The Ten Greatest Enemies of Rome
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
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Here's another top 10 video of mine. Hope you all enjoy it.
00:00 Introduction
01:02 10 - Viriathus
02:19 9 - Vercingetorix
03:23 8- Mithridates VI
04:20 7 - Shapur II
05:58 6 - Pyrrhus of Epirus
07:56 5 - Attila the Hun
09:03 4 - Arminius
10:32 3 - Brennus
11:34 2 - Shapur I
12:42 1 - Hannibal Barca - Zábava
My list
1. The praetorian guard
2. The praetorian guard
3. The praetorian guard
4. The praetorian guard
5. The praetorian guard
6. The praetorian guard
7. The praetorian guard
8. The praetorian guard
9. The praetorian guard
10. The praetorian guard
So true
Here are the names
1. Sejanus (stupid bastard)
2. Phillip the Arab (coward)
3. Marcianus (so pathetic he was defeated by one of the worst Roman emperors)
4. Quintus Laetus (killed Pertinax and sold the empire)
5. Attianus (killed a bunch of People that ruined Hadrian’s relationship with the Senate
6. The Prefect who killed Aurelian
7. The prefect who was led into an ambush in Dacia
8. The last Praetorian prefect
9. The Praetorian under Diocletian’s reign
10. The random Prefect who was killed by Constantius II (What a loser)
Dude don't forget the praetorian guard !
BONUS: the fucking secretary who killed aurelian
They should have castrated him
Was half expecting the Roman Empire to be number 1.
The only enemy that consistently undermined the stability of the Romans
ah yes, honorius, the greatest enemy of rome.
Underrated comment right here
@@ari3903 Stilicho: the last ditch effort to save Rome from Honorius
Ha - I was about to base pretty much the same thing - I would think Rome would be on the list as Rome's number one enemy.
They are their own greatest enemy
#3 incompetent emperors
#2 the senate
#1 the praetorian guard.
1. Praetorian Guard
2. Honorius
3. Valentinian III
4. Phocas
5. Hannibal
6. Caligula
7. Elagabulus
8. Constantine II
9. The Senate during the 3rd century
10. The Persians
The numberless: jews
@@arkcliref put Ricimer to somewhere on top 5 and you have the perfect list.
@@can6834 oh fuck I forgot
Revised list
1. Praetorian Guard
2. Honorius
3. Valentinian III
4. Ricimer
5. Phocas
6. Hannibal
7. Senate during the 3rd Century
8. Caligula
9. Caracala
10. Alexios IV
honorable mentions: Elagabulus, Shapur I, Atilla, Mehmed II, Alexios V, John VI
(yes I edited some entries as some emperors in the list did not have a major negative impact these emperors have)
@@arkcliref perfect list! Thank you.
Also Hannibal scarred the Romans so much he literally become their boogeyman. After the Punic wars a saying become popular in Rome “Hannibal ad portas” or Hannibal is at the gates. Used to mean that an issue has reached a critical point and also used to scare little children if they didn’t listen to their parents.
"If you don't eat your vegetables, Hannibal will re-awaken from his tomb and burn all of Rome all over again"
Which is pretty sad since Hannibal was actually a pretty decent dude. He treated his animals and elephants well and he also paid his mercenaries a lot. He was a chill dude with an unchill motivation of destroying Rome.
Hannibal is at the gates bussin fr fr
Romans using Hannibal as a boogeyman to scare kids is the equivalent of people using Hitler to scare kids
He became the grim reaper for Roman culture
How does Hannibal not have a high-budget movie about his life? The man was badass as hell, even in death.
cause we still in rome. if u know u know.
No one cares about an african general when you can make a historically inaccurate love story about the same nation for the 20th time
I don't get it @@justinfuriated
well Hollywood would never make a movie where they showed Rome got their ass kicked ... hell Netflix even shamed Hannibal by portraying him black
@@Rome.s_Greatest_Enemy black=shame???? I mean he's from north Africa a very diverse place he's ethnicity is unknown
If you read about the Punic Wars in detail you realize that it would make an amazing game of Thrones style Tv show. Like it is so amazing I can’t believe half of the stuff I read.
Same with the diadochi wars
I found a few books on them in the 6th grade, I read all of them in a week with how interesting I found them.
