Crossing the Rubicon

In 49 BC the Roman 13th legion crossed a small river near Rome. This seemingly minor moment would forever change history. Led by the one-time governor of Gaul, Julius Caesar, the legion marched towards Rome, against the Senate’s order.

Afraid of Caesar’s rising popularity among the common people of Rome, because of his conquests and the overabundance of wealth that followed them, the Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome. The Senate set the river Rubicon as the limit until where Caesar could move with his army, after which he would go to Rome alone. Caesar, afraid that the Senate would prosecute him because of his unauthorized conquest of Gaul, and because his governorship that granted him immunity had ended, was in a very difficult situation. With the options of facing prosecution alone or risking to start a civil war, Caesar, driven by his ambition and discontent with the Senate’s leadership, decided to risk a war. His decision forced two of the greatest Roman generals to face each other. Former allies turned enemies, Caesar and Pompey, orchestrated the two sides of a war that would forever change Rome; it signaled the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire.

Crossing the Rubicon means to pass a point of no return, to make an irreversible decision, just like Caesar crossing the river. Caesar knew that after the Rubicon, he could not change his mind. A civil war was inevitable, but after weighing his options he saw that an irreversible action was his best option.

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