Which historical figures do you admire ?

[Reeve]

Hmm from the top of my head...

Mahatma Gandhi
President Abraham Lincoln
Alexander the Great
Emperor Constantine
Dr. Martin Luther King
Malcolm X
Captain James Cook

Eww Constantine.

[Deleted]

John F. Kennedy
and the United States at the same time.

How so? I'm asking seriously since I'm not very familiar with US politics.

[Gouky]

I wonder why people admire innovators so much. Weren't all of them pawns of inbreeds and Idiots?

[Deleted]

Nikola Tesla and Sun Tzu!

[Ave07]

Eww Constantine.

Hey now he saved Rome, well kinda when Rome was going through some terrible emperor.

[Mcfeegan]

Belisarius
Hannibal (Carthage)
Ghengis Khan

Mostly ancient generals when I think about it.

[Reeve]

Hey now he saved Rome, well kinda when Rome was going through some terrible emperor.

Constantine 1st took Diocletian's stable (albeit terrible imo) rule and plunged the empire into civil war, destroying the tetrarchy and coming out on top. Over the course of his reign, he murdered huge portions of his extended family, including his own wife and one of his sons. He set up a monetary system that favored the wealthy and the large landowners, furthering the policies Diocletian implemented that would eventually lead to medieval feudalism. Then he singlehandedly took Christianity from being a strange cult and made it the dominant religion of the empire. Then when he was about to die, he didn't leave a clear successor, leaving his 3 devil-children to go on murderous rampages to see who would become the sole ruler of the empire.

I'm not a fan.

If you really want to credit an emperor for stabilizing Rome after the Crisis of the 3rd Century, Aurelian is probably your best bet. He was kind of a Superman Emperor who kicked the Germans and the Goths' asses, then went east and reunited the Palmyran Empire with Rome, then headed back west and reunited the Gallic Empire with Rome. He took a fractured kingdom and made it whole again in only 5 years, granting him the title of Restitutor Orbis Invictus, "Unconquered Restorer of the World." Then Diocletian came in and solidified the stability, but did so with reforms that ended up having a terrible effect on the future of Europe.

[Hanith]

I don't really admire any historical figure :P Why would you?

[Velorian]

Erwin Rommel

Patrick O'brian

Teddy Roosevelt

Julius Caesar

and my favorite?

Frederick the Great

[bekilrwale]

Frederick The Great of Prussia. Military mastermind for his time, brought the world training techniques that were unrivaled by any military at the time.
Erwin Rommel. The original tank badass.
Augustus Caesar. "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble."
Adolf Hitler, before he plunged the world into a catastrophic war.

[Gallahadd]

how on THIS forum, has no one mentioned ...

J
R
R
Tolkien!

The man basically created what we know today as 'fantasy' even if you don't like his books (gotta say I'm not the hugest fan) you have to give him credit for his influence. Without him there would probably BE no Warcraft, ergo no WoW, no MMO-C and we'd probably all be very very bored alot of the time.

[Deleted]

Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson.

[Deleted]

Probably Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire. Ok, he wasn't successful, but he had a lot of liberal ideas such as abolishing the death penalty and trying to do away with the fractious religious conflicts which caused catastrophes like the 30 years war. I prefer him to the other "enlightenment" monarchs like Catherine the Great (probably behind the murder of her husband) and Frederick the Great who was a bit of a sneak. I don't like most people in history, there's always unheard dark sides to them - like Mother Theresa and Gandhi. Yes, even them.

[GotMoxie]

Brian Boru, Pádraig Pearse and Míċeál Ó Coileáin.

[Ink Spot]

Leonardo Da Vinci, I'm not a religious person but i mean it when i say that man was graced with divine intellect and skill