Not really for 20 years Hannibal was running around Italy doing nothing
There is a manga about the Second Punic War called «Ad Astra: Scipio to Hannibal». You should check it out.
"Ungrateful fatherland. You won't even have my bones"
"My enemies are many... My equals are none"
-The Roman Empire
Ntw moment
Sassanids send their regards
Gigachad Rome Vs Regular chad Macedon
The Arabian empire say hello
Khosrow: "hold my beer as I swim in the Mediterranean "
Greatest Roman enemy without a doubt is Asterix The Gaul and his overgrown, super strong sidekick Obelix.
It's not a pun to call Pyrrhus' victory a Pyrrhic victory because that's the source of the phrase. That's like going "wow, in the Roman Empire, all of these roads lead to... wait for it... Rome." Or saying "hey, these Vandals are... *gets sunglasses*... Vandalizing the city."
I hate people sometimes.
Ahh yes Pyrrhus aka the guy who wanted to lose because winning costs him more than losing
Finally one of the few Roman channels out there that recognizes Boudicca was not that big of a threat (she sacked three settlements defended by mostly britons and trivial numbers of actual Roman soldiers and lost to an army 1/20th her size because they specifically didn't take her threat serious and surrendered the settlements knowing they needed to win the actual battle) and gave Viriathus his proper due.
The three settlements were not large cities and they were purposely strategically left hardly defended with detachment cohorts. The supposed numbers Boudicca raised are also accepted to be exaggerated by Roman scholars at the time. Just in case you want to bring that up. Also there are multiple cases of women leading successful military campaigns without trying to pretend boudicca was a real threat
Was Boudicca really that good? Literally led a horde of untrained Britons that burnt down civilian cities and when they fought an army way smaller than their own they lost like a little bitch. No idea why the Brits ever thought that she was any good
boudicca was retarded charging into a narrow area which negated her numbers and setting up wagons as chokepoints for her people to get slaughtered and the romans suffered like 200 casualties out of 10000
@@yeeyee5057 maybe feminists made her a big deal? Like Cleopatra?
@@yeeyee5057 from what I can tell it started under Elizabeth as she was defending the island from Spain (similarity of female ruler protecting Britain from impossible odds), later was a Shakespeare play, and then finally queen Victoria took a liking to her.
yep. Boudica was a local threat, but had zero chance of being an issue outside of the Isles.
I would rank Pyrrhus way higher. If he didn’t undertake his Sicilian campaigns, he could have smothered Rome in its cradle.
If we are to believe this story, after Asculum Pyrrhus sent his diplomat, Cineas, to discuss peace. It was only when the blind old senator Appius Claudius Caecus showed up which stopped the peace deals. Imagine if Rome’s expansion halted in its tracks in 279 BC!
Boiorix, king of the Cimbri, was also not mentioned here despite his victory at Arausio. The casualties he inflicted led to the implementation of the Marian reforms.
Easy to miss things in these videos (there's a lot to talk about and limited space). So I appreciate comments like this, giving more context or examples.
Romans being Romans would spam as many legions as possible until Pyrrhus gave up or made a favorable peace
Said blind senator was extremely upset with the senate for making said peace deals with the general.
He was afraid that if it fell through, it would set a dangerous precedent for other would be conquerors to march on Roman lands as they pleased.
He single handily saved Roma!
the key with pyrrhus is that, yes, he COULD have taken on Rome and likely won again, but he didn't and therefore despite his 3-5 major battles he (pyrrically lol) won, he never really threatened Rome or Rome's territory, therefore I think his ranking is fair
@@elliot6584 seems like once he started winning he became more cautious , tactically as well
Id put Pyrrhus to 4th at least, since he actually got close to defeating Rome or accepting surrender at least, while Arminius was more of an inconvinience and Shapur threatened only some of the eastern provinces
Genseric should have definitely been in the top 10, sacking of Rome was just really the least harmful thing he did, he also defeated the gigantic Roman fleet sent by the Eastern Emperor and conquered North Africa which was one of the main causes of the fall of the western roman empire.
Dude was basically Moses for the Vandals if you think about it. He led his people across the sea to find a new home.
@@aegonii8471 He was also the one who fulfilled the prophecy of Dido.
