How does Caesar get his reputation as a great military leader in the novel, Fortune’s Favorites?

Caesar makes his military career in a variety of manners, as a hunter and crucifier of pirates, as a private citizen leading colonial troops against Mithridates' army, and as a logistic genius. He leads a legion of the Fimbriani, toughened veterans, to victory against rebellious Mytilene, winning the Corona Civica — the Civic Crown — as a result — only one step lower than the Grass Crown that Sulla had won.