10 Epic Enemies of Ancient Rome

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hello I'm Simon Whistler you're watching top tens Annette and in the video today the top 10 epic enemies of ancient Rome the Roman Empire was the greatest empire the ancient world had ever seen at its height it covered 2.2 million square miles and claimed dominion over more than 60 million people there was an empire forged through blood conquest and almost constant warfare the Romans admired and celebrated their own great military commanders but they grudgingly respected those who dared to stand against them in the video today we're looking at 10 of the most resourceful and formidable enemies of Rome number 10 King Paris in 282 BC Rome was still little more than an ambitious city-state as Rome sought to expand its borders it soon clashed with other powers in the Mediterranean region most notably the Greeks who still possess several cities in Sicily and the Italian mainland with these cities threatened by the growing power of Rome a Greek general by the name of King Paris led an army of infantry cavalry and war elephants into Italy his intention was to put the upstart Romans back in their place and quite possibly to carve out a corner of the Empire for himself the Roman legions were not yet the deadly weapon of war that they would become and they had no experience whatsoever fighting against war elephants Paris twice defeated the Romans in major battles that they stubbornly refused to surrender these victories came at considerable cost as Paris contemplated the battered state of his army he reportedly lamented that one more such victory would be his ruin this is actually the origin of the phrase Pyrrhic victory having been one of the first to witness the relentless nature of the Roman war machine Paris led what remained of his army across the Mediterranean and into North Africa where he hoped to find easier pickings the Romans there defeated their first major rival but many more would follow number 9 Archimedes with King Paris having retreated from Italy the Romans plunged into a trilogy of wars with Carthage in major trading and naval power located barely 50 miles from Rome in North Africa in 215 BC during the second of these Wars a new ruler came into power in the city of Syracuse the city had once been an independent ally of Rome but now it seems it might ally itself with Carthage Syracuse which is located on the east coast of the island of Sicily was one of the largest and most influential cities in the known world it was simply too important to lose so in 240 BC Rome sent an army in to occupy the city unfortunately for the Romans Syracuse was far from defenseless it was protected by thick walls loyal soldiers and the ingenuity of its most famous inhabitant man he was Archimedes the greatest genius of his age he's still remembered today as a brilliant mathematician scientist engineer and the man who shouted Eureka from his bathtub it's less well known that he designed extraordinary weapons of war to defend his city from Roman siege in addition to more orthodox weapons such as catapults Archimedes reportedly designed a claw capable of dragging a Roman ship out of the water and capsizing it as well as a steam cannon and even a heat ray which allegedly used mirrors to deflect magnify and weaponize the heat of the Sun with Archimedes as help the Romans were held at bay for two years but they eventually succeeded in breaking into the city by stealth the Roman commander had ordered that the soldiers bring Archimedes to him alive on this occasion Roman discipline did not prevail and one of history's greatest geniuses was run through with the sword while he was contemplating a mathematical problem number eight Mithra Dottie's Mithra Dottie's is sometimes referred to as the poison king and he certainly earned his nickname not only did he poison his mother and his brother during his rise to power he regularly dosed himself with small quantities of various kinds of poison his intention was to build up his tolerance and render himself immune to their effects his fear of assassination was well-founded there were plenty of people including the Romans who had good reason to design the three deities as death the poison King inherited a small Kingdom on the shores of the Black Sea but he was an ambitious and violent man through both politics and warfare he sought to expand his domain and conquer his neighbors while the Romans initially showed little interest in his activities his aggressive approach to foreign policy eventually brought him into direct conflict with Rome with the Romans already distracted by a war with various independent cities in Italy Mythili one several victories and vastly expanded his empire he even succeeded in capturing one of the most important men in all of Rome a consul and a general named manious acquiesce he later executed this man by having molten gold poured down his throat by now Mithra deities had earned Rome's full attention and Pompey the great then regarded as Rome's most brilliant military commander was sent to bring him to heel having finally been defeated in battle Mithra deities his wife and children or consumed poison rather than fall into Roman hands when this method proved ineffective thanks to the tolerance he had carefully cultivated the poison King had his bodyguard run him through with a sort number seven Vercingetorix for most of their history the tribes of Gaul in what is now modern-day