@@CommonSenz what was the prophecy
Vandals were so destructive they had a whole crime named after them
Shapur II was Shahanshah for 70 years (his whole life). He lived through the reigns of Constantine, Constantius II, Julian, and Valens. He was still alive in Theodosius' accession. That shows how long he was causing trouble.
And That alone shows why he was the best king of kings
I'm utterly shocked that Geiseric (there's about three different ways to spell his name) only gets an Honorable Mention. I think he more than deserves a place in the Top Ten list, possibly even in the Top Five section. What set Geiseric apart from the other major enemies of Rome, from everything I've heard and read about him, was that he specialized in sowing political discord and dissention amongst the various higher-ups in the Roman Hierarchy. He was able to gain a stranglehold on the Western Empire by capturing North Africa, he got his son Hunneric married to Emperor Valentinian's daughter, they manipulated events to bring about Atilla The Hun's invasion of the West (they were the ones who convinced Valentinian's sister Honoria to offer herself as a bride to Atilla), he always believed in biding his time and waiting for the right moment to strike, and he always knew how to play his enemies against each other so that the deck would always be stacked in his favor. Ultimately, he accomplished ALL of the goals that he set out to achieve, and what's more, the Roman Empire was never able to capture, defeat, OR kill him. And that's another factor in his favor: He lived far longer than all of these other enemies of Rome, and died of natural causes at the age of 88.
Yup. Geiseric is like a cockroach who survives everything you throw at him. Then he establishes the Kingdom of Roaches and Ants in your pantry and dares you to do something about it.
@@RomabooRamblings yes and the only way to effectively get rid of them also hinders you and allows other bugs to infest your house
Geiseric was basicly a man of destiny. Someone able to accomplish this much in one life time is crazy. Any single of his feats would be considered legendary, but he did it in a single lifetime.
@@edrickhuge4637 Yeah, and his name got used in some great fiction. Though as more of a romanized Charlmagne.
James Bond type o' guy
Is it just me or Hannibal has the best last words
Scipio's quote of ungrateful city you shall not possess my bones was pretty badass as well
True
@@ronbou4728 Scipio should’ve pulled a Ceasar
Nah, for me it was Cicero. As he was about to be killed on the orders of the second triumvirate he pointed to his neck and purportedly said to his assassins,
"Get it right the first time!"
Shame he wen out like that
Number 1: Honorius
Let's not forget Asterix and Obelix. They where a huge torn in Rome's backside. (Just kidding. I do recommend the comics and movies.)
Hannibal's last words were actually "Why do I hear boss music?" and that gallic duo was the reason.
@Ari hahaahahah nice one 😂
Good list. Mithridates turned a relatively minor state into the rallying point for romes enemies and did deal rome several humiliations.
Motherfucker was imune to poison, defeated rome, made a defeated roman drink molten gold and made a black sea empire out of a small kingdom. He is cooler that Pyrrhus in my opinion.
Given it’s tendency to civil war and political crisis I think we can say Rome was one of the Greatest threats to Rome
In my opinion you seriously underesyimate Geiseric. He defeated two major invasions in 460 and 468. He ravaged the coasts of sicily and Italy throughout 439-442 and 455-472. He exercised great political control over the western empire through his political arrangements with valentinian and Ricimer. He also sacked Rome and took the imperial family hostage. However, his most devastating act was the conquest of Africa. This was literally the death blow to the West as the African provinces were incredibly wealthy and needed only a few border troops for defence. The novels of Valentinian relate how the vandal conquest caused an immediate fiscal crisis within the Empire. Although the Vandals were not a great military threat. Under the leadership of Geiseric they were the biggest players in the Western Medditeranean, undermining the West in every conceivable fashion
Defeated two invasions by traitorous Romans helping him. Really defeated no Roman armies 😂
Tbh, Arminius wasn't that "great enemy" of Rome, yes he is part of the cause they give up taking Germany, but after that """battle""" he lost every next one and got backstabbed by his people. I don't think his level of threat were that high, an honourable mention at max.
Dude was an annoyance
I think it was only realized by Octavian at the moment, but him defeating the legions basically ended Roman expansion, forever. I wonder if he can be considered a great enemy but he definitely had huge impact on the entire course of Roman history.
