Julius Caesar | The Rubicon

On January 10, 49 B.C.E., General Julius Caesar entered Roman territory by crossing the Rubicon, a stream in what is now Northern Italy. In crossing the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war that signaled the end of the Roman Republic. Julius Caesar was a very popular military and political leader who expanded the borders of the Roman Republic through what are today France, Spain, and the island of Britain. Caesar’s popularity and independence created tension between him and other elected officials in Rome. The Rubicon was a shallow river that served as a boundary between Rome and its provinces. Caesar crossed from a part of Gaul, where he was serving as governor. It was against the law to cross into Roman territory with an army, and Caesar knew this—he knew he was starting a civil war. He may have quoted one of his favorite plays when crossing the stream—Alea iacta est, the die is cast. (Romans were familiar with throwing (casting) dice as a game of chance.) The Roman civil war that followed lasted five years. It ended with Caesar being named Rome’s “dictator for life.” Years later, the Roman Republic dissolved and the Roman Empire emerged—with Caesar’s adopted son, Augustus, serving as its first emperor.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/caesar-crosses-rubicon/

Caesar’s “thoughts began to work,” wavering as he weighed the consequences of the action of the hour. According to Plutarch Caesar “revolved with himself, and often changed his opinion one way and the other, without speaking a word. This was when his purposes fluctuated most…computing how many calamities his passing that river would bring upon mankind, and what a relation of it would be transmitted to posterity.”
Lifting his voice above the din in the darkness behind him, “in a sort of passion,” he abandoned “himself to what might come, and using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts” Alea iacta est—Let the dice fly high “with these words he took the river.”
https://www.mzhowell.com/let-the-dice-fly-high/
Caesar would go on to defeat his enemies as they fled Rome, shaken loose by the speed of his approach and the confidence of the battle-scarred men at his side. He would later crush his rival Pompey in a final battle at Pharsalus in central Greece, despite being outnumbered three to one, and chase Pompey to his death on the far shores of Egypt.

The day would come when he would crown himself dictator of a new Roman empire, launching a new halcyon age for a 500-year-old civilization that would endure 500 years more.

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