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I just started watching, so I can't really give a fair assessment yet. But the series about Julius Caesar begins with a scene showing him as a 19-year-old army recruit fighting in a pitched battle as an infantryman. I know that he rose through the ranks, but wouldn't a young man of his background have enlisted as a cavalryman? His family was out of favor during Sulla's reign, but weren't they still relatively wealthy?
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Caesar fought in the the Siege of Mytilene in 81 BC when he was 19. At the time he was a Legate under Marcus Minucius Thermus. Caesar wanted to be noticed in battle and, in a siege, that meant scaling the walls, not sitting in a saddle watching other people fight.
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He rode a horse when the army was moving but the only battle we know he participated in that year was the siege of Mytilene.