Besides the Roman army, which military was the best military force in the ancient world?

Question

Which army from the ancient world do you think would've given the Romans a run for their money? Aside from the Roman army, which ancient military force was the best in regards to weapons, tactics, strategy, and discipline?

This is in your own opinion, by the way.

Answer 1

based on what i saw in 300, the Athenians seemed to be quite the warriors.

Answer 2

Alexander and his Greeks kicked butt.

Answer 3

The Macedonian army (Al the Great), since he consistently overcame great odds, and conquered the most land in the shortest amount of time, compared to all others.

So, they were the most effective.  I would question their tactics, though, as every battle essentially followed the same path:  General Parmenion would draw a large portion of the enemy troops over to the left side, drawing the foe out of position, until Al could circle them from the right.  This means that though Al was the most successful, he wasn't that imaginative a commander.

Also, the Macedonian record overstates Al's success.  Al and company say (this point I just found on the wiki site), that they won against the army of India, but for various reasons decided to turn back, AFTER Al had given some land to the Indian commander, in respect to the Indian's great courage.

Now, how credible is that?  I actually think the Indians defeated Al, and he had to surrender land to them.

Despite the above, I'd still rate Al's Macedonian as highest after Rome's.

Answer 4

The Mongols.... The only thing able to stop them was the death of Gengis Khan. No opposing army really could.

Answer 5

The Greek army under Alexander the Great was pretty impressive. There have been some interesting shows on The History Channel, The Military Channel, etc.

It is interesting, though, that the "Barbarian" armies ultimately caused the downfall of Rome. Although considered savages by the Roman Empire, they were often quite well organized, well-equipped, and well-trained.

Answer 6

The Italians have a saying “non confrontare pere con mele” – don’t compare pears with apples, i.e. a comparison of “armies” from different time slots is  misleading, because each “time slot” is conditioned by the basic elements of that era. In military terms even the smallest inventions give an army an incomparable advantage over the others. The same applies to social, organizational, cultural  and economic conditions of the single civilizations. So what does that lead us to:

Pros: the Roman army had the best infantry of it’s time (legionnaires); it had surpassed  the Greek-Macedonian infantry (phalanx) and by far the Carthaginian (elephant supported spearmen). Each infantryman was an experienced “builder and sapper”,  a highly resistant marcher and self supporter, important factors. The strength  of the Roman army was it’s capacity to integrate “foreign” troops into its midst and create a  single military culture.

Cons: Rome’s lack of a cavalry culture, which forced her to incorporate other people’s troops (Gauls, Germans, Mauritanians). Most of the Roman defeats were, in fact, against  the Persians, who had a first rate cavalry (cataracts) and better archers.

Rome’s downfall was it’s ever increasing reliance on allied troops, who learned all the Roman strategies and used them against Rome itself.  It's downfall, however, was not of a military nature, but  a result of  too many riches, to little ethical and moral control, which had been the heart of Republican Rome and a series of financial crises (gold /silver debasement and slave ecoonomy).

The barbarians? Had they met the Legions of  Julius Caesar and Octavian they would not have stood much of a chance, notwithstanding the fluke victory of the Romanised Arminius (Hermann) over Varus’ troops (bad generalship, unlucky terrain) and the overall pressure on the romanised states in the 4th Century. The Roman core was rotten and it just had to fall. Pity it did not evolve, we’d have been spared the dark centuries and much of today’s “racial”  abuses.

Answer 7

During that time, The Germanic Tribe, though not extremely advanced, eventually they killed of the roman empire.

Prior to the Roman Empire, you have Greece, with Athens and Sparta.

You can also say the Persian Army was quite formidable.

Answer 8

The Mongols were force to be reckoned with too. They ended up with most of western Romes territory anyway.

The Athenian army was good up to a point, but they fell rather quickly to the Spartans.

Answer 9

The Carthaginians under Hannibal gave them a pretty good wiping, as did the Visigoths on more than one occasion.