My list 1. The praetorian guard 2. The praetorian guard 3. The praetorian guard 4. The praetorian guard 5. The praetorian guard 6. The praetorian guard 7. The praetorian guard 8. The praetorian guard 9. The praetorian guard 10. The praetorian guard

Was half expecting the Roman Empire to be number 1. The only enemy that consistently undermined the stability of the Romans

#3 incompetent emperors #2 the senate #1 the praetorian guard.

Also Hannibal scarred the Romans so much he literally become their boogeyman. After the Punic wars a saying become popular in Rome “Hannibal ad portas” or Hannibal is at the gates. Used to mean that an issue has reached a critical point and also used to scare little children if they didn’t listen to their parents.

How does Hannibal not have a high-budget movie about his life? The man was badass as hell, even in death.

If you read about the Punic Wars in detail you realize that it would make an amazing game of Thrones style Tv show. Like it is so amazing I can’t believe half of the stuff I read.

"My enemies are many... My equals are none" -The Roman Empire

I would rank Pyrrhus way higher. If he didn’t undertake his Sicilian campaigns, he could have smothered Rome in its cradle. If we are to believe this story, after Asculum Pyrrhus sent his diplomat, Cineas, to discuss peace. It was only when the blind old senator Appius Claudius Caecus showed up which stopped the peace deals. Imagine if Rome’s expansion halted in its tracks in 279 BC! Boiorix, king of the Cimbri, was also not mentioned here despite his victory at Arausio. The casualties he inflicted led to the implementation of the Marian reforms.

It's not a pun to call Pyrrhus' victory a Pyrrhic victory because that's the source of the phrase. That's like going "wow, in the Roman Empire, all of these roads lead to... wait for it... Rome." Or saying "hey, these Vandals are... *gets sunglasses*... Vandalizing the city."

Greatest Roman enemy without a doubt is Asterix The Gaul and his overgrown, super strong sidekick Obelix.

Finally one of the few Roman channels out there that recognizes Boudicca was not that big of a threat (she sacked three settlements defended by mostly britons and trivial numbers of actual Roman soldiers and lost to an army 1/20th her size because they specifically didn't take her threat serious and surrendered the settlements knowing they needed to win the actual battle) and gave Viriathus his proper due. The three settlements were not large cities and they were purposely strategically left hardly defended with detachment cohorts. The supposed numbers Boudicca raised are also accepted to be exaggerated by Roman scholars at the time. Just in case you want to bring that up. Also there are multiple cases of women leading successful military campaigns without trying to pretend boudicca was a real threat

Id put Pyrrhus to 4th at least, since he actually got close to defeating Rome or accepting surrender at least, while Arminius was more of an inconvinience and Shapur threatened only some of the eastern provinces

Shapur II was Shahanshah for 70 years (his whole life). He lived through the reigns of Constantine, Constantius II, Julian, and Valens. He was still alive in Theodosius' accession. That shows how long he was causing trouble.

Genseric should have definitely been in the top 10, sacking of Rome was just really the least harmful thing he did, he also defeated the gigantic Roman fleet sent by the Eastern Emperor and conquered North Africa which was one of the main causes of the fall of the western roman empire.

Is it just me or Hannibal has the best last words

Number 1: Honorius

I'm utterly shocked that Geiseric (there's about three different ways to spell his name) only gets an Honorable Mention. I think he more than deserves a place in the Top Ten list, possibly even in the Top Five section. What set Geiseric apart from the other major enemies of Rome, from everything I've heard and read about him, was that he specialized in sowing political discord and dissention amongst the various higher-ups in the Roman Hierarchy. He was able to gain a stranglehold on the Western Empire by capturing North Africa, he got his son Hunneric married to Emperor Valentinian's daughter, they manipulated events to bring about Atilla The Hun's invasion of the West (they were the ones who convinced Valentinian's sister Honoria to offer herself as a bride to Atilla), he always believed in biding his time and waiting for the right moment to strike, and he always knew how to play his enemies against each other so that the deck would always be stacked in his favor. Ultimately, he accomplished ALL of the goals that he set out to achieve, and what's more, the Roman Empire was never able to capture, defeat, OR kill him. And that's another factor in his favor: He lived far longer than all of these other enemies of Rome, and died of natural causes at the age of 88.

Good list. Mithridates turned a relatively minor state into the rallying point for romes enemies and did deal rome several humiliations.

Let's not forget Asterix and Obelix. They where a huge torn in Rome's backside. (Just kidding. I do recommend the comics and movies.)

