Top 10 Greatest Ancient Warriors

Spartans are the ultimate warrior, bred for battle, and born to kill. In training, they would be killed if caught stealing not because they were stealing, but because they couldn't get away with it. They trained weeks without food to fight hunger. Even as infants if seen as not good enough the infants would be thrown into the streets to die, hoping for some trespasser to claim them. A couple things against the Samurai below, one, the samurai didn't beat the Mongols, the southwest Chinese lands united the southeast and took over, two, samurais did not win every war, in fact they lost almost as much as they won, the imperial Japanese army for instance. The spartans would never give up, yes the battle of Thermopylae may seem overrated, but 100,000 vs. 300 and several hundred arcadians, and the fact that thousands died by the will of Greek men defending their home is one of the most fascinating stories in history. These killing machines were not to be trifled with.

What you people don't understand is that the Spartans were born to fight. Obviously bullets would penetrate the Spartan armor, but that's not the question is it? This is greatest warrior not technology. Spartan philosophy made them the way they are. At birth, if Spartans weren't fit enough to the doctors standards, they would be thrown off a mountain. Boys were taken from their homes at the age of seven to be put in a severe training regimen called the Agoge. To the Spartans life was a preparation for death.

As a child spartans would go through a system where they were trained to kill. The weak would die, but the strong would live. They kept this system for years making it so the children were almost always strong. They made it so Spartans don't hesitate to kill, and boy did they kill a lot of people. They fought in the war between Greece and Persia, and ended up fighting one of the greatest battles of all time. It was said to be millions of Persians vs. only 300 spartans. They knew they would lose, but they did not hesitate to fight for there homeland. They killed the Persians wave after wave until they all ended up dying after killing thousands of Persians. Spartans are truly remarkable people

Best tactics, most honourable and the only reason they lost was because they were betrayed by a greedy Greek. And the 300 Spartans killed thousands of Persians which is better than any other elite soldier could do.

The Samurai sought perfection in their one craft. If your craft was sword fighting, you were then an expert in sword fighting. That would be the only thing you would study. Many think that samurai were all-around good fighters, but this isn't exactly true. However, attaining true expertise in only one area will allow you to penetrate good "all around" fighters because you are better at your one craft than they are at any one thing they know. The downside of course is that now you have an achilles heel. Because of the amount of time and dedication the Samurai dedicated to their one craft I would have to say they were the best warriors, and that's not even taking into account their fierce loyalty to their lord and would consider it an honor to die to demonstrate that loyalty.

Samurai is by far the best and have the best weaponry
And armory and had the best fighting and beat the mongols outnumbered and in one battle and the mongols took over china! And the only reason the Spartans are famous is the Persian war and they all died and they didn't even win that war! The samurais won every war and clearly none of you base your info on history and more on movies

Come on people, On the Deadliest Warrior Show they tested the samurai vs Spartan and the Spartans only won due to the only advantage they ever had over the samurai, their shield. If it wasn't for the Spartan shield the samurai would demolish the Spartans.

The only reason Spartans are #1 is because they have shields the size of Texas. The Samurai had a tool that broke 99% of the shields out there proving them cowerdly. Plus the Samurai willingly protected and served the people because of their mentality while the spartans only did it cus they had to

Shaka Zulu would make his troops run laps over and over in the African sun, and would personally kill any of them that showed weakness. Zulu were the Spartans of Africa.

The literally fought against the largest empire on Earth who had canons, guns and explosive artillery, with just pure tactics and primitive weapons.

The Spartans never faced a nation who used guns. The Zulus did not only face guns but canons and way stronger artillery the Spartans ever faced.

Must be higher. Underrated in my opinion. These people were bred to kill. And what's more? Unlike Spartans who never faced guns and bombs the Zulus did.

The Vikings were the best of the best, they dominated everywhere, sacked constantinople, Paris, rome, etc. they were the first to find North America (lead by Leaf Erikson) and practically controlled the north of the entire known world (excluding Alaskan area)

These guys where brutes. They were very tall and would make you tremble in combat. they are almost equals to spartans or more. They pillaged plundered and burned almost everything in their path. Imagine facing an almost giant with an axe, two spears and a long sword also with an battle shield.

In response to the ninja commenter, even if you can see a viking, you still can't kill it!

There's a saying it would be suicide if you attacked the convoy or spokesman of Ancient Egypt. The military system of the jet black African achievement is underrated. Old Kingdom is the oldest Empire. During Egypt's time which was too old, this civilization invented a form of phalanx. They also had wheeled siege ladders and a proto-type of the Assyrian siege pride. Their division of the military was way ahead of their time. Through their science they invented the world's first warships. Their charriots were too advanced. The military had a tactical solution for ambush and survived the oldest recorded ambush. The Archer corps of the military could shoot as far as FREAKING 600 METRES. The military worked with speed and silent assassination. They could attack when you least expect. The tactics of the Ancient Egyptians were very advanced. Look at the tactics employed against the Sea people. The Sea people had destroyed many empires from Greece to the Hittites. The Ancient Egyptians and ...more

The Pharaoh was expected to go on a marathon around the whole city to express his or her fitness. Around 3000 BC. Ancient Egyptians invented Lotus fighting or the Lotus martial arts which was adopted by the Military. Ancient Egypt are one of the earliest practioners of grappling and wrestling. Suplexes, Torpo Spears, Pile driver and many more were invented. Joint locks mid-air and on ground and chuckholds, arm locks etc were invented by Ancient Egyptians. The Military were taught hand-to-hand combat and disabling armed combatants. Stick fencing and pugilism was common in Kemet. An Ancient Egyptian soldier was expected to be able to cover 20 miles(32 kilometers) in one day. Begun training at AGE 5! One form of military training involved tying two huge blocks connected by ropes around your neck, putting your arms behind your back and raising one leg up like a stomach crouch exercise.

