List of Roman generals

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a Roman general and statesman who formed the Second Triumvirate alongside Octavian and Mark Antony during the final years of the Roman Republic. Lepidus had previously been a close ally of Julius Caesar. He was also the last pontifex maximus before the Roman Empire, and (presumably) the last interrex and magister equitum to hold military command.

Lucius Antonius was the younger brother and supporter of Mark Antony, a Roman politician. He was nicknamed Pietas as a young man.

Arrian of Nicomedia was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period.

The Garamantes were an ancient civilisation based primarily in the southern region of Libya. They most likely descended from Berber tribes and pastoralists from the Sahara. The Garamantes settled in the Fezzan region by at least 1000 BCE, and by the late 7th century CE, the Garamantian civilization had ceased.

Bonosus was a late 3rd-century Roman usurper. He was born in Hispania to a British father and Gallic mother. His father—a rhetorician and "teacher of letters"—died when Bonosus was still young but the boy's mother gave him a decent education. He had a distinguished military career with an excellent service record. He rose successively through the ranks and tribuneships but, while he was stationed in charge of the Rhenish fleet c. 280, the Germans managed to set it on fire. Fearful of the consequences, he proclaimed himself Roman emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) jointly with Proculus. After a protracted struggle, he was defeated by Marcus Aurelius Probus and hanged himself rather than face capture.

The Venetī were a Gallic tribe dwelling in Armorica, in the northern part of the Brittany Peninsula, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

Marcus Junius Brutus was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was retained as his legal name. He is often referred to simply as Brutus.

Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator and general best known as a leading instigator of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC. He was the brother-in-law of Brutus, another leader of the conspiracy. He commanded troops with Brutus during the Battle of Philippi against the combined forces of Mark Antony and Octavian, Caesar's former supporters, and committed suicide after being defeated by Mark Antony.

Gaius Julius Civilis was the leader of the Batavian rebellion against the Romans in 69 AD. His nomen shows that he was made a Roman citizen by either Augustus or Caligula.

Marcus Claudius Marcellus, five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic, was an important Roman military leader during the Gallic War of 225 BC and the Second Punic War. Marcellus gained the most prestigious award a Roman general could earn, the spolia opima, for killing the Gallic military leader and king Viridomarus in single combat in 222 BC at the Battle of Clastidium. Furthermore, he is noted for having conquered the fortified city of Syracuse in a protracted siege during which Archimedes, the famous mathematician, scientist, and inventor, was killed, despite Marcellus ordering the soldiers not to harm him. Marcus Claudius Marcellus died in battle in 208 BC, leaving behind a legacy of military conquests and a reinvigorated Roman legend of the spolia opima.

Gaius Claudius Nero was a Roman general active during the Second Punic War against the invading Carthaginian force, led by Hannibal Barca. During a military career that began as legate in 214 BC, he was propraetor in 211 BC during the siege of Capua, before being sent to Spain that same year. He became consul in 207 BC.

Lucius Clodius Macer was a legatus of the Roman Empire in Africa in the time of Nero. He revolted in May 68, cutting off the food supply of Rome, possibly at the instigation of Calvia Crispinilla. Although encouraged by Galba, Macer raised a legion Legio I Macriana liberatrix in addition to the Legio III Augusta that he already commanded, presumably raising suspicion that Macer also harbored imperial ambitions, and in October 68 Galba had him killed by the procurator Trebonius Garutianus. Papirus, the centurion of Mucianus, was implicated in his assassination.

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo was a popular Roman general, brother-in-law of the emperor Caligula and father-in-law of Domitian. The emperor Nero, highly fearful of Corbulo's reputation, ordered him to commit suicide, which the general carried out faithfully, exclaiming "Axios", meaning "I am worthy", and fell on his own sword.

Drusus Julius Caesar was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19.

Publius Decius Mus, son of Quintus, of the plebeian gens Decia, was a Roman consul in 340 BC. He is noted particularly for sacrificing himself in battle through the ritual of devotio, as recorded by the Augustan historian Livy.

