Who would you consider to be the quintessential "Great Man" of human history? For me, it would have to be Julius Caesar.
Caesar managed to be one of the most brilliant politicians of his era, a phenomenal writer and orator, and perhaps the greatest general of the Ancient World (if not of all time).
Usually when I hear of great men, they are usually super adept at one main task: warfare. Alexander the Great was an absolutely phenomenal tactician and highly charismatic, but not much else.
>>14942
Saul of Tarsus
>>15382
Saul of the mole men.
>>14942
Aisha, Mother of the Believers.
>>15569
But why?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
You can't even post all the things he is known for, you get that the comment is too long.
>>14942
>the greatest general of the Ancient World (if not of all time).
He was a lucky hack, there are far more accomplished general, literally the only noteworthy battle he was in was the siege of alecium (and it was still against half starved naked celts with experience legions from the hegiht of the roman era).
The problem with saying the greatest man is taking into account the times, and that even then, there are a fuckload that you'll not know about.
How about sargon? He pretty much invented the conept of imperialism.
Alexander the great steamrolled one of the greatest empires known to man with a bunch of smelly, dirty pedophiles.
Genghis khan did the same but this time the retards fucked horses instead of kids.
Anyway, no, caesar was not even the greatest roman alive at that time, augustus has way more merits as a politician, agrippa too since he was far better a general and architect than caesar ever was.
>>15807
Pretty hard to beat this. Essentially every other Imperial power at the time allied together FOUR fucking times to take him down. Exiled him to an island with a glorified honor guard.
Motherfucker escapes and gets an army by literally tearing open his shirt and proceeds to wreck Europe again, forcing the the empires to ally yet AGAIN to take him out.
>>15973
He was outnumbered but still managed to pull off a brilliant victory. Perhaps not the greatest general of the Ancient period, but definitely of the Romans.
He had a goal of stopping the corruption of the Republic and the constant civil wars and did it. With it, he also made many reforms including the Julian calendar. The only other Roman who comes as far as Caesar in that aspect was Marius and Sulla.
>>16175
I agree. He is definitely the most influential Roman by far.
>>15973
>caesar was a lucky hack
I know its annoying to constantly hear someones praises but that doesn't mean you should jump to the other extreme and say he was just lucky
>>16175
>He had a goal of stopping the corruption of the Republic and the constant civil wars and did it
No, he made it worse, the only reason he took power was because the roman senate was going to murder his ass unless he did it. The only roman that ever cared about ending the civil wars and corrution was sulla, the rest were selfish.
>but definitely of the Romans
Wrong there too, romans always fought outnumbered due to the nature of their wars of conquest, ahem, i mean "active defense". What about scypio? He fucked up an actual military genious that was hannibal, who also had 80 war elephants.
>>14942
Genghis Khan. What he did fundamentally changed the outcome of history.
>>16175
>actually mentions Marius and Sulla
Damn Anon, I like you. I like you a lot.
>>14942
There's a reason his name became a byword for king for people who didn't even live in Europe at the time.
>>15382
>>15428
>>15569
>>15740
>>15807
>>15973
Pic related
>>16391
But it's true, he barely did anything, most of the reforms were done by augustus and his BFF agrippa.
>>16399
Regardless the republic had to go as it was damaging Rome itself despite the effort of others like Sulla trying to maintain it. Caesar had to do what he did, and made Rome better as a result.
True the Romans did fought outnumbered, but did you forget how Hannibal was at a disadvantage?
>>16454
>barely did anything
>besides conquering gaul
>defeating pompei magnus
>subduing Egypt
why does /tv/ suck?
>everyone claims reddit or essjw for posts they dont like
why will /his/ suck?
>everyone claims /pol/ for posts they dont like
>>14942
Augustus was the greatest Roman who ever lived
>>16530
Nobody mentioned /pol/ in this thread. Stop shitposting.
>>16578
I know I'm sorry I posted that in the wrong thread
>>14942
First define 'Great'.
You mean by influence? If so Attila.
He is essentially responsible for the collapse of the Western empire and driving the Germanic Migrations. So he is directly responsible for the Germanic ancestry of most of Britain and all of western Europe. This would in turn lead to the status quo that would remain for over a thousand years (ie Franks in France, Angles, Saxons and Jutes in England, Visigoths in Spain etc)
His failed attack on the Sassanids and subsequent war on the Eastern Empire, allowed the Sassanids to rebuild their weak military and weakened the Roman legions. This basically put them on equal footing so that (even long after he died) the Romans and Sassanids would fight themselves into a stalemate, leaving both weakened. THAT would then allow a bunch of Arabs to conquer them later.