Egyptian military was very innovative and scientific and not just fight fight fight. They invented the use of forts and castles which are still used today in the form of military camps. They brought about warships and invented the peace treaty. Had many sophisticated weapons. They have the oldest depiction of military training. Rameses III was the only one to take out the sea people who could destroy any civilization then.

The best of the tens. Even before the Old Kingdom when different tribes settled in Egypt, with Kings such as Scorpion, there were tribes that had accumulated other tribes from Africa to the Middle East becoming the first empires. When Narmer United all these small empires, Egypt became a large collection of empires. In fact the proto Egyptians themselves begun as a colony of Kush.

These people were innovators in artillery from the late classical era onwards. They were one of the earliest users of crossbow, fire Lance, hand cannon, large artillery and many more. One myth about the Chinese is that they just invented gun powder whiles gun came from Europe. That's a like; check the history of gun and see that the prototypes were at least initiated in China way before Europe.

China's Firest Emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, United all of China with an amazing attack force and of course, brilliant strategies. Min one battle, his army buried so many bodies that the skeletons can still be seen on top of that mountain today

They've gotta be higher up on the list! Just the Chin army alone was able to conquer a whole country!

Apparently, the voters here have not seen Zhang He's fleet.

The Ashanti had this cool tactic where they hid within trees whiles using a device to shake other trees in order to fool the enemy into believing they were elsewhere, whiles they take advantage to shoot the dumbfounded enemy. In forest warfare, the Ashanti were the hands down the best in human history. Funny enough in Ghana, where the Ashanti Empire was located, they train the USA in forest warfare. This goes to show that their descendants still've got something going when it comes to forest combat.

The most underrated civilization in my opinion. So let's start with the basics; the Ashanti Empire was an empire from Ghana covering almost all of Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast. The bad side of this civilization is their lack of industrialization. They had a guild of blacksmiths who produced, restocked but not any manufacturing of weapons and goods through machinery. They thought the easy way to get weapons other than industrialization was to rely on their gold and human slaves. This is truly their huge error but let us look at their good side for once as well. Even the Ashanti are not recognized as part of the ancient African giants because people really underank them. Their organization is underestimated. Do you know they voted in their council to approve war similar to the US senate? On the battlefield, they exploited science such as a well studied form of reconnaissance. Let's not forget their snipers (an early form of the art itself) who took advantage of hiding places and shot ...more

Apache is ranked 12 whiles Ashanti is 17? Not just Apache but Mamluks, Monks etc who had far inferior weaponry arsenal compared to the Ashanti. The Ashanti had as many as 40,000 soldiers armed with guns and 40,000-200,000 reserves. Cannons were amassed in huge numbers especially during the reign of King Kwaku Dua I. The Ashanti had access to rifles, the most powerful gun used till date; over hundreds of years ago and they gave the Europeans hell of a fight defeating them many times. To rank civilizations with far inferior weaponry above them is injustice.

Their pincer formation was very impressive. They could also march in columns. Their fortifications were extremely powerful capable of withstanding fire from Britain's, most advanced canons which could level European forts like butter. They are also one of the rare civilizations who actually held heavily armed British forts under siege.

The zeals got their knife fighting from them that's why seals are the greatest knife fighters

These are the Celts we're talking about, terrifying. On the field of battle, these guys can kill like nobody's business. They're kind of like vikings, except like the other comment, often naked. With horrifying body paint, they drive fear into their enemy's hearts. Similar to the Caledonians and the Picts, the Romans could never penetrate their homes, because these barbarians were warriors from Hell.

The long tradition of training and preparing the body through spiritualism led the Shaolin monks to become the greatest martial artist in the world. Although they managed to decimate troops whenever they had to face them, they were not the greatest warriors in history. They goal was tranquility (Taoism), and harmony (Buddhism), which were the founding principles of their fighting techniques. But the martial monks were/are the best fighters ever (even though they still hate fighting).

Trianed in martial arts modeled after animals, can lay on a bed of spears, and train longer and with more weapons than British S.A.S. Do I have to say more

Twin hooks your heads of

In the anicent world every countrytries in the world even germany where scared of attila and his army the Huns. That's why the huns are the strongest warriors in history.

My favorite condom... Oh wait ya'll mean the guys that fell for that dumb horse trick? Laugh out loud yeah

Trojans are super cool

Trojans are the best

They are the best