Alexander the Great was antiquity\'s greatest commander

[Paullus Scipio]

We seem to have drifted from "Alexander the commander" to an overall "Alexander the man". For me, the last two posts seem to sum up the man as a whole.Both are well thought out and deserve our late lamented laudes.

But what of Alexander the commander? What military obstacles did he overcome compared to a Hannibal or a Pyrrhus, for example? What military innovations did he introduce? What battle tactics? ( new or otherwise)? Did he even have a military strategy beyond; "The next field looks greener, therefore attack it, destroy it and loot it", only stopping when he actually met significant military resistance ( in India)?He was an undoubted megalamaniac, who in the end perhaps genuinely believed his achievements surpassed those of Dionysius and Heracles, and were worthy of a God, but when we strip away legend, what military skills did he demonstrate? As a ruler, perhaps he deserves the sobriquet "Great"; as a 'military commander', I think not.......Alexander was like Gengis Khan, the fortunate inheritor of a superior military system.....