Napoleon vs Caesar: Who is the greatest general ever?

no smoking

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From my point of view, as a military general, Napoleon was far better than Caesar.
During the time of Caesar, Rome was the sole superpower in Europe, she was vastly superior to any of her enemy in country organization, economy, population, military system, etc, etc. Most of Caesar's victories were built based on these superiorities. In most of times, except the civil war, he was leading an army of well-trained, well feed and well organized soldiers against a group of peasants. It looked like his enemies had the advantage on quantity, but the quality was terribly bad.
On the other hand, Napoleon's enemies were not that bad, both sides were on the same level. In most of His commanding talent was the biggest reason of his victories.
 

Brood Father

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In my opinion greatest would be Qaidu (general of mongolian army) followed by Khalid ibn al Walid (general of Rashid un khilafat)
 

Brood Father

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As far as geenrals go neither Generals would make the top 10 worlds best generals if you look at it pragmatically and do extensive research but of the two I would favor Ceasar since he lost way less wars then Napoleon just because he was brave and a gambler probably also a miscalculator doesn't make him the better general. He was obviously more war happy compared to Ceasar who was the more calculated guy of the two.

Let me give you a top 10 based on extensive research


1. Khalid Banu Walid: Defeated both the Romans and Persian empire at the same time with a ragtag arab army and probably one of the people responible for the vast expansion of Islam.

2. Subatai: Great general and responsible for the great mongol expansion and the brain behind the operations.

3. Baybars: incredible skilled general who never lost a battle during his time and is the man who completely defeated and stopped the crusaders once and for all to such an extend they lost appetite. He also fought in one of the biggest battles in history at the battle of Ain Jalut II. The first time the Mongols were defeated and stop advancing and he played key role in pushing their advances back in several other campaign post Ain-Jalut and he was victorious against them and you can say he was the guy who basically stopped the mongols.

4. Tariq ibn Ziyad: Took all of spain, Portugal and southern part of France in only 7 years didn't lose one single battle. He first crossed over from Morocco with only 7000 forces and took almost half of Spain without reforcement and when reforcement came he advanced forward taking Portugal and south france.

5. Mehmet II: They call him father of conquests: Took Constantinople and alot of other countries such as Romania, Serbia, Albania, Slovenia, Macedonia, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Georgia, etc etc and many more.

6. El Cid: Was a Spainard reconquista general who caused the Al-Andalus muslims a nightmare by going undefeated against them in numerous battles and probably their worst nightmare. He took back from them vast territories defeating them in multiple battles. He was stoppable and one of the greatest military minds in his era.

7. Alexander The great: He ran thru alot of armies Europe to Asia minor until he was stop in modern day Pakistan or Kashmir. He was eventually defeated which puts him 7 on this list but his campaigns were legendary and he conquered good amount of land.

8: Sun Tzu: Without this man in the top 10 it is never a top 10. He overcame a large forces while he was writing the famous book called the art of war and he defines top General I would have placed him 1st but unfortunately he didn't have major campaigns outside of China.

9: Malik Kafur: This one will surprise you but his a brillant and underrated general in the Islamic world. He was a Marathi who converted to Islam he ran thru India all the way to Tamil Nadu crushing many larger armies in just 3 years Yadavas (1308), the Kakatiyas (1310), the Hoysalas (1311), and the Pandyas (1311) he basically ran over them at one go that is 4 kingdoms and defeated the mongols (1306) to such an extent they lost appetite for another adventure. He was gifted and probably had ridiculously high IQ. They called him 1000 gold coins and valued for his intelligence. He even ruled Delhi Sultanate for a short period. Nor Delhi sultanate, Mughal Empire, or the deccan sultanate ever saw a greater general everyone who came before him or after him were lesser then him.

10: Genghis Khan: I know that he later on let Subatai and others go on campaign but the way he beat his rival adopted brother who had a larger army showchased his abilities he was a great general and the way he sacked the northern Chinese kingdoms


Honorable mentions who didn't make top 10: TimurLane, Ceasar, King David of Israel, Sulaiman the Great, Scipio Africanus, Pompey, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, and Kublai Khan
Also hannibal , the menace of Roman army
 

AUSTERLITZ

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1-10 for me in no order -

Subutai
Napoleon
Alexander
Timur
Skanderbeg
Caesar
Hannibal
Genghis
Khalid
Suvorov

Honorable mention -
Belisarius
Scipio
Wellington
Jan zizka
Marlborough
Eugene of savoy
Von manstein
Frederick
Moltke
 

GaudaNaresh

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Alexander
1-10 for me in no order -

Subutai
Napoleon
Alexander
Timur
Skanderbeg
Caesar
Hannibal
Genghis
Khalid
Suvorov

Honorable mention -
Belisarius
Scipio
Wellington
Jan zizka
Marlborough
Eugene of savoy
Von manstein
Frederick
Moltke
Alexander is one of the most overrated generals and statesman in history. He ran away from India with his tail tucked between his legs, facing mutiny due to his army not wanting to face Magadhnaresh. Directly cited by the greek first hand sources themselves.
 

