Ten great generals

[Lyceum]

I am trying to make a list of ten ancient generals from Antiquity who might be labelled truly great. The idea is to write ten biographies and cover all of ancient history. There are two "rules":

1. The general must be a worthy subject of a biography. Of course the Aetolian campaign of Philodemus of Elis was the most brilliant ever conducted in human history, but since we know so little about it, we cannot write a biography
   
2. A list must not have only Roman or Greek commanders. We need an overview.
   

I attempted to keep your list in my quote under the spoiler tag yet it refused to remain so I had to cut it. Damn.

Ok it's really not a bad list, I wonder if we know so little of Sargon of Akkad to justify cutting him, I suspect so and that he's little less shadowy than various Hittite figures. Such a shame, but then we're after history not myth I suppose. One could happily suggest that Ashoka (or one of the other Mauryan's?) be added since despite being important they're little known outside of academia.

I'm going over your list, the first three I wholeheartedly agree with and I'm excited to see Philip, bone weary of Hannibal and Caesar but then...I recently read through Caesar and I'm well disposed to him since he has a wonderful prose style. Silly reason, I know...I'd personally be really interested in M. Aurelius.

The more I think on it, the more I realise what a winner M. Aurelius is. The campaigns were important and we happen to have a good amount of material on him, if you're doing a sort of...thematic history for lack of a better term then he's very much metonymic for that stage of the Empire at large.

I'm sorry I can't be more constructive, its a tight list and I'm digging down to argue with it bar 7 and 8. I'd read it.