@@historyrepeat402 I mean if Germanicus lived longer or became emperor I could see him conquering Germania or at least making the largest tribes closely linked vassals
@@cokelover-nb1qz He should’ve rebelled against Tiberius
@@cokelover-nb1qz and yet he didn’t
Are you going to be doing an eastern Roman one? I’d love see where khosrow II, Al walid, sayf, and others rank in your mind
The venetians.
The papal states
The Islamic conquest
Normanni
Ph*cas
>no enemies post 476
Can't believe you really left out my man Khosrow II and Phocas from the list
Phocas would be at the top of the list lol
To be honest Khosrow might deserve the number 1 spot. I don't think somebody has ever threathened the romans the way he did.
Now I want a video about Brennus. In fact, I want more about the origins of Rome and the time conquering the Italian peninsula.
Camillus is pure based. "Non auro, sed ferro, recuperanda est patria."
7:36 isn't Pyrrhus literally where the term pyrrhic victory originates from?
Yes
Hannibal was one of the best commanders the world ever seen. Such an enemy!
He was head and shoulders above the Romans at the time, but military tactics was really at its infancy in Rome at the time. They learned from Hannibal.
hell yeah new upload
Gigachad Hannibal in his rightful 1st place
A couple leaders of the Jewish revolts could use some (dis)honorable mentions.
Lukuas killed hundreds of thousands of Romans in Africa that required large-scale re-population efforts. Bar Kokhba wiped out an army in a battle so badly that according to Cassius Dio, Hadrian had to officially omit the "I and the army are well" from his official letter to the senate.
and the time john gischala killed thousands of romans in the seige
Spartacus should be there he is litteraly the face of revolution, he defeated many roman armies send after him, both conculs and also could deal with three armies at once fighting against him for a whole and he was defeated only once and only because he died in the battle and his army lost it's leadership. Keep in mind he was fighting with slaves against roman soldiers. I think he is up there with hannibal.
Personally would have put Honorius somewhere on my list.
Geiseric should be top 5, let alone in the top 10. Basically went for the jugular of the late Roman Empire in North Africa and succeeded
You are so underrated man you should get way more attention
Hannibal is probably one of my favorite characters in history
You know, most of these guys are just people trying to defend their homeland and people from aggressive Roman invaders.
To be fair, unlike pure slaughterers like Attila, Roman governance usually offered good protection and non-tyrannical taxes when compared to their norms.
Those were the days when Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Brits and Germans were victims of colonialism.
@@micha2909 more like imperialism.
@@micha2909 Yes, that is why Europe is so poor today. -Random left-winger, probably
It seems the opposite to me. Most of these weren't the defenders
You’re vids are great
Amazing video again
Only disagreement is Genseric, only because I think he was one of the hammers in breaking of the Western Empire,.
Genseric's was the hammer that broke the Western Empire, did more damage to Rome than any of the guys on this list whose damage where only short term, Pyrrus won two battled and fucked off, Shapur I got beaten by citizen militia ... with the battle of Cartagena half the empire was lost as indirect consequence ... a criple who became king to a warrior folk one of the most briliant rulers whoever lived whose legacy was undermined due to the colapse of his kingdom long after his death
@@carlosribeiro2413 Also, though they were not Punic. It is sort of a poetic justice that they helped collapse Rome from their capital in Carthage, even the Kingdom itself held many territories of the old Carthaginians.
I think Jugurtha deserves a place in the list too as he gave Rome quite the hard time in North Africa tbh I was surprised you didn’t even mention him
Ture, he defeated the Romans at Suthul, Muthul and Zama (109 B.C) and would have crushed more of their armies were it not for Marius and Sulla.
Spartacus
Shapur II, first ever "it's just a prank" recorded in the history books
Romans who posed the greatest danger to Rome, in no particular order:
Caeser (until he won)
Sulla
Marc Anthony (guy was a complete tool, seriously)
Catalina
Boat Pompey (after Caeser won)
Honourius (killed Stilicho, GG)
Brutus (bungled away the civil war)
Tarquinius (last king, led a foreign army to siege Rome)
Valentinian (Stilicho 2: Aetius boogaloo)
Varro* (led the Cannae army into the trap)
*There is a plausible theory that Varros fault is overblown. The story passed down was that it was all Varro's fault and he ignored his co-consuls advice to be more cautious.