KurtisBrian

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Was El Cid ever defeated in battle or in personal combat? Maybe not. If not how many Generals or warriors can make that claim? Not many.
 
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cereal killer

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Alexander


Alexander is one of the most overrated generals and statesman in history. He ran away from India with his tail tucked between his legs, facing mutiny due to his army not wanting to face Magadhnaresh. Directly cited by the greek first hand sources themselves.
Well a rag tag army of Chandragupta managed to beat the so called Magadh king. Alexander would have struck few alliances & would have definately managed to beat the Nandas. However stitching those alliances would have taken some years. What he achieved in ancient times was unheard of. After so many battles a mutiny was bound to happen.
However Alexander vs Chandragupta would have been a interesting scenario. A united & strong Northern India with fortified defense might have stopped his killing machine.
 

GaudaNaresh

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Well a rag tag army of Chandragupta managed to beat the so called Magadh king.
It wasn't a rad tag army

Alexander would have struck few alliances & would have definately managed to beat the Nandas. However stitching those alliances would have taken some years. What he achieved in ancient times was unheard of. After so many battles a mutiny was bound to happen.
There is no alliance available in India at the time that can make up the insurmountable odds of Alex facing 5000 war elephants. Especially in 10 days time before he ran away.

However Alexander vs Chandragupta would have been a interesting scenario. A united & strong Northern India with fortified defense might have stopped his killing machine.
Not might've, defintely would've. When itty bitty tiny raja porus and the Mallians nearly ended his life, Magadh empire would've sneezed and that overrated barbarian would've died. War elephants in that era is akin to firearms army vs no firearms.
 

cereal killer

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It wasn't a rad tag army



There is no alliance available in India at the time that can make up the insurmountable odds of Alex facing 5000 war elephants. Especially in 10 days time before he ran away.



Not might've, defintely would've. When itty bitty tiny raja porus and the Mallians nearly ended his life, Magadh empire would've sneezed and that overrated barbarian would've died. War elephants in that era is akin to firearms army vs no firearms.
Raja Porus wasn't a teeny tiny king.. He was King of Kashmir & Punjab. Kashmir for long has been a frontier & in older days it was task of the frontier kings to protect Indian subcontinent.
FYI Porus did had war elephants as well. And was probably light years ahead as a tactician compared to Nanda.
Alex was able to struck alliance with both Ambhi & Porus later on... And were his likely allies during the aftermath. He probably would have made more before advancing towards the plains. The Mallians of Multan made a daring effort to end Alexander's life but they didn't succeed & ended up getting wiped out.
Alexander had countered war elephants prior to arriving in India successfully too. In the mighty battle of Gaugamela.
Nandas had many enemies & there was unrest in his province. Main reason why Chandragupta turned the tables on him.
MD Bin Qasim with a tiny army did the same to Raja Dahir of Sindh who was facing internal unrest as well. There's a reason Kautilya ran into Nanda's court to warn him about Alexander after the battle with Porus.
Also the later Indo greek kings made successful incursions into North India... Although they ended up being in Dharmic fold of Buddhism.
War elephants are ovverated af tbh.
 

GaudaNaresh

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Raja Porus wasn't a teeny tiny king.. He was King of Kashmir & Punjab.
False. He was a tiny king, not even full king of Punjab- coz mallians had other chunk of Punjab. He was basically a doaba king. Which is tiny.

Kashmir for long has been a frontier & in older days it was task of the frontier kings to protect Indian subcontinent.
FYI Porus did had war elephants as well. And was probably light years ahead as a tactician compared to Nanda.
Porus had 100-200. Dhananand had 5000. And was 10 days away from crushing Alex.

Alex was able to struck alliance with both Ambhi & Porus later on... And were his likely allies during the aftermath. He probably would have made more before advancing towards the plains.
No more alliances to be made, directly east of Porus is Magadh empire. This is like saying hitler made alliance with Romania and Bulgaria before storming into Russia. Irrelevant and those allies are inconsequential.

The Mallians of Multan made a daring effort to end Alexander's life but they didn't succeed & ended up getting wiped out.
they made no such daring attempt.

Alexander had countered war elephants prior to arriving in India successfully too. In the mighty battle of Gaugamela.
persians deployed 50 war elephants in Gaugamela and most were used as communication units due to their vantage point.

