Leaderboard

Alexander engaged in every type of warfare, and was victorious in all of them. He defeated armies of Greek hoplites, Iranian cavalry and asiatic masses, barbarian tribes and Indian Rajahs; besieged and captured great Greek and Phoenician cities, as well as remote, inaccessible, rock-bound mountain strongholds; succeeded in guerilla warfare against hill and mountain tribes, and defeated steppe horse-warriors. No army, city or people in arms ever defeated him. Nobody, not Pyrrhus, Hannibal, Scipio, Cyrus, Caesar, or his father Phillip were as successful.

When he was in Spain, Caesar was visiting a town with friends and spotted a statue of Alexander. He started to weep. His friends asked what was causing his misery. "This man" Caesar said, "at my age had conquered the world. I have done nothing". Alexander did not merely conquer a large area, he set in place a greek-orientated culture across the regions he had dominated that lasted long after he was dead. These regions demonstrate extensive ruins and remains of the period to this day, some now in obscure or difficult areas. Caesar did not inspire the same pro-Roman culture - that was the result of later influence or prior work by merchants. Had Alexander reached the age of sixty it's unlikely he would have extended his reach much further because his army in India had already threatened to mutiny if he did not stop.