History's Fierce Warriors

In the age of blades there were a lot of fierce warriors. There has been a long running debate among historians who are trying to pick the ones that were the fiercest. Most of us know about Alexander and the Macedonians, the Spartans, the Romans, the Persians, the Crusaders, the Mongols, the Vikings and the Samurai. Each one of these groups of warriors demonstrated that they were not people to be taken lightly. As tough as they were, their days all came to an end, but when they were at the height of their power you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone that was capable of defeating them. I don't have room to talk about all of these warriors, but I will mention those that I think were the fiercest of the group.

Alexander the Great was the great King of Macedon, this state is in the northern part of ancient Greece. It was not very big, but it was powerful for its day. Alexander was born in 356 BC and had one of the greatest teachers of all time. His teacher was Aristotle. Perhaps this is what made Alexander as great as he was, because he was a fantastic tactician and was able to take his army and almost conquer the known world. Alexander and his comparatively tiny army fought for over 10 years and were able to overthrow the then most powerful army in the world, the Persian army. Alexander was outnumbered 50 to 1 at times and yet he still prevailed. Alexander was driven to conquer the known world and after fighting battles for over 10 years he decided to invade India, because he thought that this would allow him to reach the end of the world and the great outer sea. His troops had enough fighting by this time and they refused to go on. This forced him to turn back and three years later he died in Babylon in 323 BC, as one of the greatest generals that the world has ever known. At the time of his death he had plans for invading Arabia. After he died, civil wars broke out and his empire became fragmented with different generals ruling different parts. His army will always be known for being able to win battles no matter what odds they were facing.

Spartan King Leonidas
Photo Source: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Author: Interstate295revisited

One of the most fiercest fighting forces in ancient Greece were the Spartans. The Spartans were a fanatical military race that believed that all people belong to the government and that the government could do with them what they want. An example of this was when a woman had a baby. It would be taken away from her and examined for defects. If any were found, or the baby was thought to be too frail, it was then thrown off a cliff by an elder. The Spartans believed that only the strong should survive. Sparta was recognized as the leading military power in ancient Greece up until 371 BC. That was the date that it was defeated by Thebes. The Spartans believed that children belonged to the state and would take them away from their mothers for military training. They were removed to a barracks, where they were subject to the most brutal military training that any culture ever inflicted on its citizens. After a few years a Spartan child was sent out into the wilderness to survive using only his brains. The Spartans felt that if he died out there, that showed he was too weak to be Spartan soldier. There was absolutely no mercy. One of the final tasks that had to be performed before a Spartan could become a soldier was to kill a slave without being caught. One day a year Spartan law waived the killing of slaves as a crime. It is said that this was done to cull the slave population so that they wouldn't get too strong. These fierce warriors did not believe in fancy houses and fancy possessions and that is why the word Spartan means plain or simple today. It was 300 Spartans that held the pass at Thermopylae against the entire Persian army of over 1 million men. King Leonidas and his house guard along with 1400 Greek soldiers from other Greek states held that pass. It was basically the 300 Spartans in the pass and the rest of the Greeks guarding their rear flank. At the height of their empire, no one wanted to fight a Spartan.

Vikings Landing From A Dragon Boat
Graphic Source: Public Domain In The US

Sometimes a fierce race of warriors seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Such were the Mongols and the Vikings. The Mongols had become a power in northern China in the early 1120s AD. The Mongols were a nomadic people who herded their sheep from place to place and also raised horses. They were incredible riders and had invented a bow that could pierce armor. They were also able to shoot this bow from horseback at a full gallop. In their day, these horsemen were almost unstoppable. The Vikings had been farmers, but there was just not enough land to go around and they decided to launch raids on coastal towns in Europe. What made them so fierce was the fact that they would whip themselves into a frenzy before they attacked and would spare no one, not even the clergy, or little children. The Vikings were considered to be the devil by some of the clergy in England. They usually raided in small parties, with one or two Dragon boats, but there were known to gather big fleets when there was a prize they considered worthwhile. They started out as meek farmers, but became fierce warriors and in the end converted to Catholicism.

Samurai In 19th Century
Photo Source: Public Domain

Perhaps the most skilled and maybe even the fiercest of warriors was the Samurai from Japan. The grade of his weapons was far superior to anything that the world had ever seen before. His sword was made of the strongest steel and fashion by master craftsman. The Samurai were an elite class of military nobility in per-industrial Japan. References to the word Samurai have been found as far back as 905 A.D. Samurai were still in existence in Japan in the 19th century. The training that the samurai went through was so incredibly effective that it made him a superior killing machine. He had no equal. When a Samurai would fight another Samurai, sometimes the battle would go on for hours and result in both killing each other. This was because their skills were so equal. The Samurai tried to hang on, but as modern times came to Japan it became impossible for them to continue. As skilled as they were, they were no match for a bullet.

Humans have a long history of being warriors. How we came to the idea that being the best killer of people is something to be proud of is a bit of a mystery. It may be that when we finally meet alien races, which we will eventually do, they will have evolved differently and maybe their criteria will be, who is the best peacemaker?