it had at Alexander and he still came out trumps in battle after battle, all of them win or die encounters in which the Macedonians were seriously outnumbered and in some cases with their supply lines cut.

Several of the battles ranks among the greatest examples of generalship of all time.

As for the Indians, again, Alexander won every battle and then fought a brilliant fighting withdrawal to the sea after his battle weary troops refused to fight on into India. Then he built a fleet of ships in Lahore and sailed back to Persia.

[monkspider]

Bah, the Persians were only a middling power at best, and even they were past their prime. All Alexander did was conquer a few thousand miles of bankrupt estate.

Sure, they say he never lost a battle, but I'm sure there were a couple losses here and there that they never let into the history books.

The only thing I will give Alexander credit for is his ship-building abilities.

[Ted Striker]

Nah.

They held off the Romans for century after century years later

One of the reasons the Roman empire fell was because they kept wasting resources on trying to beat Persia, but they could never quite get them

[Drake Tungsten]

All Alexander did was conquer a bunch of lightweight scrubs, he couldn't even beat the Indians. Hell, the British beat the Indians.

The Mongols, of course, never existed, but the vile lies told about their supposed "empire" never once mention India as one of the conquered.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by monkspider
Bah, the Persians were only a middling power at best, and even they were past their prime. All Alexander did was conquer a few thousand miles of bankrupt estate.

Sure, they say he never lost a battle, but I'm sure there were a couple losses here and there that they never let into the history books.

The only thing I will give Alexander credit for is his ship-building abilities.

Such ignorance of ancient history defies correction

[aneeshm]

I'd say the Indian teacher Chanakya/Kautilya was the greatest . And he never once directly held any throne or post of power .

Wikipedia Entry

Fantastically powerful considering the way he held the reins of power .

Wikipedia quotes

He dethroned the most powerful dynasty of the time , raised a commoner to the status of undisputed King of united India , built an empire which itself survived in some form or the other for a thousand years , and whose cultural influence is felt till today .

For an idea of his achievements , think of someone like Bismarck , but capable of uniting the whole of Europe purely through the power of his mind , while never once holding any throne himself . The empire he built eventually drove out Alexander's Greek forces , then under the command of Selucus Nicator .

Wikipedia external link

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by PLATO
Easy choice from the way I look at it...Alexander. The weakest on the list would be close between Napolean and Atilla

Yes. Clearly I am the pwningest conqueror ever.

[joncha]

Originally posted by aneeshm
I'd say the Indian teacher Chanakya/Kautilya was the greatest . And he never once directly held any throne or post of power .

Wikipedia Entry

Fantastically powerful considering the way he held the reins of power .

Wikipedia quotes

He dethroned the most powerful dynasty of the time , raised a commoner to the status of undisputed King of united India , built an empire which itself survived in some form or the other for a thousand years , and whose cultural influence is felt till today .

For an idea of his achievements , think of someone like Bismarck , but capable of uniting the whole of Europe purely through the power of his mind , while never once holding any throne himself . The empire he built eventually drove out Alexander's Greek forces , then under the command of Selucus Nicator .

Wikipedia external link

Not so much of a conqueror though, was he?

[aneeshm]

I'd say he was , in a way . He united /conquered states whose military might far exceeded his protege's own . That's what I define conquest .

In terms of sheet territory , there are better ones out there . But thier empires did not last a thousand years after they left . Even seven to eight hundred years after his death , the empire he set up was extremely powerful .

As an example - an Arabic/Islamic army invaded seven centuries after hsi death . Not a single survivor lived to tell the tale . There were no Arabic attacks for a hundred years after that .

[Kropotkin]

Khan? You do mean Amir Khan do you not?

I'd say Alexander the Great. While Khan took over a huge territory, we have to think about what kind of territory. overall, Alexander the Greats army fought their way through and over the core of human civilisation at the time. Khan's horders roamed over more open and less organised areas, for the most part.

[Az]

I think that Napoleon is really overlooked on this one. He's certainly in the middle of the pack, since he's facing potent, and organized rivals.

But overall, I think that Alexander is the best, if we're looking at the amount of force he had against his enemies ( and like it, or not, the Persians whooped ass, and did it real bad )

[Agathon]

Plus Temujin had the single greatest biological impact on the human race of any single person ever, with 16 million living men carrying his Y-chromosome.

Then Douglas Adams was right. He makes a joke about the man who bulldozes Arthur Dent's house being a descendent of Ghenghis Khan. If those scientists are right, it is completely plausible.