France had fought against each other in 52 BC a Roman invasion and the presence of an inspirational leader named vercingetorix convinced them to stand together to face a common foe the Roman legions were the racking machine of the ancient world vercingetorix was smart enough to avoid a decisive confrontation for as long as he could the newly crowned king of the Gauls instead torched crops poisoned Wells and launched a series of hit-and-run attacks aimed at exhausting Roman strength and starving his enemy of supplies through this strategy Vercingetorix inflicted heavy losses on the Romans that he had the misfortune of facing one of the greatest military minds in history in the form of Julius Caesar finally cornered at Alesia Vercingetorix and his 80,000 strong army waited behind their fortifications for reinforcements to arrive with a ruthless will to win and with supplies running low he drove the civilians out of the fortress Caesar refused to allow them to pass through his lines and they were left to slowly starve to death in the no-man's land between the two alleys a huge force of more than 200,000 Gauls marched to Alicia's aid all these too late to save the unfortunate civilians in a battle between the sheer numbers of the Gauls since the discipline of Caesar's legions Roman discipline narrowly triumphed vercingetorix was bundled off to Rome in Chains and Gaul became just another Roman province number six Queen Boudicca having conquered Gaul Caesar set his sights on Britain a wild island on the very edge of the known world some of the Celtic tribes fought against the invading Romans others attempted to come to mutually beneficial terms King prestigious of the Iceni tribe was one of the latter this arrangements worked well enough until prestigious his death in 60 ad at which point the infamous Emperor Nero ordered that the ionised lands be brought under direct Roman control prasida Gus's wife Queen Boudicca who was flogged and their two daughters were raped the Romans had badly underestimated Boudicca whom led a coalition of tribes in open rebellion the warrior queen proved to be a terrifying merciless fo her forces set Colchester sent albums and Londinium ablaze captured civilians and soldiers alike were slaughtered without mercy the final showdown between Boudicca and the Romans was fought in 8180 budagher chose to fight in the front ranks telling her warriors that she would never submit to slavery she would either defeat the Romans or die in the attempt it was once again a struggle between a relatively small number of well-trained highly disciplined Romans and a much larger force of furious barbarians Roman discipline triumphed again and boudicca's army was annihilated the defeated warrior queen committed suicide rather than be captured and endure whatever punishments had been plans for her number 5 kingship or the first Romans tended to view barbarians which essentially meant anyone who was in Raymond as brutes and savages shepper and the fledgling sasanian empire didn't fit comfortably into the stereotype they were a sophisticated people whose culture was in many ways as advanced and far more enlightened than Rome they were also formidable warriors and kingship or who called himself the King of Kings and believed himself to have descended from the gods would prove himself a match for the Romans on the battlefield the sustain Ian's scored several victories over the Romans but by far the most spectacular came in 260 ad when schipper succeeded in capturing Emperor valerian himself this was new territory no Roman Emperor had ever been taken captive by a foreign power valerian would be forced to live out the rest of his life in captivity according to some sources he was treated like an honored guest but other accounts having being used as kingship errs personal human footstool before being flayed alive stuffed with straw and placed on display in a Persian temple number 4 Spartacus the Spartacus rebellion was the source of considerable embarrassment for the Romans it was humiliating that their troops could be repeatedly bested by an army of slaves as a result the Romans were not inclined to record the history of the uprising in any great detail what little we do know about Spartacus comes from just a handful of accounts most of them written decades after the events that they described however there is enough to suggest that he may have been an inspirational leader and a gifted military tactician in 73 BC along with a fewer than a hundred fellow slaves he led a breakout from a gladiator school in Kabul these hardened fighters would form the nucleus of a rebel army that would swelled more than 70,000 strong over the course of little more than a year the Romans had initially underestimated Spartacus who crushed the first two forces sent against him with a huge slave army rampaging at will throughout Italy the Roman Senate finally realized the true nature of the threat that they were facing Pompey the Great was recalled from Hispania and Marcellus Linnaeus Crassus the richest man in all of Rome was given commands of eight entire legions with which to crush the rebellion faced with such an enormous force Spartacus's only hope now was to flee that he was betrayed by the Pirates hid bribes to transport his army across the Mediterranean he was eventually defeated in battle that his body was never found number three Attila the Hun in the fourth century AD a new threat appeared from the east nomadic