Alexander the Great vs. Philip II

[maximus]

Here Here,
Alexander faced more challenges even though his father took a lor longer. Alexander defeated superior, and inferior, armies, numerically, he brought huge fortresses like Hal, and Tyre, he faced ambushes, fought in winter, autmumn, spring and summer. Alexander faced every challenge and bested them all.

[alejandro]

Hi thereSorry for maybe changing the scope of the question, but you cannot separate military skill from overall skill. Moreover, I think that the military outcome is not necessarily the most important one (think about the meaning of a GÇ£Pyrrhic victoryGÇ¥). That is, military and other aspects (administrative, political, logistic, etc) reinforce each other, and none can thrive without the other. If, for example, Alex wouldnGÇÖt have pacified Asia Minor, he couldnGÇÖt have moved toward the interior of the Persian empire. The point is, you cannot fully separate military prowess from overall prowess.For example, it is always said that Philip preferred to GÇ£retreat in order to hit harder next timeGÇ¥ (or something like that). You can count that retreat as a military defeat, but maybe it was the optimal thing to do from an all-encompassing perspective (even within a purely militaristic point of view, PhilipGÇÖs fake retreat in Chaironeia was the right thing to do, in order to further the ultimate goal). Another example would be Kassander during the Diadochi wars: I donGÇÖt remember why he needed to return to Macedon from southern Greece were he was stationed (think that Olympias had seized the throne, but IGÇÖm not sure). On his way back, some people (I think the Phocians controlling Thermopylae) decided to block KassanderGÇÖs army. AntipatrosGÇÖ son decided to avoid conflict and skirted them by embarking his army and landing them north of the blocking in Thessaly. Now, from a purely militaristic point of view, we can say it was a defeat, but from the political point of view, it was the optimal thing to do: Kassander needed to get to Macedon as quickly as possible, and GÇ£losing faceGÇ¥ by avoiding conflict with some minows didnGÇÖt really mattered.When you allow for this all-encompassing perspective, you can realize that both Alexander and Philip were supremely good at it, and (at least for me) it is pointless to rank them: both are
excellent, and we can draw many lessons from them.Kind regardsAlejandro

[alejandro]

HiMaybe a simple (I would rather say simplistic, but then, every one is) way to compare Philip against Alexander would be to compare the proportional gain in territory (area) during their reigns compared to the original territory they held at the beginning of them.Eg:PhilipGÇÖs kingdom at the beginning of his reign: MacedonPhilipGÇÖs kingdom at his death=AlexGÇÖs kingdom at the beginning of his reign: Macedon + Thrace + Greece
AlexGÇÖs kingdom at his death= Macedon + Thrace + Greece + Persia + Egypt + India (up to the Hydaspes).(Note: maybe the lists are incomplete and/or incorrect. Please feel free to correct them, but be kind ;o), they were only meant to be indicative!)
Then, one with the biggest GÇ£kingdom at death/kindgom at the beginningGÇ¥ ratio should be the winner! )In my opinion (and without actually having calculated them, but only guessing them), the ratios wouldnGÇÖt be that different, so I would say there is a GÇ£technical tieGÇ¥.RegardsAlejandro

[the]

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[the]

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