The Grass Crown or Blockade Crown was the highest and rarest of all military decorations in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was presented only to a general, commander, or officer whose actions saved a legion or the entire army. One example of actions leading to awarding of a grass crown would be a general who broke the blockade around a beleaguered Roman army. The crown took the form of a chaplet made from plant materials taken from the battlefield, including grasses, flowers, and various cereals such as wheat; it was presented to the general by the army he had saved.

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a general and politician of ancient Rome in the 1st century BC.

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a Roman general and senator who served as consul in 122 BC. He led a campaign to conquer southern Gaul against the Allobroges together with his successor Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus. Domitius was active in the early development of southern Roman Gaul, establishing the first Roman colony at Colonia Narbon Martius, and sponsored projects such as the Via Domitia connecting Italy to Spain through southern Gaul. He was probably also the sponsor of the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus in the Temple of Neptune in Rome. Ahenobarbus was censor in 115 BC and became pontifex at an unknown date before dying c. 104 BC.

Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus was a Roman general, senator and consul who was a loyal partisan of Caesar and Octavianus.

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, also called Drusus the Elder, was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian on his birth father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family. He was the son of Livia Drusilla and the legal stepson of her second husband, the Emperor Augustus. He was also brother of the Emperor Tiberius, father to both the Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus, paternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero.

Gaius Duilius was a Roman general and statesman. As consul in 260 BC, during the First Punic War, he won Rome's first ever victory at sea by defeating the Carthaginians at the Battle of Mylae. He later served as censor in 258, and was appointed dictator to hold elections in 231, but never held another command.

Aetius was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades (433–454). He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian federates settled throughout the West. Notably, he mustered a large Roman and allied (foederati) army in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, ending a devastating invasion of Gaul by Attila in 451, though the Hun and his subjugated allies still managed to invade Italy the following year, an incursion best remembered for the ruthless Sack of Aquileia and the intercession of Pope Leo I.

Gaius Flaminius was a leading Roman politician in the third century BC. Twice consul, in 223 and 217, Flaminius is notable for the Lex Flaminia, a land reform passed in 232, the construction of the Circus Flaminius in 221, and his death at the hands of Hannibal's army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217, during the Second Punic War. Flaminius is celebrated by ancient sources as being a skilled orator and a man possessed of great piety, strength, and determination. He is, however, simultaneously criticised by ancient writers such as Cicero and Livy for his popular policies and disregard of Roman traditions, particularly during the terms of his tribunate and second consulship.

Quintus Fufius Calenus was a Roman general, and consul in 47 BC.

Germanicus Julius Caesar was an ancient Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, who succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor a decade later. As a result, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between himself and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.

Gaius Julius Caesar, was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

Servius Sulpicius Galba was a Roman general and politician, praetor in 54 BC, and an assassin of Julius Caesar.

Gundobad was King of the Burgundians, succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a patrician of the moribund Western Roman Empire in 472 – 473, three years before its collapse, succeeding his uncle Ricimer. He is perhaps best known today as the probable issuer of the Lex Burgundionum legal codes, which synthesized Roman law with ancient Germanic customs. He was the husband of Caretene.

Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome."

Lucius Licinius Lucullus was a Roman general and statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and government service, he conquered the eastern kingdoms in the course of the Third Mithridatic War, exhibiting extraordinary generalship in diverse situations, most famously during the Siege of Cyzicus in 73–72 BC, and at the Battle of Tigranocerta in Armenian Arzanene in 69 BC. His command style received unusually favourable attention from ancient military experts, and his campaigns appear to have been studied as examples of skillful generalship.

Quintus Ligarius was a Roman general who was one of the members of the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar. He had been accused of treason for having opposed Caesar in the civil war in Africa, but was defended so eloquently by Cicero that he was pardoned and allowed to return to Rome. He later conspired with Brutus, with whom he assassinated Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BC.

Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome."

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times. He was also noted for his important reforms of Roman armies. He set the precedent for the shift from the militia levies of the middle Republic to the professional soldiery of the late Republic; he also improved the pilum, a javelin, and made large-scale changes to the logistical structure of the Roman army.

