Certainly Caesar was not objective. The whole point of De Bello Gallico was, after all, more political than memoir. But it isn’t hard to look beyond the spin and see where Caesar may have blundered or turned events to his own advantage. And regardless of how negatively you try to spin things the other way, it is impossible not to see the brilliance of his campaign and how he used his time there to turn himself into the Caesar we know.

We’ve hashed over what the boni might have been able to do to keep him from turning his proconsulate into a platform to further his ambitions. The simple answer is: nothing. The whole point of a proconsular province was for ex-consuls to a) make pots of money, b) cover themselves in glory, or c) both.

Somewhere I have or had a list of the 13 proconsular provinces, but darned if I can find it. It would be interesting to wonder what Caesar might have done with each of them. Illyricum was certainly considered for Caesar. Had he received it instead, Dacia probably would have come into the empire 200 years earlier and completely altered the way the various German tribes interacted with Rome. I think Bithynia et Pontia was also considered for Caesar. This would have let him play politics with Armenia and go eyeball to eyeball with Parthia. The Senate might have been able to exert a bit more control/interfere more because of the vital foreign policy questions. It (Caesar being there, not the Senate) could also have prevented the disaster of Carrhae and left Crassus alive. Sardinia would have put him in charge of a major grain source. Spain was always ripe for an uprising or two (weren’t there some problems there that Pompey ignored so he could stay home and coo with Julia?).

Lots of what-ifs, but I think Caesar could have made a name for himself no matter where he was sent.