The other consul Paullus was a Patrician, while Varro was a plebeian. Paulus' family would be far better placed to influence the narratives told in the aftermath.
Paullus died at the battle while Varro survived. Paullus is remembered as having a heroic last stand while Varro fled to save his own skin.
The combination of these could (this is theory only) mean that the story passed down in history is one where Varro is scapegoated for a collective error.
The consular platform that was run that year focused on rolling back Fabians strategy and reverting to confronting and defeating Hannibal, so it is quite Plausible that both Varro and Paullus would share a similar viewpoint on the battle and that Paullus had no issue with attacking Hannibals army directly.
boat pompey lol
catilina was right and y'all can't change my mind
@@riccardovalentini7294 WHAT
Marius
@@riccardovalentini7294 i agree
That line about Hannibal is ultra accurate. He is LITERALLY the first person I thought of by name. I love this video, like all your videos, but I counter this with a proposition. These are individual enemies of the Romans, but what about civilizations/regimes that were enemies of the Romans. IF you did that, and included the Byzantines, number 1 with a bullet is "All of the Catholic Italian city-states including the Papacy." If you didn't include the Byzantine period, I would probably give it to the Goths as a people, since they were persistent and managed to tear more chunks of Rome away than the Sassanids, the Vandals, the Bulgarians, etc did. Well, the Sassanids did briefly get all of the Middle East....but then lost it, the Goths lost nothing, they stayed until Justinian sent Belisarius and the other half of the Goths stayed in Spain till the Muslims came calling.
I like these ranking videos
Could you please do another video but with enemy factions? (to borrow a video gamey term)
Great video as always Spectrum.
one of my favourite channels
Great video! I missed Zenobia though
I was a bit disappointed at the lack of Dacians on this list/honorable mentions of this list, still a good video either way!
Romanian alert
For the Eastern Romans, I can think of these candidates:
-Orhan
-Mehmed II
-Khalid ibn al-Walid
-Khosrow II
-Khan Krum
-Simeon of Bulgaria
-Stefan Dusan of Serbia
-Pope Leo III (not military, but religiously/politically)
-All of the Fourth Crusaders
5 months later waiting for the pyrrhic war video... rip. great vids btw
Given the number of civil wars faced by Rome, it's surprising there is no roman in the list.
Agree with your list fully.
Very surprised Honorius didn't make an appearance
Interesting idea for the list. Are you going to do similar lists for other countries?
"And... to put it bluntly, annihilated pretty much everything in it's path on the way to Constantinople" - Loved that quote, perfectly represents the Huns
damn hannibal’s last words😮💨owned
1: themselves
Only a portuguese man would even know who Viriatus was.
"Rome's worst enemy : its own calendar !" - Bibulus, probably.
Nice to see haha funni poison man in here
If you ever do a video of the eastetn roman empires enemies I imagine Simeon 1st, Krum, Khosrow 2nd, Mehmed 2nd, Enrico Dandolo and Al-Walid to be in that list.
Atilla and the HUNS SHOULD be #2. With their Lightening FAST raids They were amongst the greatest evils known to Mankind in their time! But overall Great list AGAIN from a great historical mind. Keep em Comin'!!
And YES the Praetorian "Guard" should be atleast a DIShonorable Mention
your haphazard all caps usage makes me dismiss your message.
Imagine losing to the Romans
(this post was made by Geiseric gang)
9:53 "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!"-Emperor Augustus
In no real order:
Hannibal.
Pyrrhus.
Mithradates VI.
Gaiseric.
Vercingetorix.
Arminius.
Zenobia.
Shapur the Great.
Jugurtha.
Viriathus.
Rome
No Khosrow? Harsh.
Trivial mention too for Antiochus the Great who might have been one of the most formidable monarchs Rome ever faced...but who never really posed a direct threat to Rome.
I think this only counts threats against the unified empire, since khosrow was a threat to the byzantines they didn’t count it.
@@Heisenberg882 fair point. You'd have to have a few Bulgars and Ottomans too if it included the full Byzantine era.