The Marian reforms were reforms of the ancient Roman army implemented in 107 BC by the statesman Gaius Marius, for whom they were later named. The reforms originated as a reaction to the military and logistical stagnation of the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC. Centuries of military campaigning throughout the Mediterranean and increasing invasions and uprisings across Roman territory had stretched the human and physical resources of the Roman army.

Gaius Marius "the Younger" was a Roman republican general and politician who became consul in 82 BC with Papirius Carbo. He fought in Sulla's civil war. He committed suicide that same year at Praeneste, after his defeat by Sulla and during the city's capture by Quintus Lucretius Afella.

Lucius Mummius, was a Roman statesman and general. He was consul in the year 146 BC along with Scipio Aemilianus. Mummius was the first of his family to rise to the rank of consul thereby making him a novus homo. He received the agnomen Achaicus for his victories over the Achaean League destroying the famous ancient city of Corinth, at that time a leading city of the League, as part of his campaign. Mummius' victory over the Achaean League and the sack of Corinth placed Rome firmly in control of all Greece from a political standpoint - something Rome had avoided doing even though their involvement in the Greek East dated back as far as 226 BC when they confronted Illyrian piracy.

Marcus Valerius Maximianus was an important Roman general of the period of the Marcomannic Wars during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He was born in the Roman colony of Poetovio, where his father, also called Marcus Valerius Maximianus, was a local censor and priest. He was decorated for services in the Parthian war of Lucius Verus and was appointed by Marcus Aurelius to ensure the armies in Pannonia were supplied by boats on the Danube.

Septimius Odaenathus was the founder king (Mlk) of the Palmyrene Kingdom who ruled from Palmyra, Syria. He elevated the status of his kingdom from a regional center subordinate to Rome into a formidable state in the Near East. Odaenathus was born into an aristocratic Palmyrene family that had received Roman citizenship in the 190s under the Severan dynasty. He was the son of Hairan, the descendant of Nasor. The circumstances surrounding his rise are ambiguous; he became the lord (ras) of the city, a position created for him, as early as the 240s and by 258, he was styled a consularis, indicating a high status in the Roman Empire.

A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty.

Thurii, called also by some Latin writers Thurium, for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a short distance of the site of Sybaris, whose place it may be considered as having taken. The ruins of the city can be found in the Sybaris archaeological park near Sibari in the Province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy.

Septimius Odaenathus was the founder king (Mlk) of the Palmyrene Kingdom who ruled from Palmyra, Syria. He elevated the status of his kingdom from a regional center subordinate to Rome into a formidable state in the Near East. Odaenathus was born into an aristocratic Palmyrene family that had received Roman citizenship in the 190s under the Severan dynasty. He was the son of Hairan, the descendant of Nasor. The circumstances surrounding his rise are ambiguous; he became the lord (ras) of the city, a position created for him, as early as the 240s and by 258, he was styled a consularis, indicating a high status in the Roman Empire.

Publius Ostorius Scapula was a Roman statesman and general who governed Britain from 47 until his death, and was responsible for the defeat and capture of Caratacus.

Caratacus was a 1st-century AD British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain.

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of Rome from republic to empire. Early in his career, he was a partisan and protégé of the Roman general and dictator Sulla; later, he became the political ally, and finally the enemy, of Julius Caesar.

Lucius Papirius Cursor was a celebrated politician and general of the early Roman Republic, who was five times consul, three times magister equitum, and twice dictator. He was the most important Roman commander during the Second Samnite War, during which he received three triumphs.

Aulus Plautius was a Roman politician and general of the mid-1st century. He began the Roman conquest of Britain in 43, and became the first governor of the new province, serving from 43 to 46 CE.

Marcus Antonius Primus was a senator and general of the Roman Empire.

Lusius Quietus was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea from 117. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War. As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history. After the death of the emperor Trajan, Quietus was murdered or executed, possibly on the orders of Trajan's successor Hadrian.

