Caesar at the Rubicon
—Chrissie

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            To cross the Rubicon is a fairly common phrase meaning to make a decision or take an action that will have serious consequences and cannot be undone. It arises from a very particular moment in history: Julius Caesar coming to Rome to defend himself against his enemies and demand recognition for his position and power.

            Caesar had spent nearly a decade as the governor of Gaul, the position he took after serving a year as one of the two Consuls, the executives at the head of the Roman Republic. He had pacified Gaul, captured their war leader, Vercingetorix, and was now owed a Triumph to celebrate his successes. He was also poised to run for a second term in the Consulship, which was at odds with his Triumph. In order to get on the ballot for the upcoming elections, he had to present himself as a candidate in person in Rome; however, if he crossed the city’s sacred boundary, the Pomerium, he would be forced to officially end his Gallic campaign and forgo his well-deserved Triumph. Caesar sent a request to the Senate that he be allowed to stand for the Consulship in absentia, to have his name on the ballot without having to present himself in the city. It was not an unusual request, under the circumstances, and similar allowances had been made in the past. He was refused.

            The Senatorial refusal had little to do with legal standards, though some were cited, and everything to do with personal rivalry in differences in the ideas about how the country should be run. Caesar, though a member of the most noble of the aristocratic Patrician families, was beloved by the people, and he saw value in them and recognized their potential power. His opponents in the Senate, most of whom with far less aristocratic blood, feared he sought to use his popularity to overthrow the Senate’s oligarchy and become king. The great irony in all of this is that had they not acted on that fear, the circumstances by which Caesar took power might never have come about. And so, seeing he had no other choice if he were to preserve his personal dignitas, Caesar took his army to Rome.

            He and the army crossed out of the province of Gaul on the night of 10-11 January 49 BCE. Six of the remaining sources for the era specifically mention the crossing of the Rubicon River, which was marked as the boundary between Gaul and Italy. Curiously, Caesar’s own account in his Bellum Civile does not make note of the crossing, going directly from political meetings in Gaul before to battles after. The story as it is generally known comes from the biographers Plutarch and Suetonius and the historian Appian. All three present him on the bank of the river, considering the weight of what he has planned, then saying iacto alea est, “the die is cast,” as he began to lead his soldiers across. It’s unlikely there was any such hesitation; he had made the decision to go to Rome weeks prior, if not earlier. It was, however, a good place to allow his men a rest and make a speech about the importance and righteousness of what they were about to do. Within months of crossing the Rubicon River, Caesar had control of Rome. The war between himself and his opponents, led by Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, would continue for another two years, but was essentially decided by this point. Arguably, so was the fate of the Roman Republic. Caesar imperator had taken power, and his successors would maintain it for centuries.