bladerunner
Banned Idiot
Hey Guys Im pressed with this thread, youre exchanging opinions like post grad experts on the subject, did all this info just come from the net?
Alexander VS Qin dynasty
- Thread starter handifei880210
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Hey Guys Im pressed with this thread, youre exchanging opinions like post grad experts on the subject, did all this info just come from the net?
Well... Darius III was the last king of the empire... and when he fought Alex in the battle of the Battle of Issus, his force was larger than Alex's... but to say that they have 1 million is abit exaggerating... they do have a ratio of around 2:1 (according to Wikipedia, so questionable accuracy).
Darius III was more or less a puppet king of Persia and was installed in his throne by Bagoas as the legidimate heir to the throne are all assassinated... however the new king couldn't be controlled by Bagoas and was very independent and managed to killed Bagoas in the process.
The reason why Persia was ultimately defeated by Alex was the fact that when Darius took over... the empire was already on its last lap and was highly unstable. It would take more than a king to get everything straight again.
It was like the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he did try to have some reforms and to set the dynasty straight, but a combination of corruption, unstability and powerful outside influence had toppled that empire.
Thus this speak true of Darius too... it was not because he was incompetent but too much factors are against him. I believe if Alex was not there and he was given more time... he might recreate the corroding empire.
one area, the persian has the edge,was cavalry,particular the scythian and parthian horsemen,,but failed to deployed it properly.instead,the persian opt for infantry vs.infantry close in combat,the macedonian armies like the spartan armies are all professional soldiers,the persian simply do not stand a chance.and soundly routed.
by the time roman expansion into the near east, parthia choose all cavalry formation against the roman with massive victory in carrhae,later sasanian will adapt similiar tactics against the roman.
but this guy was still fighting on home turf and had a bigger army. if he had defeated alexander his empire would get at least 20 extra years just on the prestige he could have built from that. maybe that's what he had in mind and that's why he was willing to take on alexander in those big decisive battles.
solarz
Brigadier
Chongzhen was pretty incompetent too. He might have had decent intentions, but he was a poor ruler and a poorer judge of character. Had he not killed his own greatest generals, the Ming dynasty might have lasted a lot longer.
I never say he is a military genius. I say Xerxes is not an idiot. Do you seriously think an idiot could have led a massive force far away from home. How in the world are you going to keep this force together.
Sure, he was defeated in the end, but when two armies crashes, one had to lose. And so what if Xerxes didn't succeed in what he set up to do?
Oh... and get your facts right. Who say the Persian never stands a chance and was soundly routed? The battles are great and if I am not wrong, even King Leonides of the Sparta are killed in the battle. It took the united force of the Greece to finally defeat the Persian.
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True. Darius III did fight in home terrority and still loses the battle. He is not a good militarists or Alex is a better tactician than him. But if Darius had twenty years more to his empire and he was able to build it up again, perhaps history will not repeat itself... anyway, we would never know.
That is so true... Chongzhen had good intention to rebuild Ming dynasty, but it was all too late, actually Ming was not destroyed by the Qing but by his own people - Chuan Wang, who was practically just a rebel head.
My bad. Read through the brief history again. Xerxes was not defeated... He did however lost some of the battles - one of them being the Battle of Salamis (whereby he losts 200 ships) and had to retreat to Asia... leaving his general Mardonius to continue the conquest of Greece... but the general never complete the invasion and was finally killed in the battle of Plataea.
The Persian did however retreat after the Greek attacked and burned the remaining fleet at Mycale, which actually cut away supplies to the Persian's massive army and so without supplies the Persian army couldn't be sustained and had to retreat.
What I mean is... the Persian army was not at all weak (as a reply to Challenge's previous post) and I was saying that they are never easily defeated and routed. And true Xerxes didn't accomplish what he initially hoped to have completed but he is not incompetent or whatsoever.
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It might be of many factors. Persians might not be that good at naval warfare and the sea is a bottle neck separating asia from greece. that and Xerxes might have had a bit of a victory disease.
Regarding Qin unification of the six nations when warfare becomes enlarged in scale and when outcome is decided by not one battle (though it might be decisive) but prolonged campaign - Then it comes down to economics and logistics really. And Qin dynasty took an early step in reform which place it in front of others (reform by Shang Yang)
Regarding Qin unification of the six nations when warfare becomes enlarged in scale and when outcome is decided by not one battle (though it might be decisive) but prolonged campaign - Then it comes down to economics and logistics really. And Qin dynasty took an early step in reform which place it in front of others (reform by Shang Yang)
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