barbarian tribesmen known as the Huns began to push into Europe from across the river Volga they were brilliant horsemen who fought their battles and lived most of their lives in the saddle with each Rider armed with the most powerful bow the world had ever seen and able to loose off as many as 15 arrows a minute the Huns were a terrifying enemy at the best of times when a warlord named Attila United the tribes under his leadership they became a threat to the survival of the Roman Empire itself Attila the Hun was a brutal killer who'd murdered even his own brother in his pursuit of power but he was also an intelligent man and a brilliant military leader as a fellow one victory after victory on the battlefield the Romans retreated behind the walls of their towns and cities to their horror they discovered that Attila despite commanding a faster-moving cavalry force had a firm grasp on the sophisticated principles of siege warfare Attila had risked death in countless battles but he wasn't destined to die with a sword in his hands in 453 having consumed a vast amount of alcohol to celebrate his wedding to a young bride he suffered a nosebleed as he slept and choked to death on its own blood it was an ignominious end for the man the Romans had come to call the scourge of God number two King Alaric Germany it was occupied by fierce barbarian tribes that the Romans had never succeeded in conquering but even these could not resist the advance of the Huns those tribes that chose to fight they invariably lost others looked to make agreements with the Huns and still others fled into the Roman Empire a tribe known as the Visigoths were among those that fled one of their number would eventually be the first man to lead a hostile army into Rome in more than 800 years born in 370 AD King Alaric of the Visigoths didn't have any particular grudge against Rome in fact all he really wanted was for his people to be granted their own land and become a part of the Empire Alaric would have been a valuable ally but the Emperor refused the request as a result Alaric led his army into Italy on his first attempt he was repelled by the Romans his second effort though it was more successful and by 409 AD his army was camped outside of Rome itself Alaric again demanded land for his people the Emperor who wasn't in the besieged city at the time again refused the request finally running out of patience Alaric and the Visigoths sacked the city and made off with a huge haul of gold and jewels many historians mark this event as the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire in the West number 1 Hannibal Barca in 241 BC the Carthaginian Empire was defeated at the hands of Rome in the First Punic War Hamilcar Barca had commanded Carthage's armies with immense skill against superior numbers on land only to find himself on the losing side when the proud Carthaginian Navy suffered a surprise defeat at sea if Hamilcar couldn't avenge this defeat himself then he would do so through his three sons in whom he distilled a deep hatred of Rome one of these Hannibal Barca would prove himself to be one of history's most brilliant military commanders and would come close to toppling the Roman Empire Hannibal's most famous features leading his war elephants across the Alps this unlikely maneuver caught the Romans surprised they haven't imagined such a thing to be possible however most of the beasts died in the process and the rest of them were sickened and died shortly after the journey Hannibal arrived in Italy at the head of an exhausted depleted army but he nonetheless succeeded in defeating every force that the Romans threw at him but the Battle of cannae he'd masterminded a brilliant victory which saw his army surround and defeat a much larger Roman force 78,000 Romans were hacked to death or captured in a single day it took 15 years for the Romans to finally gain the upper hands over their nemesis when a large army led by skippy Oh Africa nurse who had escaped the slaughter at can I landed in North Africa Hannibal had to finally abandon Italy and raised a Carthage's rescue Scipio had been studying Hannibal's tactics and it was the Roman who came out on top in the battle between these two military geniuses Carthage was forced to make peace on humiliating terms and Hannibal became a wanted man on the run from the Romans he eventually committed suicide rather than risk being captured alive so I really hope you enjoyed their video and don't forget to subscribe to this channel for brand new videos every day of the week also I've got another channel it's called bio graphics its biographies of notable people from the present day as well as history from Elon Musk to Osama bin Laden you can check it out through the icon on the screen now but if you want something else to watch right now why not check out another top tens video or a biographic sideo over there on the right and as always thank you for watching

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Channel: TopTenz

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Rating: 4.8872719 out of 5

Keywords: top 10, toptenz, top10, top ten, top 10 list, Epic Enemies of Ancient Rome, King Pyrrhus, Archimedes, Mithridates, Vercingetorix, Queen Boudica, King Shapur I, Spartacus, Attila the Hun, King Alaric, Hannibal Barca

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Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 01 2018

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