America’s Rubicon crossing – and all that goes with it On Jan. 10 of 49 B.C., then-Roman general Julius Caesar crossed an insignificant stream gurgling through the northern part of present-day Italy.
It separated Roman territory from the province of Gaul (France). Caesar knew perfectly well that he was taking an irrevocable step, committing himself to a specific course.
Yet Caesar was not traveling alone, for he flaunted armies — in direct defiance of an ultimatum from Rome’s Senate that should he lead his troops across the Rubicon, it would be a point of no return.
It would mean civil war. “Yeah, so what?” thought Julius, undeterred. After all, if victorious, it would also mean the end of the Roman Republic, and he alone, Julius Caesar, would then have supreme command to reorder the Roman state on his own terms — the ultimate repercussions of which we’re all quite familiar with.