The Greatest Battles of All-Time

You can't resist the list. There is too much on the line for you to just gloss over this. Way too epic. I promise I'll get back to the Battle of Vienna afterwords.

What do I mean by greatest battles? First of all it is a battle, not a campaign. It is a single confrontation that is a defining moment in history. But honestly I don't always hold to that. The Battle of Britain was a sort of a campaign, but ya gotta include it, right? Now the defining moment could be many things: changing the course of history (cliche, I know, but you know what I mean), winning against unsurmountable odds, sparking a shift in cultural thought, brilliant leadership and strategies, HUGE AND EPIC, the end or beginning of an era, the stuff of legend, and so on. It does get a little tricky when you have an several important battles that are linked together such as Thermopylae, Platae and Salamis. The success of one is dependent on the other(s). I usually just pick one. The same goes for the American Revolution. I chose the Battle of Lexington and Concord over Yorktown. One started the war and the other finished it. You decide which is more important. But by all means, if you want to put them all in, it's your call.

Here's my list of the greatest battles of all-time (in alphabetical order):

• Actium–end of the civil war with Antony and rise of the Roman Empire under Octavian Caesar Augustus
• Adrianople–Emperor Valens and the Romans got served by the barbarian Goths which was the start of the final downfall of the Western Roman Empire
• Agincourt–Henry V and his longbowmen decisively defeat the heavily favored French knights. Shakespeare wrote about it... St. Crispin's Day anyone?
• Alesia–Julius Caesar defeats united Gallic forces and uses the momentum to turn on Rome
• Austerlitz–In his greatest victory, Napoleon carves up the Austrian Empire and secures Central Europe for himself
• Battle of Britain–the RAF and British tenacity hold off the German Luftwaffe and maintain control of Britain
• Battle of the Bulge–Great German counter–offensive in WW2, but they ran out of gas... literally
• Cannae–Hannibal completely annihilates Roman opposition in the 2nd Punic War with one of the most genius strategies ever
• Carchemish–Nebuchadnezzar II defeats the Egyptians and Assyrians and takes over everything
• Fall of Constantinople–the definitive end of the classical Roman era and rise of Turkish dominance
• Sack of Constantinople–4th Crusade gets confused, sacks their Christian allies and forever severs the union between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Way. To. Go.
• Gaugamela–Alexander, at his best, defeats Darius III with lightning speed, crippling the powerful Persian Achaemenid Empire and instituting a Hellenized culture
• Gettysburg–deadliest battle in the western hemisphere and turning point in the American Civil War
• Grunwald–combined Polish and Lithuanian forces defeat the Teutonic Knights in an all out epic medieval confrontation
• Hastings–Normans lead last successful invasion of England in...when? 1066!!!
• Invasion of Normandy–largest amphibious assault in history which resulted in a Communist-free Western Europe
• Kadesh–Epic chariot battle between Rameses II and Egypt against the Hittites
• Lepanto–large naval engagement at the time and ended a century of Turkish naval dominance in the Mediterranean
• Lexington and Concord–the shot heard 'round the world. First engagement of American Revolution. "Don't tread on me!"
• Marathon–Greeks defeat the Achaemenid Persians, who were the largest empire the world had known, and sent them packing. This was the first time the Greeks defeated the Persians and showed that they were beatable. Running was also invented...
• Midway–U.S. Navy soundly defeats the Japanese Navy in a colossal sea and air battle that crippled the Imperial Japan beyond recovery
• Pharsalus–Julius Caesar defeats Pompey the Great using hidden javelin throwers. This ultimately led to the republic falling into the hands of the "tyrant" Gaius Julius Caesar
• Stalingrad–the largest and deadliest battle in history and the turning point in the Eastern Front of WW2
• Somme–one of the largest engagements in WW1 and first to deploy the tank. A battle that did little strategically accept kill 1,500,000 people
• Teutoburg Forest– through an act of betrayal, three Roman legions were ambushed and utterly destroyed. This was the last attempt at Roman control of German territory. "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!"
• Thermopylae–Leonidas and the Spartans defend the Peloponnese (and the West) from Persian invasion to the point of death
• Tours–Charles Martel "the Hammer" stops the spread of Islam into the heart of feeble Europe and establishes Frankish dominance for several centuries
• Trafalgar–Admiral Lord Nelson defeats the Franco–Spanish Navy during the Napoleonic Wars by sinking 22 of their 33 ships without a single British ship lost
• Battle of Vienna– um, read m' blog!
• Waterloo–a glorious end to Napoleon and the French Empire
• Zama–Scipio Africanus outwits the mighty Hannibal in North Africa, securing the ultimate rise of the Roman Republic and fall of Carthage

My Top Ten list of Greatest Battles of All-Time:

1. Marathon (490 B.C.)
2. Zama (202 B.C.)
3. Stalingrad (1941-42)
4. Thermopylae (480 B.C.)
5. Fall of Constantinople (1453)
6. Vienna (1683)
7. Gaugamela (331 B.C.)
8. Waterloo (1815)
9. Tours (732)
10. Hastings (1066)

What is your top ten? What battles did I forget? Let the debate begin!