The Ten Greatest Enemies of Rome

throughout their long history the romans never had a shortage of enemies in this list there are 10 names but i could have just as easily put another 10 historical figures on this list like archimedes who was not on this list why you ask because he was just a guy doing his job utilizing his mathematical brilliance to defend his city state there's no great foe in that even if his inventions were something quite brilliant and no for the record i don't buy archimedes having invented a death ray that sounds absurd what about spartacus nope a slave rebellion as big as it was doesn't quite compare to this lot alaric his act rome after all also nope his sack was incredibly tame and derived almost exclusively for political reasons genserik zack for comparison was worse and guess what he isn't in the top 10 either neither is burika they all remain as honorable mentions though once again no busies number 10 viriatas this is a name often unnoticed in the history of rome variathos was a lucidanian leader who would ultimately lead a significant coalition against the romans this conflict is known as the lusitanian war or the war of fire a bit of a sartorius before sartorius firiatus often engaged in hit and run and ambush tactics repeatedly defeating the romans on the battlefield and forcing them to temporarily sign a peace treaty which also recognized viryatos as an ally of the roman people this deal however was deemed unacceptable by the romans so one of the roman commanders quinta cervelia scipio bribed three men close to the lusitanian leader to assassinate him which they did leaving the lusitanian resistance without a leader in a small moment of karma when the three men returned to collect their payment for doing the deed they weren't given anything as kaipio told them rome does not pay traders with the death of viriato's dulcetanian resistance had lost a leader they could count on though they kept resisting under a new leader doubtless they were quickly defeated by the romans variations remained as the most successful leader to have ever opposed roman encroachment in iberia number nine versing garrix from one regional resistance leader to another versing eric's is definitely more famous than variatis even if that is only because versing eric's roman foe was one gaius julius caesar picked out by the various colic chieftains to lead gold's resistance against caesar it is through caesar's victory versus eriks is known for while he couldn't exactly defeat caesar it did make his life difficult employing a scorched earth strategy to deny caesar and his legions of supplies which may have worked had versus eric's been more cruel and allowed a varicum to be raised since he chose not to the roman legions eventually captured the settlement winning themselves some vital food and well slaughtering some forty thousand people versus would then defeat caesar in the battle of jogovia but everything culminated in the battle of elysia one of the most insane battles in history which caesar won and with that victory versing garrix himself was captured and the gaelic rebellion was practically crushed number 8 mithridates vi if there's one ruler who proved to be a constant headache to the romans it's mithridates the king of pontus was truly the last greek effort against roman dominance it took the romans not one not two but three wars to defeat him for good and even then that still wasn't enough to kill him it had to be a rebellion from one of his sons to finally drive him to commit suicide now one has to consider the fact for as long as mithridates lived rome was not exactly politically stable given all the civil wars and purges going on this was actually the biggest reason why mithridates became such a thorn on the roman side at the height of his power mithridates had control over all of anatolia and pretty much the entirety of the black sea throughout his struggle against rome among his enemies include salah lakulas marina and pompey the great quite a star-studded cast number 7 shapur ii shapur the great as that is also what is known as was a sassanid emperor originally he wasn't even hostile to the romans but when constantine the great would change all that as he declared his empire would be the defender of all christians including those in persia it also didn't help constantine had written in his will one of his nephews hanibalianis was to be declared king of kings and defender of all christians in the east an obvious provocation to shaport ii from that point onwards shapur ii would spend much of his reign fighting wars against the romans on and off he kept those hostilities against constantius ii and then against julian where he managed an impressive victory which granted the um doing of the humiliating peace of missibis and the return of the land's lost nat treaty so ultimately he actually succeeded he never stopped being hostile to some degree to the romans either what's curious about chopra ii is his overall demeanor which depended on the proximity of a nearby imperial army in other words an army led by a roman emperor if it was far away shapur ii acted pretty much as if he ruled the place then when met by a proper roman response his stance would shift to now hold on let's talk about this the man was just a headache to deal with primarily for this reason neither consensus ii julian or valence the three roman emperors who dealt the most with him ever fully trusted him mostly for this reason as soon as they settled for something and turned away to deal with another problem there he was stirring up trouble again number six pyrus of eparus i won't be talking much about pirates of emperors for the time i'm writing this video i am also writing another one which talks about pyrus at a far greater length what you need to know about him is as follows great general terrible diplomat chip on his shoulder unbelievably ambitious one of the greatest generals of his age antagonist to one night actually looked at pyrus and said he'd be the greatest general of his time if he lived long enough which paris did under the pretense of saving a small greek city-state from the romans darington pirus hopped on a few ships alongside his armies and sailed to italy there he'd meet the romans in battle the romans had undergone through a significant military transformation where they abandoned the greek phalanx in favor of a new system called the manipal which really basically was a phalanx but quite a bit more flexible and the romans had that piras had elephants elephants stomped on menopause maniple dead so the romans were stomped the first time they faced pirates on the battlefield the battle of heracleia was unquestionably a victory for pirates second time was the battle of asculum this time the romans had some wagons made to stop the elephants charging and almost succeeded in doing so except this is war and almost doesn't count so they lost but they had managed to inflict quite a significant number of casualties this time around pirates even said another victory like this and he was done for the battle of asculum was a pyrrhic victory get it brick