Given it’s tendency to civil war and political crisis I think we can say Rome was one of the Greatest threats to Rome

In my opinion you seriously underesyimate Geiseric. He defeated two major invasions in 460 and 468. He ravaged the coasts of sicily and Italy throughout 439-442 and 455-472. He exercised great political control over the western empire through his political arrangements with valentinian and Ricimer. He also sacked Rome and took the imperial family hostage. However, his most devastating act was the conquest of Africa. This was literally the death blow to the West as the African provinces were incredibly wealthy and needed only a few border troops for defence. The novels of Valentinian relate how the vandal conquest caused an immediate fiscal crisis within the Empire. Although the Vandals were not a great military threat. Under the leadership of Geiseric they were the biggest players in the Western Medditeranean, undermining the West in every conceivable fashion

hell yeah new upload

>no enemies post 476 Can't believe you really left out my man Khosrow II and Phocas from the list

7:36 isn't Pyrrhus literally where the term pyrrhic victory originates from?

Are you going to be doing an eastern Roman one? I’d love see where khosrow II, Al walid, sayf, and others rank in your mind

Now I want a video about Brennus. In fact, I want more about the origins of Rome and the time conquering the Italian peninsula.

Tbh, Arminius wasn't that "great enemy" of Rome, yes he is part of the cause they give up taking Germany, but after that """battle""" he lost every next one and got backstabbed by his people. I don't think his level of threat were that high, an honourable mention at max.

You are so underrated man you should get way more attention

You’re vids are great

Amazing video again

Personally would have put Honorius somewhere on my list.

Could you please do another video but with enemy factions? (to borrow a video gamey term) Great video as always Spectrum.

A couple leaders of the Jewish revolts could use some (dis)honorable mentions. Lukuas killed hundreds of thousands of Romans in Africa that required large-scale re-population efforts. Bar Kokhba wiped out an army in a battle so badly that according to Cassius Dio, Hadrian had to officially omit the "I and the army are well" from his official letter to the senate.

I like these ranking videos

You know, most of these guys are just people trying to defend their homeland and people from aggressive Roman invaders.

one of my favourite channels

Great video! I missed Zenobia though

Gigachad Hannibal in his rightful 1st place

Hannibal is probably one of my favorite characters in history

Hannibal was one of the best commanders the world ever seen. Such an enemy!

5 months later waiting for the pyrrhic war video... rip. great vids btw

I was a bit disappointed at the lack of Dacians on this list/honorable mentions of this list, still a good video either way!

Very surprised Honorius didn't make an appearance

Interesting idea for the list. Are you going to do similar lists for other countries?

Geiseric should be top 5, let alone in the top 10. Basically went for the jugular of the late Roman Empire in North Africa and succeeded

I think Jugurtha deserves a place in the list too as he gave Rome quite the hard time in North Africa tbh I was surprised you didn’t even mention him

Agree with your list fully.

Only disagreement is Genseric, only because I think he was one of the hammers in breaking of the Western Empire,.

For the Eastern Romans, I can think of these candidates: -Orhan -Mehmed II -Khalid ibn al-Walid -Khosrow II -Khan Krum -Simeon of Bulgaria -Stefan Dusan of Serbia -Pope Leo III (not military, but religiously/politically) -All of the Fourth Crusaders

Given the number of civil wars faced by Rome, it's surprising there is no roman in the list.

"And... to put it bluntly, annihilated pretty much everything in it's path on the way to Constantinople" - Loved that quote, perfectly represents the Huns

damn hannibal’s last words😮‍💨owned

That line about Hannibal is ultra accurate. He is LITERALLY the first person I thought of by name. I love this video, like all your videos, but I counter this with a proposition. These are individual enemies of the Romans, but what about civilizations/regimes that were enemies of the Romans. IF you did that, and included the Byzantines, number 1 with a bullet is "All of the Catholic Italian city-states including the Papacy." If you didn't include the Byzantine period, I would probably give it to the Goths as a people, since they were persistent and managed to tear more chunks of Rome away than the Sassanids, the Vandals, the Bulgarians, etc did. Well, the Sassanids did briefly get all of the Middle East....but then lost it, the Goths lost nothing, they stayed until Justinian sent Belisarius and the other half of the Goths stayed in Spain till the Muslims came calling.

9:53 "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!"-Emperor Augustus

Shapur II, first ever "it's just a prank" recorded in the history books

Romans who posed the greatest danger to Rome, in no particular order: Caeser (until he won) Sulla Marc Anthony (guy was a complete tool, seriously) Catalina Boat Pompey (after Caeser won) Honourius (killed Stilicho, GG) Brutus (bungled away the civil war) Tarquinius (last king, led a foreign army to siege Rome) Valentinian (Stilicho 2: Aetius boogaloo) Varro* (led the Cannae army into the trap) *There is a plausible theory that Varros fault is overblown. The story passed down was that it was all Varro's fault and he ignored his co-consuls advice to be more cautious. The other consul Paullus was a Patrician, while Varro was a plebeian. Paulus' family would be far better placed to influence the narratives told in the aftermath. Paullus died at the battle while Varro survived. Paullus is remembered as having a heroic last stand while Varro fled to save his own skin. The combination of these could (this is theory only) mean that the story passed down in history is one where Varro is scapegoated for a collective error. The consular platform that was run that year focused on rolling back Fabians strategy and reverting to confronting and defeating Hannibal, so it is quite Plausible that both Varro and Paullus would share a similar viewpoint on the battle and that Paullus had no issue with attacking Hannibals army directly.

