Cicero's Ineffective Leader

Cicero was an ineffective leader because he did not follow Caesar’s instructions and let the cohorts venture out of the garrison and it seems that he could not gain control over the troops once the fighting started, since they were so stricken by fear that they “nearly took leave of their senses” and the panic only subsided once Caesar arrived to help (153). Caesar seemed to be understanding of the strange accidents that happen during war and “made only one criticism – that the cohorts had been allowed to leave their post in the garrison: Cicero should have avoided running even the slightest risk” (153). Once Caesar arrived the troops calmed down and under his leadership they ravaged the country and punished the instigators of the attack, afterwards Caesar withdrew his army, with just the “two cohorts of Cicero’s legion…lost” (154).
One of the contrasts made between Caesar and Vercingetorix is how they acquire troops. Caesar …show more content…
Vercingetorix, on the other hand, ordered each tribe to provide hostages, troops, and to produce a certain amount of arms. He then “terrorized waverers with the rigours of an iron discipline” (157). Caesar was handling a “political strife” in Rome and gathering recruits through a new law while the Gauls planned a rebellion and Vercingetorix gathered troops by force. Also, when Caesar’s troops were hard pressed, he offered them the chance to abandon the siege if their privations were unbearable, but they kept on fighting because they thought it would be a “humiliation to abandon siege now, and would rather suffer any hardship than fail in