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What do statistics etc mean.

Ive just finished watching a documenatry on Waterloo with great deatail of the battle.

but the reall pisser for me was a guy at the end. He said which is probably correct. Napoleeon had more victories than, Alexander The Great, Caesar and Hannibal put together and is basically only remembered for his loss at Waterloo.

Id say Waterloo is remembered mostly because it finished The Corsican bearing in mind the Alies had quite a bit of good fortune.

Ive read some Napoleon and to be honest fing him overated and nowhere in the same class as Alexander Hannibal or Ceasar.

Maybe he had more victories but he had many defeats. Been bogged down in Egypt for months was a deafeat. His march to Russia was a defeat and he was Scipiod all over the Spanish Perninsula. He was a great commander in some ways but he was far more costly than Alexander and the others.

I would love for these comparisons to Alexander to stop. Alexander one and near catastrophe was Makran. And actual defeats none.

kenny

Makran was one of his greatest victories. I think one book out of it would be really cool.

The scale of Napoleon's operations were infinitely greater than Alexander's, who operated with an army the size of a napoleonic corps, Napoleon also left concrete social and administrative improvements and his opponents were stronger by comparison too. Alexander had the good fortune to die before he lost his touch, as Napoeon definitely did, though his later reliance on mass may be a reaction to the poorer quality of the men at his disposal.

Bonaparte faced greater problems in all spheres and largly overcame them, that makes him a greater man empirically but any comparisons are otiose when the milieux are so different, one may as well compare Stilton to Rolls-Royce.

Alexanthros

Makran or Gerdrosian crossing was no victory. Id say it was one of the most narrow escapes or fates of luck any military commander ever had. i think Alexander had good intentions and ideas for crossing the dessert to astablish a more direct rout from East to West. But we know it was nearly catastrophic.

I wouldnt accept Napoleons exploits as victorious nor clever. How many of His Grand Army Did he freeze to death in Russia. He was banged up in Egypt for months till he sneaked out. And Wellington wiped the floor with him in spain. Ok Napoleon wasnt actually in Spain himself. But had he been Alexander would probably have made more sure his gains than just to be out manouvered and beaten.

Ok Alexanders army Was as you say fraction of napoleons of Scores of thousands. But Alexander used his numbers and didnt waste them like The Jumped up Corsican.

Kenny

By the same token how many did Alexander let die of thirst in Gedrosia? Alexander was tied down in Bactria/Arachosia for two years in a situation much like the Peninsula, Alexander secured his gains so well that he returned from India to find the Eastern satrapies either in revolt or close to. The conquest of India did not even survive his leaving.

Again, Alexander had naval superiority Napoleon never did, he faced a coalition of many nations on widely separated fronts, for Alexander the front was only where he was. And Napoleon actually managed a peace, on several occaisions.