If you ever do a video of the eastetn roman empires enemies I imagine Simeon 1st, Krum, Khosrow 2nd, Mehmed 2nd, Enrico Dandolo and Al-Walid to be in that list.

Nice to see haha funni poison man in here

I do think Archimedes found a way to use sun energy to put ships on fire it just took a wbile for such to happen and it gets proped way to much as this x ray laser when it was likely an improved technique of starting a camp fire

Only a portuguese man would even know who Viriatus was.

10:20, did Augustus already have plans for Britannia, or something? Because Claudius expanded here as well, to add to Trajan and Constantine.

"Rome's worst enemy : its own calendar !" - Bibulus, probably.

I feel like this video could needs a little more info on what criteria you used when making your list as opposed to just jumping into it. Fun topic though!

If you want an awesome song centered on Mithradates VI, check out the Parchment by Iron Maiden.

Great list but I’m surprised to see no mention of the Cimbri

I actually expected Ricimer to be on the list, maybe he should be on a special traitor list or something

Atilla and the HUNS SHOULD be #2. With their Lightening FAST raids They were amongst the greatest evils known to Mankind in their time! But overall Great list AGAIN from a great historical mind. Keep em Comin'!! And YES the Praetorian "Guard" should be atleast a DIShonorable Mention

Surprised that Ricimer isn't on this list.

heres two honorable mentions : ambiorix and boduognatos , both where chief of their belgae tribes (nervians and uberons) and where the reason caesar said that from all the gauls tribes he had faced the belgae were the bravest

In no real order: Hannibal. Pyrrhus. Mithradates VI. Gaiseric. Vercingetorix. Arminius. Zenobia. Shapur the Great. Jugurtha. Viriathus.

Somewhat surprised that Khosrow didn't make the list

“I tell the tale that I heard told. Mithridates, he died old.”

When you look at the Roman situation after Cannae, it's kind of insane that they actually won

I think the list lacks a curtain Khosrow Anooshirvan first of his name(if you consider the byzantine empire, Rome)

I think Zenobia at least deserved an honorablr mention

Ricimer, who merged from most of the dead Praetorian Guards

No Khosrow? Harsh. Trivial mention too for Antiochus the Great who might have been one of the most formidable monarchs Rome ever faced...but who never really posed a direct threat to Rome.

"his sack was incredibly tame" oof get him

Can you do a ranking of french monarch

what was the music playing during the Attila the Hun section?

Another opponent who should have been mentiones, Surenas the Iranian victor at Carrhae versus Crassus. Could also mentioned Jurughta the Numidian a honorarable comment, also Decebalus the king of Dacians.

Imagine losing to the Romans (this post was made by Geiseric gang)

It would be awesome if you did the same thing but for Byzantium

where would you place Ricimer?

Mithridades was a dangerously insane individual

How about Alaric the Visigoth (sacked Rome in 410 AD/CE)?

Zenobia not even an honorable mention? Wasn't she pretty close to conquering the eastern portion of the empire?

No mention of Ambroix?

6:18 Wait are we talking about Pyrhus of Epirus or Karl XII of Sweden?

I get that Burebista isn't in the list, seeing that both he and Cesar got assassinated before their fateful battle could happen. (Btw. Ceasar saw him as an rival) But what about Decebal/Decebalus? There are not many enemies the romans dedicated larger than life statues to. It also took multiple wars to lastly defeat him, and even then it took an assassination to end his life.

most new scholarship points to the battle at the Catalonian plain was inconclusive or a minor defeat

The romans should have earned a spot on this list. Rome knew no greater enemy than themselves. The Roman empire on numerous occasions were fighting wars with foreign enemies while simultaneously fighting civil wars with themselves. Rome teared itself apart

Rome might not have gotten punched in the face as often as they did if one of their main, overriding cultural traits wasn't suffocating, insufferable arrogance. The Romans are basically where the entirety of Europe got the idea of calling anybody who wasn't them "savages" from and the annoying habit of breaking the spirit of their agreements and then acting like the natives were the barbarians for fighting them on it. Not saying the Romans were unique in it, they even got the TERM barbarian from the Greeks after all but if there is one civilization where diplomatic arrogance and unreasonable superiority complexes were the largest societal norm in human history, it'd be ancient Rome.

I wonder what the list would look like if you include the full period of byzantine/eastern Roman empire

Arminius above Attila and Pyrrhus? Like I know he won Teutoburg but he got fucking slaughtered right after. No fucking way was he more of a threat than those two

Both Shapurs🤝🏻

Music used?

I am sad that you didn't mention how Mithradates VI liked to snack on poison.

Still waiting on that Phyrus Video...

Vercingetorix isn't so famous because of Julius Cesar, he's famous because of Asterix!