Is Caesar overrated as general?

[Macilrille]

well i can´t say much about this debate but the siege of alesia was great for all that matters in terms of generalship if it can be atributed to cesar or the roman military machine is another subject of debate except that until the 17th century there was never such a grand scheme (maybe masalla when the romans killed the jews outside of jerusalem but a 700 meter ramp in comparison with 2 walls being the smallest one 24 kilometers)

as for census sake i believe cesar mentioned that there where 3 million men in italy 4 million in gaul and 2 million in belgium as for what these numbers means i have no real clue since i don´t know if slaves where counted as men (even tough one of cesars lietenents cicero´s younger brother is claimed to have said that it was a pity that a few of the gaulish serfs/slaves couldn´t be used as warriors since many had all the atributes to make great warriors)

anyway imho cesar was a great logistic general and had the charisma to get things his way and i believe that those are atributes of a great general and even if gaul was indeed "depleted" it was still a massive undertaking trying to subdue so many tribes in so many diferent terrains

as for the roman lack of soldiers the fact that the young men weren´t willing to join the army after the defeats pompey had suffered in the iberian peninsula by an outnumbered and outgunned sertorious (not to mention the lusitanian war where as many as 7 legions is said to have been crushed or the sieges of numantia where so many romans had died) doesn´t mean a conscription wouldn´t have been made and 250.000 men couldn´t have been gathered to fight in case of extreme emergency so roman wasn´t depopulated their problem was that the army life wasn´t atractive to the men since they couldn´t marry "officially" and for 25(?) years they where bounded to the army where there where 100 diferent ways to die a year

but there are many facts that point to the fact that cesar was having dificulty recruiting soldiers besides the po valley citizenship being given to the "gauls" there are also rumours that cesar daughter married pompey in exchange for the 6th and 13th legion of pompey being used to join cesar and reenforce him in gaul (or one should say to gain pompey´s favour and political influence)

I point you in the direction of any history on Rome, even Mc'Kay's "History of Western Societ" mentions it on p 150 ff in its grand discourse on world history. No it was not that army life was not attractive, it was a dearth of manpower in Rome. If you have time, read the books I listed above as well and you will see how significant the problem was.