victory paris you see yeah i'll just stop still pirus was great at helping the romans figure out how to deal with elephants next battle on the cards was beneventum and the romans 1 even capturing a few of the elephants though that wasn't the sole reason why they won number five attila the hun now this is the point where we're beginning to reach the heavies those historical figures who carry quite a bit of weight into their name they either drove the romans to fear or deceiving hatred i believe it's fitting we start with the scourge of god attila the hun the ruler of the huns throughout the 5th century attila demonstrated just how fearsome the huns were when he and his army chose to cross the danube and to put it bluntly annihilated pretty much everything in its path on the way to constantinople the only reason why he didn't take constantinople was because the city was pretty much impregnable then he turned on the west where he and the roman general flavius ishas gathered massive coalitions of barbarians before facing each other in the battle of the catalonian plains where attila lost he didn't exactly take it very well next up he invaded italy and ravaged the south only to be stopped by the pope who probably bribed him to go somewhere else he was preparing for another campaign in the east and then he died probably due to internal bleeding a little anti-climactic number four arminius from the germanic perspective arminius is a hero from the roman one a traitor a byproduct of the conquest of germania armenius was born a cherokee prince in being a part of the faction of the tribe which was friendly to rome he spent much of his time in the roman military which would acquire him a roman citizenship and the rank of equities he would serve rome in the great illyrian revolt with distinction and soon after he was sent to germania to aid the governor publius quintillos varus in completing the conquest of the region for good in reality however armenius took this opportunity to scheme against the romans knowing that on equal terms the germanic warriors were no match for the romans he ensured when the two sides met they would not be on equal footing his skimming culminated in the battle of the tutelberg forest where the three legions led by varys were ambushed and killed though this eventually led to a punitive expedition led by germanicus which will lead to catastrophic defeats and eventually the assassination of armenia it was a turning point in the history of rome with this battle the imperial borders in europe would be firmly situated in the orion and the danube rivers as ordered by augustus the only ones to break this were trajan and constantine in a danube in the ryan frontier however the germans were here to stay and some 400 years later they would play their part in the fall of rome number three brennes may be the most unknown figure on this list who exactly is branus why branus is the first barbarian leader to have sacked rome of course he was the leader of the cenones who defeated the romans in the battle of the alia and later besieged the city the romans eventually relented and agreed to pay brennas and his men to just go away branus famously tipped the scales with the sword uttering vivictis meaning woe to the conquered brenda's mark on the history of rome is gargantuan the sack of rome was a major event in the history of the city-state as that was the moment rome transformed from a mere italian city-state to the roman republic that would never give up in the face of catastrophe that later faced and defeated the samnites hannibal and the greeks as for the romans themselves well the goals would have a profound effect on the roman psyche that wouldn't be healed until the conquest of gaul by julius caesar number two shapur the first shapur ii may have been a major headache to the romans but shapur the first was an existential threat to the entire roman east for years as the roman empire was pretty much falling apart facing god knows how many civil wars and endless barbarian invasions welcome to the 3rd century shapur the first had essentially a free hand in the east facing numerous wars against the romans he first ensured armenia would remain under persian influence then in the next war he penetrated deep into syria capturing antioch before valyrian arrived and the two engaged in campaign shapur would win and capture valyrian the first time a roman emperor was captured in battle shapur ii would almost certainly have captured the bulk of the roman east had it not been for septemius odinnathus the king of palmyra who saved the increasingly hopeless situation defeating shapur the first in battle and ensuring the east would remain under roman protection this all the while the actual sitting emperor galionis was busy in europe dealing with all the revolts and barbarian invasions he faced number one hannibal barca a little obvious yes but when you think enemy of rome the first person to come into your mind is probably hannibal hell even swore an oath of vengeance as a child and spent almost the entirety of his life opposing rome in some form or another it all started as soon as the roman signed a treaty with saguntum violating a treaty they had signed with the carthaginians over both states spheres of influence in spain hannibal responded by sieging and plundering the city as soon as rome declared war the man picked his army traveled through the alps into italy and delivered the romans three crushing defeats the last one so bad the romans were desperate enough to commit actual human sacrifices following that he spent the next 15 years in italy ravaging the countryside largely unimpeded because most saw a direct confrontation with hannibal a suicide circumstances elsewhere would eventually drive him out of italy and back to africa where he would be defeated by skippy africanus but he didn't stop proposing the romans there after trying out in politics and escaping roman wrath by fleeing the east hannibal spent the rest of his life in foreign kingdoms most notably in the court of the solute emperor antiochus who gave hannibal command over a fleet where he would be defeated again this time by scipio's brother the romans hated him to the point he had to kill himself to avoid capture his final words were let us relieve the romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death and that's the list hope you enjoyed this video leave a like comment and if you aren't subscribed then please do so i'd really appreciate it i've opened up a patreon account so if you'd like to support me there there's a link in the description below this was spectrum and i hope you have a fantastic time

Channel: Spectrum

Views: 93,411

Keywords: Rome, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Hannibal, Shapur, Mithridates, Viriathus, Vercingetorix, Brennus, Arminius, Attila, Attila the Hun, Crassus, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Legion, Seleucid Empire, Pontus, Scipio, Hannibal Barca, Carthage, Epirus, Pyrrhus, Pyrrhus of Epirus

Id: MUFpC4oV9ig

Length: 14min 41sec (881 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 26 2022