Amateurs in command?

[Francois]

Le Bohec argues that every senator's son was actually training himself and reading military manuals, something which I find hard to believe. I'm not saying they were all lazy and incompetent but the quality of the officers must have varied greatly because there was no military academy like others have said.

I think Le Bohec's idea is quite interesting... of course, all senators' sons were not perfect students... but they were not supposed to all become the new Caesar or Pompey ! But I just think that they had to follow some sort of a basic military education, because of the military carreer they could follow (and no one knew what could happen then...).