Famous Military Leaders Trivia Quiz

Answer: Miltiades

The name is derived from a Greek word meaning "red earth". The son of Cimon, an Athenian aristocrat, Miltiades was chief magistrate under the Tyranny at Athens in 524 BC, and in 516, with the tyrants' support.

Answer: Scipio Africanus

One of the finest commanders in military history, Scipio was a member of a patrician Roman family. His father, a Roman consul, was killed during the Second Punic War. His first major victory was in the Battle of Baecula in 208 BC.

Answer: Flavius Aetius

He was kept as a hostage by the king of Huns during his early years. Aetius is generally viewed as a great military commander, indeed he was held in such high self esteem by the Eastern Roman Empire, that he become known as the 'last true Roman of the West'.

Answer: Belisarius

Was born in Illyria (the western part of the Balkan peninsula) to poor parents and rose to become one of the greatest generals, if not the greatest, of the Byzantine Empire.

"For not by numbers of men, nor by measure of body, but by valor of soul is war to be decided." - Belisarius

Answer: Batu Khan

He was a grandson of Genghis Khan. With Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and much of the Danube Basin under his control, Batu was poised for the invasion of western Europe when he received news of the death of the head of the Mongol empire, the great Khan Ögödei.

Answer: Prince Eugene of Savoy

Eugene's first engagement was the Battle of Vienna (1683). He was the teacher of Frederick the Great and the only one among the seven great strategists of all time whose campaigns Napoleon considered worthy of study by posterity.

Answer: Jean Lannes

In May 1804 Lannes was made one of the 18 marshals of the French Empire. At the Battle of Pultusk in Poland on December 26, 1806, he defeated a much larger Russian force, and he contributed to a second victory over the Russians at Friedland in June 1807.

"No one but a poltroon will boast that he newer was afraid." - Jean Lannes

Answer: Tecumseh

When he was about 14 years old, during the American Revolution, he accompanied the Shawnee chief Blackfish in combined British and Indian attacks on Americans. He died during the Battle of Thames (1813).

Answer: Erich Ludendorff

Ludendorff viewed peace as a merely an interruption between wars. In the autumn of 1918 he resolved that the Armistice and peace treaty would have to be signed by civilians, something that sowed the seeds of the 'Stab-in-the-Back Legend' - the view that Germany had not been defeated in World War I but had been stabbed in the back by subversives within Germany.

After the war he adopted the role of the betrayed and misunderstood commander and took part in Adolf Hitler's unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

He also ran for president against his former commander in chief, Hindenburg, whom he now bitterly hated.

Answer: Tadamichi Kuribayashi

He is probably one of the most underrated WWII generals. Although the United States Marine Corps had expected to capture Iwo Jima in five days, Kuribayashi and his men fought for 36 days. However, this exceptionally determined resistance may have persuaded the U.S. not to attempt to invade mainland Japan but use atomic bombs instead.