Berbers, also called by their self-name Amazigh or Imazighen, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, and Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali, and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Historically, Berber nations have spoken Berber languages, which are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family.

Ricimer, sometimes called Flavius Ricimer was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 456 after defeating Avitus, until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power with Anthemius. Deriving his power from his position as magister militum of the Western Empire, Ricimer exercised political control through a series of puppet emperors. Ricimer's death led to unrest across Italy and the establishment of a Germanic kingdom on the Italian Peninsula.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic.

Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Roman general and politician under the first Roman emperor Augustus. Varus is generally remembered for having lost three Roman legions when ambushed by Germanic tribes led by Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, whereupon he killed himself.

Arminius was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe who is best known for commanding an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, in which three Roman legions under the command of general Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed. His victory at Teutoburg Forest would precipitate the Roman Empire's permanent strategic withdrawal from Germania Magna. Modern historians have regarded Arminius' victory as one of Rome's greatest defeats. As it prevented the Romanization of Germanic peoples east of the Rhine, it has also been considered one of the most decisive battles in history and a turning point in human history.

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, described as the Varian Disaster by Roman historians, took place at modern Kalkriese in AD 9, when an alliance of Germanic peoples ambushed Roman legions and their auxiliaries, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. The alliance was led by Arminius, a Germanic officer of Varus's auxilia. Arminius had acquired Roman citizenship and had received a Roman military education, which enabled him to deceive the Roman commander methodically and anticipate the Roman army's tactical responses.

Titus Quinctius Flamininus was a Roman politician and general instrumental in the Roman conquest of Greece.

Ricimer, sometimes called Flavius Ricimer was a Romanized Germanic general who effectively ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 456 after defeating Avitus, until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power with Anthemius. Deriving his power from his position as magister militum of the Western Empire, Ricimer exercised political control through a series of puppet emperors. Ricimer's death led to unrest across Italy and the establishment of a Germanic kingdom on the Italian Peninsula.

Lucius Aelius Sejanus, commonly known as Sejanus, was a Roman soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Of the Equites class by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Praetorian Guard, of which he was commander from AD 14 until his execution for treason in AD 31.

Gaius Servilius Ahala was a 5th-century BC politician of ancient Rome, considered by many later writers to have been a hero. His fame rested on the contention that he saved Rome from Spurius Maelius in 439 BC by killing him with a dagger concealed under an armpit. This may be less historical fact and more etiological myth, invented to explain the Servilian cognomen "Ahala"/"Axilla", which means "armpit" and is probably of Etruscan origin.

Stilicho was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. He was of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He became guardian for the underage Honorius. After nine years of struggle against barbarian and Roman enemies, political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power. His fall culminated in his arrest and execution in 408.

Lucius Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus was a late-1st-century Roman general, governor of the province of Iudaea and consul. Silva was the commander of the army, composed mainly of the Legio X Fretensis, in 72 AD which laid siege to the near-impregnable mountain fortress of Masada, occupied by a group of Jewish rebels called the Sicarii. The siege ended in 73 AD with Silva's forces breaching the defenses of the Masada plateau and the mass suicide of the Sicarii, who preferred death to defeat or capture. Silva's actions are documented by 1st-century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, the remains of a 1st-century Roman victory arch identified in Jerusalem in 2005, and the extensive earthworks at the Masada site, a monument to the high-water mark of Roman siege warfare.

Marcus Agrippa Postumus, later named Agrippa Julius Caesar, was a Roman nobleman who was the youngest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, the daughter and only biological child of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Augustus initially considered Postumus as a potential successor, and formally adopted him as his heir, but banished him from Rome in AD 6 on account of his ferocia. In effect, this action cancelled his adoption, and virtually assured Tiberius' emplacement as Augustus' sole heir. Postumus was ultimately executed by his own guards shortly after Augustus' death in AD 14.

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman general, statesman, and architect who was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to the Roman emperor Augustus. He was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in history, including the original Pantheon, and is well known for his important military victories, notably the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.