Yes it's true to an extent figures could be unreliable. But did Caesar fight his battles alone? No he didn't. He was not the ONLY person writing back to Rome, there were many individuals writing back to Rome. If his figures were wildly exaggerated then his exaggerations would not have stood up to much scrutiny, right? Did Quintus NEVER write to Marcus? Wouldn't Cicero (with his notoriously loud mouth), being a political opposite of Caesar make these supposed lies known? I'm using Cicero as an example but anyone could have made exaggerations public, from the tribune down to the legionary, to the camp follower, etc...You can't keep 70,000 mouths shut. And the notion of a pro Caesarian whitewashing of history just does not fly IMO.