WI: Caesar vs Sertorius

WI: Caesar vs Sertorius

  • Caesar

    Votes: 19 79.2%
  • Sertorius

    Votes: 5 20.8%

  • Total voters
    24
What if Caesar vs Sertorius

Two of the best commander of the ancient world face off. Caesar is sent to Spain to crush Sertorius' rebellion.
 
What if Caesar vs Sertorius

Two of the best commander of the ancient world face off. Caesar is sent to Spain to crush Sertorius' rebellion.

Sertoriu´s problem is, that he cannot trust his own followers. His support is limited to local Roman elites and rebellious Iberians, who only can hope to get independence, while allay with them . He has to make further more alliances with sworn enemies of Roman Empire like Mithridates of Pontus. Sertorius course seemed to be doomed, unless Rome let him go on purpose.
 
All that being said, sertorius was still obviously an incredible military leader who inflicted severe defeats on the young Pompey. Early on, before it became apparent that his ang his supporters' claim to being the legitimate government would never be excepted, I think his position was quite secure. In terms of ability, I don't know who was the better general between him and Caesar.
 
Hard to determine because I think they were very close.

On the battlefield, I don't hink we have enough material to determine who is the best. They had different qualities, Caesar's personal signature being speed and surprise (which Pompey had understood in 48).

I would rate Caesar superior in strategy. He found a way to come out winner of a situation apparently as hopeless as Sertorius. And he winning the civil war by overtaking the opposite side before this opposite side was able to deploy its far superior potential. On the paper, Pompey's strategy in 49/48 was unbeatable only if Caesar let him time to turn this whole potential into effective fighting units on the whole theater of war. Caesar's genious was that he did go to war perfectly aware of the situation and that he knew how to annihilate most of Pompey's advantage.

Sertorious had disadvantages that Caesar did not suffer from.

Sertorius was an upstart, a homo novus while Caesar was of a noble family. Some of his lientenants were high nobles that despised him.

Sertorius, although one of the best generals of his generation, was not a famous, prestigious, popular politician while Caesar had already built a tremendous personal prestige and popularity. He was, with Pompey, one of the 2 heroes of the roman people and one of the 2 most popular politicians. The common roman citizen revered both of them. They did not want to choose between their 2 heroes. They wanted their 2 heroes to keep on getting along together.

Sertorius seems to have had a terrible temper, while Caesar had a personal charm and magnetism that many of his political opponents reckoned.

The conditions of the 2 civil wars were different. Caesar had the advantage of controling Gallia cisalpina which was the main purveyor of recruits for the roman army. And he quickly took control of all of Italy, which enabled him to cut Pompey and his optimate allies from the most important base of recruits for the army. Without this move, Caesar would have faced the same fate as Sertorius. And he obviously was aware of it.

That's why Caesar won the civil war against Pompey and the optimates. Pompey thought he just had to replay the same strategy as Sulla in 83/81. And he had far more resources than Sulla to replay it.

Caesar knew it and he adapted. That probably was his very specific genious : being able to adapt and to use at best the cards he had in hands, although not having the best hand. That's where you can discern those who are really the very best and the real genious.

Caesar also had the very best army the roman republic ever had. And he was the one who personnally built it and turned it into the best roman army ever. Sertorius did not have such an army. Maybe he could have built such an army if he had had tome but OTL he did not have time to do it before such a special conflict as a civil war.

In the end, it's quite like determining who really were the greatest ever Formula 1 champions. The quality of the car is so decisive that when a car has an edge, you just need to have a very good driver to be 80% sure that he will win the championship.
But I have one personal criterion which I think is the most decisive to determine who really is the genious driver, the one who is really above the other very good pro drivers. It's the one who is able to win the championship and the races while someone else has the best car.

That's what Prost, Senna and Schumacher were able to perform.

That's what Caesar was able to do. Sulla too.
 
Hard to determine because I think they were very close.

On the battlefield, I don't hink we have enough material to determine who is the best. They had different qualities, Caesar's personal signature being speed and surprise (which Pompey had understood in 48).

I would rate Caesar superior in strategy. He found a way to come out winner of a situation apparently as hopeless as Sertorius. And he winning the civil war by overtaking the opposite side before this opposite side was able to deploy its far superior potential. On the paper, Pompey's strategy in 49/48 was unbeatable only if Caesar let him time to turn this whole potential into effective fighting units on the whole theater of war. Caesar's genious was that he did go to war perfectly aware of the situation and that he knew how to annihilate most of Pompey's advantage.

Sertorious had disadvantages that Caesar did not suffer from.

Sertorius was an upstart, a homo novus while Caesar was of a noble family. Some of his lientenants were high nobles that despised him.

Sertorius, although one of the best generals of his generation, was not a famous, prestigious, popular politician while Caesar had already built a tremendous personal prestige and popularity. He was, with Pompey, one of the 2 heroes of the roman people and one of the 2 most popular politicians. The common roman citizen revered both of them. They did not want to choose between their 2 heroes. They wanted their 2 heroes to keep on getting along together.

Sertorius seems to have had a terrible temper, while Caesar had a personal charm and magnetism that many of his political opponents reckoned.

The conditions of the 2 civil wars were different. Caesar had the advantage of controling Gallia cisalpina which was the main purveyor of recruits for the roman army. And he quickly took control of all of Italy, which enabled him to cut Pompey and his optimate allies from the most important base of recruits for the army. Without this move, Caesar would have faced the same fate as Sertorius. And he obviously was aware of it.

That's why Caesar won the civil war against Pompey and the optimates. Pompey thought he just had to replay the same strategy as Sulla in 83/81. And he had far more resources than Sulla to replay it.

Caesar knew it and he adapted. That probably was his very specific genious : being able to adapt and to use at best the cards he had in hands, although not having the best hand. That's where you can discern those who are really the very best and the real genious.

Caesar also had the very best army the roman republic ever had. And he was the one who personnally built it and turned it into the best roman army ever. Sertorius did not have such an army. Maybe he could have built such an army if he had had tome but OTL he did not have time to do it before such a special conflict as a civil war.

In the end, it's quite like determining who really were the greatest ever Formula 1 champions. The quality of the car is so decisive that when a car has an edge, you just need to have a very good driver to be 80% sure that he will win the championship.
But I have one personal criterion which I think is the most decisive to determine who really is the genious driver, the one who is really above the other very good pro drivers. It's the one who is able to win the championship and the races while someone else has the best car.

That's what Prost, Senna and Schumacher were able to perform.

That's what Caesar was able to do. Sulla too.

Thanks for the analysis.:)
 
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