Call and Answer Part I

[the_epic]

Ok, can you explain why you have such an obsession with girls in glasses; do you know why you do? ANd you can unscreen this if you like.I'm not sure I'd call it an obsession!!! *gasp!* Er, ok...so maybe it is...but I suspect that it's not nearly as bad an obsession as some of the super-perverts around here, eh? Amirite?! Anway, I guess that the

Comments

[seraphimsigrist]

Thomas J Jackson(Stonewall) was pretty good too
although he was not overall commander even within
the eastern theatre of operations.
with Belisarius I would raise the question of the
quality of his opposition?

[cordilleran2]

Well, one of his major foes was Shapur II, one of the greatest of the Sassanid Monarchs, outside Khrusao II (the one responsible for Heraclius' claim to fame), and Sassanid Persia was at it's first great hight of power. Very disciplined armies, and extensive cavalry.

Not sure about the armorment of the Vandals in Carthage, however. I do know that they had trounced a previous Byzantine expidition there during the time of Leo I, if I recall correctly; so they were a force to be reckoned with.

The Ostrogoths in Italy had one of the most diciplined armies in europe, outside of the Byzantine empire, so it was not an easy task--and it too 20 years of warfare as it was.

I do agree with your sentiment about Stonewall Jackson, and I think i would add Robert E. Lee to your list. I think to this day he's still the only person who graduated from West Point with a 4.0. I seem to remember hearing that somewhere...

[seraphimsigrist]

I suppose we would also have to weigh the
claims of Napoleon, of perhaps even Douglas Macarthur
of Hannibal...a problem is in comparing people of
various eras,of opposition etc it is a little like
the problem of comparing baseball players of one
era with those of another.

[the_epic]

I agree.

[the_epic]

This is true, and a valid point, but I do think that his Persian enemies as well as his foes in Italy were at least of enough quality to give his inferior numbers a run for their money.