They were all great in their own way. Napoleon though is my favorite of them all though so I choose him. Plus had he not invaded Russia or taken the Allied peace plan before they overran France in 1814, how long would he have stayed in power? Theres so many possibilities.

"I pity people who don't drink. When they wake up feeling good in the morning, that is the best they are going to feel" Frank Sinatra

Its difficult to compare them.

Hitler? the greatest? ... in what way?

He's not saying he is, is he? It's just an option to choose from. Not my choice btw! I'm not sure....it's hard.

"If God wanted women to understand men, football would never have been created." - Roger Simon

I know that is just an option, but I rather take no one of them.

They all had periods of greatness didn't they? (by saying this I am in no way condoning any of their actions, just that they all have a place in history whether we like it or not!)

Couldn't pick one stand out though!

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people. - V

The greatest what exactly?

The greatest what is up to you. hitler is in the list because he did play an important role in history, and he did conquer about the whole of Europe, plus Africa. If not the whole world would have fought against him, he would have managed. he really is one of the greatest conquerers in history. Of course not my favourite kind of person though, but neither is Napoleon, Clovis, Ivan, Caesar or... all mass murderers, cheaters... I mean... Ceasar is seen as one of the greatest conquerers and rulers of history. Any idea how many tribes he erased because he needed some money?

Daar is de lente, daar is de zon
bijna, maar ik denk dat ze weldra zal komen.
De fallus impudicus staat al in bloei
En de blaadjes krijgen bomen.
M'n vrouw en m'n kat zijn allebei krols
en de klokken vertrekken naar Rome

Murderers?

People who built empires are not the greatest. All their empires have fallen down and they have not improved the humanity. I'd prefer to be told about philosophers, scientists, book writers .... Those are the greatest and here is the real civilization.

Je n'ai jamais rencontré d'homme si ignorant qu'il n'eut quelque chose à m'apprendre (Galilée)

They all have their place in history...for sure..
But don't all conquerers seem even a little sociopathic....as if being a person of conscience would've been a liability ?

The mind seeks and the spirit yearns.
But the heart knows what the heart knows.

Reading the latest two posts, i might say 'Charles 5'. He didn't really conquer much, but he had a huge empire (Spain + Austria) he did fight Turks though, but they were the aggressors at the time. he did have interest for science and language (spoke several, like German, Latin, Spanish, French and Flemish) tried to introduce general education, but his sons dropped the idea.
btw, i think conquerers often have a lot of influence in spreading knowledge. Romans eg. got the postal services from Gaul, and spread the idea all over their empire. Christianity came from israel through the empire all over the world. Without Rome, Jesus would just have been another weirdo, hanging around with boys too often... so to speak.

Daar is de lente, daar is de zon
bijna, maar ik denk dat ze weldra zal komen.
De fallus impudicus staat al in bloei
En de blaadjes krijgen bomen.
M'n vrouw en m'n kat zijn allebei krols
en de klokken vertrekken naar Rome

Correct, Deng, you're sure not wrong but i didn't say that all those conquerers had no influence. I just said that intellectuals helped humanity progress much more. Youre question is focused on conquerers but choose any of those builders of empire and see which scientists, philosophers, .... are (close or not) behind him. Alexander was educated by Aristotle, Charles 5 was born in the revival period and Napoleon in the french "siècle des lumières", and so on ... Btw, in contemporary history and in our "plain" and pacified (?) democracies, there are a lot of presidents, ministers, politicians who were not "lords of war" and are less known but deserve to leave tracks in books of history. They are great as well those who invented free education for all, abolition of slavery, vote for women, or the social security for instance. I admit it's as much a moral point of view as an historical one.

Je n'ai jamais rencontré d'homme si ignorant qu'il n'eut quelque chose à m'apprendre (Galilée)

deng !you did say some shah..everything is both relative and usually subjective,well mine is the real shahin shah corus (cyrus the great )that was one COOOOOL dude!..

maybe thats why he is accorded the title of "the great"" to us he was truly GREAT!!.

I would say Jan Sobieski from Poland. He won against the Tatars, who got help from the Kozacks and he went to Austria to help them to keep the Ottomans out of Vienna.

Happy 2008 to everyone!

If we could take it a little differently//muhammed aaali (cassius clay )was the greatest...A concientius objector he came back to regain his title of the greatest BOXER the world has ever seen...he fought and won!!! aids?you think with your dik you aint thinkin!!.
we all have feet of clay!

I thought that was Rocky Balboa?

Did you indeed!wasn't rocky balboa a somewhat lighter weight??

@ Jessie... another version is that Sobieski was just supporting the Ukrainians and Russians, and that most Kozaks were fighting against the Tatars.

Daar is de lente, daar is de zon
bijna, maar ik denk dat ze weldra zal komen.
De fallus impudicus staat al in bloei
En de blaadjes krijgen bomen.
M'n vrouw en m'n kat zijn allebei krols
en de klokken vertrekken naar Rome

But that's not what we were taught in our Polish history classes.

Happy 2008 to everyone!

He won the cold war...what more can you want?

Well to begin with i would rather we were talking in terms of the topic...i did not understand a word of what you said so any intended sarcasm was wasted...without googgle my understanding of rocky balboa was that he was a middleweight along the lines of rocky gratziano the navy ,boxing etc but then there is ROCKY as portrayed by stallone...you have me totally confused!! to be quite honest in this framework i remember ROCKY (paul newman) and as the be all ,of end all pieri angeli you should have seen her in her israeli movies...personally i dont give a ding dong whatever movie she was in i could not take my eyes off her she and my X could have been twins..And as it happens i think she was a twin...

Charles V, he sayed a Christian Europe. Can you imagine the Turks being in control of Europe?

Can you today??all of you,,think about it!!

Alexander the Great, he's so great they named the word great after him.

No they didn't Cyrus the great was the truly great.HE brought justice equally for all..HE gave romans the arch form of architecture..Aqueducts ?he had them a 1000 years before rome got out of the caves,so really romes two great things were copying,and the ART of war..the romans figured out what succeeds and it stood them in good stead. The persians and the greeks taught them civilian life ,but they didn't TEACH people the art of war ,they SHOWED them for almost a 1000 years,but in my opinion,any society based for its existence on a plentiful (cheap ) supply of slaves is simple barbarism.GREAT!! what if you were one of the SLAVES??

Yes, I can imagine the Turks being in control of Europe, because in history they controlled quite a big part of Europe. For a couple of hundreds of year the entire Balkan region belonged to the Turks.

Happy 2008 to everyone!

Indeed, they come from very different periods of the History... the reality was way different in each period

--------
"Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America." (James Joyce)

the greatest of them was ghengis khas because he succeded in sttoping the civil war between the mongolian tribes and he became their emperor .with his intelligence and his leadership ,he headed his people to the glory . And I want to add something Why Hitler ?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because he's not the only mass murderer in the list. Dzenghis Kahnkilled lots just as well, till he turned smarter and used them as slaves. Hitler was the first to rule over the whole of Europe, and more. Maybe napoleon was first, ok. Caesar as well committed loads of atrocities and genocides. eg. He wiped out the Eburones. Without further known reason, btw. And Hitler started off with a countrythat was a mess. In a few years time, he was the most powerful man in the world. And no, that doesn't mean i agree with his doings.

Daar is de lente, daar is de zon
bijna, maar ik denk dat ze weldra zal komen.
De fallus impudicus staat al in bloei
En de blaadjes krijgen bomen.
M'n vrouw en m'n kat zijn allebei krols
en de klokken vertrekken naar Rome