Nandas had many enemies & there was unrest in his province. Main reason why Chandragupta turned the tables on him.
MD Bin Qasim with a tiny army did the same to Raja Dahir of Sindh who was facing internal unrest as well. There's a reason Kautilya ran into Nanda's court to warn him about Alexander after the battle with Porus.
Also the later Indo greek kings made successful incursions into North India... Although they ended up being in Dharmic fold of Buddhism.
War elephants are ovverated af tbh.
Raja dahir is irrelevant. Facing unrest in your provinces is irrelevant to a major empire when it comes to crushing an insignificant enemy- like Rome has done several times. Same with Magadh empire.

Indo-greek kings made successful forays only when the empires collapsed- as is the pattern of ALL foreign forays into india till practically 1600s- with ONE exception of the Yeopthal huns against Guptas.

Collapsed empires == no more thousands of elephants in the army. Thousands of elephants in the army== piss your pants and fuck off. Like alexander did. This is recorded in the greek sources itself.
 

cereal killer

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False. He was a tiny king, not even full king of Punjab- coz mallians had other chunk of Punjab. He was basically a doaba king. Which is tiny.



Porus had 100-200. Dhananand had 5000. And was 10 days away from crushing Alex.



No more alliances to be made, directly east of Porus is Magadh empire. This is like saying hitler made alliance with Romania and Bulgaria before storming into Russia. Irrelevant and those allies are inconsequential.



they made no such daring attempt.



persians deployed 50 war elephants in Gaugamela and most were used as communication units due to their vantage point.



Raja dahir is irrelevant. Facing unrest in your provinces is irrelevant to a major empire when it comes to crushing an insignificant enemy- like Rome has done several times. Same with Magadh empire.

Indo-greek kings made successful forays only when the empires collapsed- as is the pattern of ALL foreign forays into india till practically 1600s- with ONE exception of the Yeopthal huns against Guptas.

Collapsed empires == no more thousands of elephants in the army. Thousands of elephants in the army== piss your pants and fuck off. Like alexander did. This is recorded in the greek sources itself.
So you are going hypothetical scenario into Alexander would have sure shot lost against Nandas while Chandragupta after a short while managed to overthrow him. All based on War elephants whose numbers could be well n truly exaggerated. How come Chandragupta mustered a army without allies to overcome a so called 5000 war elephants army? Thing is Alexander had out done himself & was pushing the limits now & hence was close to mutiny. He might have 100% lost to Nandas in such a scenario.
Also your Mallian source is wrong... Alexander did barge into the fortress after climbing a ladder & went storming inside. Then during that moment he was struck with the arrow. Greek sources confirm that. Revenge was taken & Mallians were brutally killed after that.
 

GaudaNaresh

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So you are going hypothetical scenario into Alexander would have sure shot lost against Nandas while Chandragupta after a short while managed to overthrow him.
This is not a hypothetical scenario. What is REALITY, is that Magadh emperor was less than 10 days away from crushing Alexander, according to the greek souces themselves. Chandragupta pulling off a coup later on is irrelevant - plenty of such examples exist in roman or chinese or indian empires itself, where someone from within pulls off a coup and simultaneously crushes an enemy invader who is insignificant in power.

All based on War elephants whose numbers could be well n truly exaggerated. How come Chandragupta mustered a army without allies to overcome a so called 5000 war elephants army? Thing is Alexander had out done himself & was pushing the limits now & hence was close to mutiny. He might have 100% lost to Nandas in such a scenario.
1. There is no reason to believe the numbers are exgaggerated, especially given the records of war elephants in armies we have through the classical and early medieval age

2. Chandragupta pulled off a coup due to defection of a prominent general to his side- which probably brought a significant amount of war elephants to his side. again, this is common place in empires - defections towards one claimant or another during coups, but crushing foreign adversaries.

Also your Mallian source is wrong... Alexander did barge into the fortress after climbing a ladder & went storming inside. Then during that moment he was struck with the arrow. Greek sources confirm that. Revenge was taken & Mallians were brutally killed after that.
Yes. So how the fook was it a daring move by the mallians ? I shot you while you climbed over my walls like a facking moron and i am the daring one ?!?
 

Blademaster

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Well a rag tag army of Chandragupta managed to beat the so called Magadh king. Alexander would have struck few alliances & would have definately managed to beat the Nandas. However stitching those alliances would have taken some years. What he achieved in ancient times was unheard of. After so many battles a mutiny was bound to happen.
However Alexander vs Chandragupta would have been a interesting scenario. A united & strong Northern India with fortified defense might have stopped his killing machine.
Alexander and his killing machine were stopped by a tiny kingdom. The rest of India didn't need to do anything more.
 

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