The Greatest Commander in Antiquity

[John Adams]

"Hannibal knew how to gain a victory. He did not know how to use it." ~ Loosely translated from Marhabal.

My vote would have to go to Publicus Scipio Africanus the Elder.
While Roman Commander he remained unbeaten. Further more, he managed to not only train the Roman Punic Army of the Mid to Late Republic to greater heights, he also came up with ingenus stratigies to use to counter one of the Carthagian's most renouned and feared threats; the elephants brought with them. What he invisioned, and then put into practice (executed), was that the maniciples of hastati, principie, and triarii alike, would split apart when the elephants charged. The newly created lanes would then be staffed with velites (Roman Skirmishers of the period) who would break apart, allowing the elephants to harmlessly charge through (though a few casualties were suffered by the velites), while being bombarded with misiles from the hastati, principies, and velites, to be delt with at the rear of the formation.

This was unrivaled in terms of coordination for the Roman army of the period. Former commanders most often chose to simply allow the crushing frontal impacting weight of the Roman soldiers to simply break through the problem (as at the battle of Cannae, where despite the majority of Roman soldiers being defeated, about 1,000 or so managed to break through, and continue in good formation to Roman held forts in the region). However, Scipio decided to use more advanced tactics with his armies.

What is also of note is that he turned down the position as dictator for life, when he was offered that position by the Roman Senate.

Hannibal himself even was said to have placed Scipio has higher then himself interms of Generalship.

So, for all these reasons, I vote Publius Scipio Africanus as the best general of Ancient/ Classical Military history Commander.

~John