@@cronoros Yeah and probably some arabs and seljuks
LMAO anitochus yea right
I do think Archimedes found a way to use sun energy to put ships on fire it just took a wbile for such to happen and it gets proped way to much as this x ray laser when it was likely an improved technique of starting a camp fire
i personally think the way it was used was to burn ship sails as it would be the easiest part to burn and from there the rest of the ship would follow
@@athomicritics exactly and you could easily do it when they are standing off for hours just patroling the port (99% of the time). and when they are busy frantically putting out the fires the syracusean fleet could've sortied out and caused further chaos. eventually the romans just learned the hard way.
If you want an awesome song centered on Mithradates VI, check out the Parchment by Iron Maiden.
heres two honorable mentions : ambiorix and boduognatos , both where chief of their belgae tribes (nervians and uberons) and where the reason caesar said that from all the gauls tribes he had faced the belgae were the bravest
All he did was ambushing one legion and some cohorts (7,000 men) and the other lost to Caesar.
A good one would be Boiorix or Gaiseric with the former defeating a 30,000 strong Roman army at Noreia killing anywhere between 15,000 and 20,000 Legionnaries and at Arausio killing up to 45,000 Romans in one day.
The latter also defeated the Romans badly at Cape Bon where 100,000 Romans perished against 60,000 Vandals and Moors/Berbers.
They're more deserving in my opinion.
Astérix chez les Belges moment
I feel like this video could needs a little more info on what criteria you used when making your list as opposed to just jumping into it. Fun topic though!
10:20, did Augustus already have plans for Britannia, or something? Because Claudius expanded here as well, to add to Trajan and Constantine.
I actually expected Ricimer to be on the list, maybe he should be on a special traitor list or something
Honestly, Honorious wouldve then been number 0 by default
Great list but I’m surprised to see no mention of the Cimbri
Rome might not have gotten punched in the face as often as they did if one of their main, overriding cultural traits wasn't suffocating, insufferable arrogance. The Romans are basically where the entirety of Europe got the idea of calling anybody who wasn't them "savages" from and the annoying habit of breaking the spirit of their agreements and then acting like the natives were the barbarians for fighting them on it. Not saying the Romans were unique in it, they even got the TERM barbarian from the Greeks after all but if there is one civilization where diplomatic arrogance and unreasonable superiority complexes were the largest societal norm in human history, it'd be ancient Rome.
What about Ancient China?
Without that trait rome would of never been great
There is teo kinds of people outside the empire, civilised romans, persians and Barbarians. Shows you that even their equally civilisied neighbours were looked down upon.
Most cultured Romans wouls come to doubt of even despise that attitude by the 2nd century AD.
Another opponent who should have been mentiones, Surenas the Iranian victor at Carrhae versus Crassus.
Could also mentioned Jurughta the Numidian a honorarable comment, also Decebalus the king of Dacians.
Ricimer, who merged from most of the dead Praetorian Guards
Never should have trusted a full blooded g*rm
Arminius was one
When you look at the Roman situation after Cannae, it's kind of insane that they actually won
I think the list lacks a curtain Khosrow Anooshirvan first of his name(if you consider the byzantine empire, Rome)
Phyrrhus is by far my favorite historical Charakter. And i dont like how you just placed him on the sidelines. The Romans called him one of the biggest and by far the most honorable and respectable deaththreat to the Republik. Hannibal was literally the biggest pyrrhus Fanboy there was. Sure he lost the war but the reason was not that Romans managed to defeat him but a series of almost comidical Desasters on the Battlefield.
Like that one time when his friend took his armor and got killed so his men paniced thinking phyrrhus was dead witch costed him 6.000 men dead
Not really he soundly lost the third battle and barely won the second then he tried to save Sicily but failed, defeated Macedon marched to take sparta but was absolutly smashed then he attacked corinth and was killed by a grandmother throwing a brick on his head. Like sure he was cool in that he defeated rome a couple of times (two) but Hanibal did far better even tho he was a fanboy of him and frankly if you want a real cool greek who defeated some romans look no further than mr. Mithridates. The guy build a black sea empire out of a small kingdom and defeated something that even great conquerors like alexander could not defeat. Poison. This is just a bad ass guy.
