Ancient
19 battles
Battle of Thermopylae
300 Spartans and 7,000 Greeks held the pass for 3 days against 100,000+ Persians. Leonidas and his 3...
Battle of Salamis
Themistocles lured the Persian fleet into narrow waters where their numbers were a disadvantage. The...
Battle of Cannae
Hannibal enveloped and destroyed a Roman army of 80,000, killing 50,000-70,000 in a single day. The ...
Battle of Zama
Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal on his home ground, ending the Second Punic War. Hannibal, undefe...
Battle of Gaugamela
Alexander the Great defeated Darius III, effectively ending the Persian Empire. Despite being outnum...
Battle of Marathon
Athenians defeated a larger Persian force through superior tactics and heavy infantry. Pheidippides ...
Battle of Actium
Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra, making him the undisputed ruler of Rome. The naval batt...
Battle of Pharsalus
Julius Caesar defeated his former ally Pompey the Great. Caesar was outnumbered 45,000 to 22,000 but...
Battle of Carrhae
Parthian horse archers annihilated 7 Roman legions, killing or capturing 30,000 men. Crassus, the ri...
Battle of Kadesh
The largest chariot battle in history with possibly 6,000 chariots. Ended in a stalemate but produce...
Battle of Alesia
Caesar surrounded Vercingetorix and built a wall of circumvallation around the hill fort. Then built...
Battle of Issus
Alexander first defeated Darius III in person, after marching down from Syria to find the Persian ki...
Battle of Plataea
The final land battle of the Persian invasion of Greece. The largest Greek hoplite army ever assembl...
Battle of Aegospotami
Lysander caught the entire Athenian fleet beached and unmanned, destroying or capturing 170 ships in...
Siege of Syracuse
The Athenian expedition to conquer Syracuse ended in total catastrophe. Nicias delayed, disease spre...
Battle of Chaeronea
Philip II destroyed the combined armies of Athens and Thebes, ending the era of the free Greek city-...
Battle of Lake Trasimene
Hannibal concealed his entire army in the hills and morning fog beside the lake and annihilated a Ro...
Battle of the Metaurus
Consuls Nero and Livius combined armies to destroy the relieving army of Hasdrubal, brother of Hanni...
Battle of Pydna
The Roman legion defeated the Macedonian phalanx in its final great battle. The flexible maniples ou...