Agron (250 BC-230 BC) The first king to unite the Illyrian tribes together and form a kingdom. During his rule Illyria was a strong kingdom which had a strong military force, especially naval. He successfully stopped the attacks of the Roman Empire and the Aetolians by keeping his kingdom free till his death.
Masinissa (c. 238 BC - c. 148 BC) was the first King of Numidia, an ancient Amazigh North African nation of ancient Libyan peoples, and is most famous for his role as a Roman ally in the Battle of Zama.
Mithridates II,Parthia reached its greatest extent during his reign. He saved the kingdom from the Saka tribes, who occupied Bactria and the east of Iran and killed two of his his predecessors in battle. He defeated King Artavasdes I of Armenia and conquered seventy valleys, making the heir to the Armenian throne, prince Tigranes, a political hostage. In 123 BC and 115 BC he received Chinese ambassadors sent by the Han emperor Wu Di to reopen the Silk Road through negotiations.
Constantine I (272)–337, Roman Emperor, Best know for being the first Christian Roman Emperor.Helped to put an end to institutionalized persecution of Christians in the Empire.
Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah- was Commander in Chief of the Rashidun army and the areas of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Southern Turkey.He defeated the Byzantine army in the Battle of Maraj-al-Rome and Yarmouk.He appointed Khalid ibn al-Walid as commander of his Mobile guard.
Muawiyah I - sacked Caesarea Mazaca in 647 AD,Salamis of Cyprus in 650 AD and re-invaded the island in 654 AD and taking Rhodes as well.His initial naval campaigns were very successful defeating the Roman navy off the coast of Lycia (655).
Majasha ibn Masood - In 652, Balochistan (Iran) was re-conquered during the campaign against the revolt in Kermān.
Abdul Rehman ibn Samrah - crushed a revolt in Zarang, Afghanistan.He conquered Kabul and Ghazni. At the same time another column moved towards the Quetta District in the north-western part of Balochistan (Pakistan) and in 654 conquered an area up to the ancient city of Dawar and Qandabil today known as Bolan.
Khalid ibn al-Walid- won numerous battles for Arab Muslims in the Roman Syria,Roman Egypt and Persian fronts.He helped defeat the Byzantine forces at the Battle of Yarmouk.This battle is also considered to be one of Khalid ibn al-Walid's most decisive victories, and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest military strategists and cavalry commanders of the Medieval Ages.
Al-Ahnaf Ibn Qays - helped complete the conquest of Khurasan by bringing Tustar and Marwir-Rawdh into the fold of Muslim Arab Empire and pushed Yazdgerd III all the way to Merv in Turkmenistan where he died bringing the Persian Sassanian Imperial family to an end.
Habib ibn Muslaimah - was sent for a full-scale invasion up to the Black sea. He conquered Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia during Caliph Umar's reign the territories emerged as an autonomous principality within the Muslim Arab Empire. During Caliph Uthman ibn Affan's reign, a revolt broke out, and Uthman commissioned Habib ibn Muslaimah again to re-conquer Armenia and Georgia.
Muawiyah I- Siege of Constantinople (674)- Muawiyah I, who had emerged as the ruling dynasty of the Arab empire following the civil war, besieged Constantinople under Constantine IV. In this battle, the Umayyads, unable to breach the Theodosian Walls, blockaded the city along the River Bosporus. The approach of winter forced the besiegers to withdraw to an island 80 miles away.
Muhammad bin Sulayman with naval support from frontier forces based in Tarsus invaded Egypt and Shaiban ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun was forced to retreat with his army to Fustat, where on 10 January905 he surrendered unconditionally thus bringing an end to the Tulunid Dynasty of Egypt.
Narseh, in 296, fed up with incursions made by the Armenian monarch Tiridates III, Narseh invaded Armenia.Surprised by the sudden attack, Tiridates fled his kingdom. The Roman EmperorDiocletian dispatched his son-in-law Galerius with a large army to Tiridates's aid. Galerius invaded Mesopotamia, which Narseh had occupied hoping to check his advance. Three battles were fought subsequently, the first two of which were indecisive. In the third fought at Callinicum, Galerius suffered a complete defeat and was forced to retreat. Later Galerius too would have his revenge and defeat Narseh.The result was a peace treaty.
Shapur II,led an expedition through Bahrain, defeated the combined forces of the Arab tribes of "Taghleb", "Bakr bin Wael", and "Abd Al-Qays" and advanced temporarily into Yamama in central Najd. He resettled these tribes in Kerman and Ahvaz. Arabs named him, as Shabur Dhul-aktaf which means "The owner of the shoulders" after this battle.A twenty-six year conflict (337–363) began in two series of wars with Roman Empire, the first from 337 to 350 against Constantius II.Although often victorious, Shapur II made scarcely any progress.The second series of war began in 359 with Shahpur I conquering Amida and he took Singara and some other fortresses in the next year (360). In 363 the Emperor Julian defeated a superior Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, but was killed during his retreat. His successor Jovian (363–364) made an ignominious peace, by which the districts beyond the Tigris which had been acquired in 298 were given to the Persians along with Nisibis and Singara, and the Romans promised to interfere no more in Armenia.The outcome was a Strategic Persian victory for Shahpur II.Shapur II invaded Armenia, where he took King Arshak II prisoner and forced him to commit suicide.Shapur II subdued the Kushans and took control of the entire area now known as Afghanistan and Pakistan.By his death in 379 the Persian Empire was stronger than ever before, considerably larger than when he came to the throne, the eastern enemies were pacified and Persia had gained control over Armenia.
Shahin commanded forces invading Roman territory in the Transcaucasus, winning a battle near Theodosiopolis in 607/8. Following the expulsion of Roman forces from that region, in 611 Shahin led an advance into Anatolia, capturing Caesarea, but was driven out by Roman counter-attack led by the EmperorHeraclius in the summer of 612 and forced to withdraw to Armenia. In 613 the Roman offensive pressed on into Syria, but the combined Persian armies under Shahin and Shahrbaraz crushingly defeated Heraclius near Antioch and again near the Cilician Gates. As a result, in 614 Shahin was able to campaign all the way across Anatolia to Chalcedon on the shore of the Bosphoros opposite Constantinople, and over the following years mounted further invasions of Anatolia, causing severe and widespread devastation. In the spring of 618 CE, Iranian troops of Shahin and of Shahrbaraz entered Egypt and besieged Alexandria, which soon fell.
