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In this list a military disaster is the unexpected and sound defeat of one side in a battle or war, sometimes changing the course of history. Military disasters in this list can range from a strong army losing a major battle against a clearly inferior force, to an army being surprised and defeated by a clearly superior force, to a seemingly evenly matched conflict with an extremely one sided result. A military disaster could be due to bad planning, bad execution, bad weather, general lack of skill or ability, the failure of a new piece of military technology, a major blunder, a brilliant move on the part of the enemy, or simply the unexpected presence of an overwhelming enemy force. One definition of military disaster describes the presence of two or three factors:〔McNab, C. "World's Worst Military Disasters". The Rosen Publishing Group, 2009. 978-1404218413〕 * chronic mission failure (the key factor) * successful enemy action, * (less significant) total degeneration of a force’s command and control structure According to this definition, two particular characteristics are not necessary for an event to be classified as a military disaster: * enormous loss of life * having greater casualties than the enemy ==Ancient era== * The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, when a large Persian force was destroyed and routed by a smaller Athenian force. * The Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, where a huge Persian fleet was defeated by a united Greek force. * The Athenian expedition to Syracuse in 415 BC. * The Battle of Changping (262–260 BC), in which 400,000 captured troops from the State of Zhao were buried alive after their commander Zhao Kuo fell for a trick of the commander from the State of Qin. * The Battle of the Trebia in 218 BC, where Hannibal destroyed 8 Roman legions and Allied armies in the first major battle of the Second Punic War. * The Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, where 30,000 Roman soldiers were ambushed by Hannibal with army of over 50,000 in the largest ambush in history. * The Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, where Hannibal destroyed the 16 Roman and Allied legions led by Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. In all, perhaps more than 80 percent of the entire Roman army was dead or captured (including Paullus himself). * The Battle of Julu in 207 BC where Chu forces under Xiang Yu defeated a much larger Qin army. Qin's losses mounted to well over 100,000. The Qin dynasty collapsed soon after. * The Battle of Ilipa in 206 BC, when an army of 48,000 Romans under Scipio Africanus surrounded and destroyed the Carthaginian army of 54,000. * The Battle of Utica in 203 BC, where a Carthaginian army of 100,000 was smashed by 7 legions under Scipio Africanus. * The Battle of Zama in 202 BC, when a roman army of 34,000 under Scipio Africanus annihilated the Carthaginian army of 50,000 under Hannibal. And thus brought an end to the Second Punic War. * The Battle of Mobei in 119 BC, where the entire Xiongnu army of over 100,000 men was destroyed by the Han army. This battle and its aftermath ensured the supremacy of the Chinese over the northern barbarian tribes for the next few hundred years. * The Battle of Arausio in 105 BC, when the allied armies of the Cimbri and the Teutones killed 120,000 Romans in one afternoon. * The Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, when Crassus with 40,000 soldiers marched into Parthia expecting to be victorious, chose to march a direct route through the desert instead of the mountains of the north, and was entirely anniliated by 9,000 Parthian soldiers * The Siege of Alesia in 52 BC, where Gaius Julius Caesar, leading roughly 50,000 Roman soldiers, laid siege to the rebel Gauls, led under Vercingetorix, fortress of Alesia, who numbered roughly 85,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry. The Belgae tribe attempted to relieve the siege with an army of 260,000 warriors. The Romans, through the personal leadership of Titus Labienus, wrought a terrific slaughter upon the Belgae; this demoralising event led the defenders at Alesia to yield, ending Vercingetorix's rebellion. * The Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, where an enormous army of 226,000 men (including Auxiliaries) under The Second Triumvirate destroyed the 187,000 strong force under The Liberators. This left the Second Triumvirate in sole control of Rome. * The Battle of Actium in 31 BC, where the navy of Octavianus defeated the navy of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. This left Octavian in sole control of Rome, he would later become Augustus, Rome's first Emperor. * The Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, where Germanic warriors destroyed three Roman legions. * The Battle of Watling Street in 60 or 61 AD, where, Tacitus and Cassius Dio suggest, between 100,000 and 230,000 British warriors and tribespeople led by the British Iceni queen, Boudicca, faced off against 10,000 Roman soldiers led by the governor of the British province, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. The result was an overwhelming defeat of the Britons, a rumour of 80,000 killed, with around 400 Romans dead according to Tacitus. This ended the British rebellion that had devastated Roman-British provincial towns in southern Britain. * The Battle of Guandu in 200 AD, in which the more powerful army of Yuan Shao failed to guard its supplies, and was defeated by Cao Cao. * The Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, where Liu Bei's and Sun Quan's combined force destroyed Cao Cao's much larger navy with fire. * The Battle of Edessa occurred in 259 AD when Emperor Valerian with a 70,000-strong Roman army marched into Persia to end Persian advances into Roman territory. The outcome was an overwhelming Persian victory and the entire Roman army was decimated. * Julian's Persian War in 363 AD, in which the Roman Emperor Julian invaded the Sassanian Empire under Shapur II, gaining initial tactical victories but was soon lured into the interior of the Empire and his army became trapped and unable to escape. Julian himself perished and his successor, Emperor Jovian, was forced to sign one of the most humiliating peace treaties in Roman history in order to save the remnants of the Roman army.〔Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter, Rome & Persia in Late Antiquity; Neighbours & Rivals, (Cambridge University Press, English edition, 2007), p94, p131 & p134〕 * The Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD, in which the emperor Valens was killed while Gothic heavy cavalry ambushed and decimated his Roman heavy infantry. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of military disasters」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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