@@friedrichnietzsche7376 he mostly just had bad luck. In the second battle 200 Romans got lost trying to aid the main army and stumbled by accident across the Epirote warcamp. The Flames made the main army panik thinking they were surrounded, so they broke the Phalanx line and ran. However Pyrrhus managed to get his men to regroup again and charged the Romans down. Concidering how greek warfare was at the time it was absolutely amazing he managed that. Sicily was not lost because of his fault. He won every Single battle and siege against carthage but the sicilians betrayed him and ousted him from the Island before he could take the last punic City. And the his final loss against rome was basically his own allies not liking him anymore and betraying him. After that as you said he stomped macedon and went to Sparta were he lost. But the Story of is death you said missed a few parts. For one his son was killed bevore the last battle what broke him mentaly. And then during the battle in argos his son misunderstood his Orders and charged the rest of the army into the City which made him stuck. And then he was killed by a rooftile. But even rome and carthage loved him. Romans said he was propably the best and fairest of the great enemys of the Republic. They respected him so much they mostly dident allow any propaganda made about out of respect. And Hannibals geart Idol since childhood was Pyrrhus which does mean something. Oversimplifying him by saying ooh he lost all the time is a great disservice to him. However Mithridates is propably my 2 or 3 favorite ancient Person. I mean my man made an Empire by beating rome. Also pretty cool. But Pyrrhus is forever my favorite and in my oppinion very very underrated.
@@hohenstaufen2345 That's fair.
I think Spartacus should of made the list, the slave rebellion was a pretty big threat to Rome, and he could of march on Rome and sack it had he not had plans of escape.
Hannibal gigachad and a half :) Big budget LotR type trilogy, if well made, would be a dream to see. But, boy, am I pessimistic that it could actually be done right.
Also deserving an honorable mention is Mehmed II. He’s the one and only person who can *ever* claim to have definitively ended the Roman Empire. I get that he’s not quite as known as the 10 on this list, but an honorable mention is at least deserved.
only western rome
@@user-qg4vt9mz3j Eastern Rome actually, which was a direct continuation of the Roman Empire and it’s government.
Somewhat surprised that Khosrow didn't make the list
I think Zenobia at least deserved an honorablr mention
Granted, Zenobia's position fell like lightning as soon as Aurelian turned his attention to the Palmyrenes.
I get that Burebista isn't in the list, seeing that both he and Cesar got assassinated before their fateful battle could happen. (Btw. Ceasar saw him as an rival)
But what about Decebal/Decebalus? There are not many enemies the romans dedicated larger than life statues to. It also took multiple wars to lastly defeat him, and even then it took an assassination to end his life.
It would be awesome if you did the same thing but for Byzantium
what was the music playing during the Attila the Hun section?
Psystem - Tuvan Throat Singers Epic Nature Cinematic
Can you do a ranking of french monarch
Surprised that Ricimer isn't on this list.
where would you place Ricimer?
most new scholarship points to the battle at the Catalonian plain was inconclusive or a minor defeat
7:56 Song?
Arminius above Attila and Pyrrhus? Like I know he won Teutoburg but he got fucking slaughtered right after. No fucking way was he more of a threat than those two
The romans should have earned a spot on this list. Rome knew no greater enemy than themselves. The Roman empire on numerous occasions were fighting wars with foreign enemies while simultaneously fighting civil wars with themselves.
Rome teared itself apart
I wonder what the list would look like if you include the full period of byzantine/eastern Roman empire
I think Romans were their own greatest enemy. Self interested politicians, aristocracy and military commanders were by far responsible for Rome's worst set backs in Republican, Principate, Dominate, and Basilius periods are groups causing some of the greatest set backs. Of course some emperors can be counted in this group i.e Phocas, Andronicus I, Alexius III and Alexius IV to be an example.
Zenobia not even an honorable mention? Wasn't she pretty close to conquering the eastern portion of the empire?
zenobia wasn't at least nominally still under the empire? like, in the scensrio where she just won everything, wouldn't she just became roman empress?
I think Zenobia should get a honourable mention. Palmyra would have been a much bigger threat if it wasn't for Aurelian.
No other way around
Even if Aurelian wasnt here
She would have still got BTFO
6:18 Wait are we talking about Pyrhus of Epirus or Karl XII of Sweden?
Mithridades was a dangerously insane individual
The fact that hannibal's strategies, are still studied in military schools, show how much he scared the romans.
He had a lot of practice in Spain. The battles of Cannae and Trebia were brilliant.