Mohandas Gandhi
This is considering his people's background and their absolute savagery inter-religiously. A miracle he lived as long as he did and freed a nation with words and ideas.
>>16939
So muslims should have Attila to thank for making their religion as big as it is today?
>>16939
You could argue then that the last roman king was even greater because without him causing the republic, there would probably have been no rome, and go knows what would have happened then.
I think a nice definition of great is "actively affecting the course of history"
Maybe alexander?
>>15807
This
Ghengis Khan
Aristotle
>>14942
Reminder that "Great Man" theory is 99% of the time based around who had the best historians and cultivated a cult of personality the most efficiently.
No single man has ever had the power or influence that you'd like to think they had.
>>15973
Don't overlook Cladius either. The man did a great deal to try and unfuck Rome.
>>17110
For a logical man he skipped out on verification of many things like the amount of teeth in women.
>>17110
Da vinci was better.
>>17068
But Alexander didn't really affect anything long term. Even if you count the Diadochi, they lasted a few centuries max.
>>16430
Through his horse cock.
>>14942
Obama
>>17172
In what way? Being a rudimentary mathematician or that he was a good artist?
>>17202
Western civilization is a direct product of him smashing the persian empire to pieces, then leaving a trail of greeks eveywhere and them spreading the culture everywhere too.
He also fits OPs deeply hollywoodian style of great by doing this in an active manner.
>>16175
>Greatest Roman commander
Woa friend. He was a good strategist, but left a lot to be desired in tactics.
There are far better Roman generals
Gaius Marius, Sulla, Scipio, or even arguably Pompey and these are just Roman emperors who predated Caesar.
After Caesar is still Constantine, Aurelian, and the last great emperor Majorian and this is just sticking to Emperors
>>16143
The greatest man in history in my opinion. Few men throughout history rise from humble origins to rule over an entire continent.
His battlefield genius is rivaled by no one in my opinion.
>>17172
When will this meme end?
>>16577
Naming the greatest Roman to ever live is too difficult. The Roman Republic and Empire spans too long of a period 700bc-1543AD.
Though he is arguably one of the most influential the only one to rival him is Constantine.
>>17276
>Western civilization is a direct product of him smashing the persian empire to pieces
Not remotely since the Parthians bounced right back within a couple of centuries. In the West he had no influence since Rome was still there.
>>17383
Aurelian was pretty based as well
Pretty much just slapped the shit out of anyone who stepped up
>>17317
Source of that image?
>>14942
Newton
Pretty much the most important scientist ever.
>>15382
>Saul
>not Paul
Any particular reason you chose Paul out of all the Early Christian Fathers?
>>17918
The Development of Mathematics by ET Bell
>>17941
>not James "JC" "Jesus Christ" "Jimmy James" "Jimbo" "Big Dog Bubba" Clerk Maxwell
K.
>>18029
Paul was the biggest turbo-cunt of them all. Seriously, fuck Paul. Possibly more of an impressive figure than Jesus but still want a cunt.
>>14942
Teddy Roosevelt for being "the perfect man" in terms of personality.
>>18029
This is a joke right?
>>18050
Interesting, I found another source that says similar things
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141129192113-3898576-why-da-vinci-was-not-an-engineer-scientist-or-mathematician
Hands down Ghengis Khan.
>>18112
>the perfect man
is this a concept?
>>18136
Augustine, Basil, Gregory the Great, Leo the Great, Jerome, Thomas and maybe Ambrose in my opinion performed great work for Christianity on par with the works of Paul.
>>14942
Scipio Africanus best Roman Consul
>>18244
Yeah too bad his legacy is shit because his empire couldnt survive past him.
Constantine
>>14942
Jesus Christ
Napoleon
Caesar
Alexander the Great
Ghengis Khan
Seljuk
Muhammad
Cyrus
Qin Shi Huang
Charlemagne
There always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals.
individuals who through their actions and choices create great tidal waves throughout the future.
Should we really be defining "greatness" as just having a huge effect on history?
In addition to the fact that relatively small things can have massively unprecedented consequence (Jesus and Muhammed), sometimes it just takes an excess to shift history. I'm sure we can all think of at least one ruler who was so incredibly incompetent they altered the path of mankind.
>>20430
impact more like it, individuals who's choices and actions have has a tidal wave of influence
