Why did ceasar crossed the rubicon

However, after sunset some mules from a near-by mill were put in his carriage, and he set forward on his journey as privately as Julius Caesar possible, and with an exceedingly scanty retinue. The lights went out. He lost his way and wandered about a long time - till at last, by help of a guide, whom he discovered towards daybreak, he proceeded on foot through some narrow paths, and again reached the road.

Coming up with his troops on the banks of the Rubicon, which was the frontier of his province, he halted for a while, and revolving in his mind the importance of the step he meditated, he turned to those about him, saying: 'Still we can retreat!

But once let us pass this little bridge, - and nothing is left but to fight it out with arms! A man of strikingly noble mien and graceful aspect appeared close at hand, and played upon a pipe. To hear him not merely some shepherds, but soldiers too came flocking from their posts, and amongst them some trumpeters. He snatched a trumpet from one of them and ran to the river with it; then sounding the "Advance!

At this Caesar cried out, 'Let us go where the omens of the Gods and the crimes of our enemies summon us! The pair were followed by the still-more formidable Pompey and Caesar. Before his military exploits in Gaul, Caesar was very much the junior of the two, and only rose to prominence when elected consul in 59 BC. As consul, this ambitious man of a minor noble family allied himself with the great general Pompey and the rich politician Crassus to form the First Triumvirate.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons. These powerful men had little need of the senate, and in 58 BC Caesar used their influence to secure a command in the Alps which, by giving him years of freedom and 20, men to command, broke every law of the Senate.

Caesar used the following five years to become one of the most brilliant and successful commanders in history. The huge, multi-racial and famously fearsome territory of Gaul modern France was conquered and subdued in one of the most complete conquests in history.

In his reflections on the campaign, Caesar later boasted that he had killed a million Gauls, enslaved a million more, and left only the remaining million untouched. Caesar made sure that detailed and partisan accounts of his exploits made it back to Rome, where they made him the darling of the people in a city beset by infighting in his absence.

He likely arrived around January 11, and stopped on the northern bank of the small river border, the Rubicon. Caesar seemed to contemplate the situation understandably for some time before making his final fateful decision. First testing the loyalty of his men, he only had the XIII legion with him at this point he gave a stirring speech pointing out the wrongs done to him and the tribunes. With the clear support of his men, Caesar added, " Even yet we may draw back; but once across that little bridge, and the whole issue is with the sword.

Quickly taking several northern towns, the news reached Rome by January Pompey, the Republic's hope, was left without his main army, which was still in Spain, and his support base was in the eastern provinces. Despite having two legions to Caesar's one, Caesar's Gallic legions were on the move to join him, so Pompey and the rest of Caesar's opposition had little choice but to leave Rome immediately and abandon Italy to Caesar.

When Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the Senate finally realized that they had made a terrible mistake. The mistake wasn't in letting the situation get that far, but in that they believed the Roman and Italian people would rally to defend the Republican system. What they failed to understand was that the people had little trust in the Senate, and that Caesar had won them over through his popular agenda while in political office. Caesar's great propaganda campaign, his books " Bellum Gallicum the Gallic Wars " endeared the people even more to their almost mythical hero, and the Senate's cause in Italy was lost.

Unable to levy armies, or develop a meaningful resistance, the Senate and Pompey had little choice but to take their business out of Rome and into Greece. It was here, and further east, where Pompey held considerable sway, and where the Senate hoped to raise armies to defeat Caesar. This too, however, worked in Caesar's favor. Without the fear of bloodshed and damage to their homes in Italy, the people had little reason to support the Senate. Caesar marched throughout northern Italy accepting the capitulation of cities and garnering support with little difficulty.

Pompey and the Republicans, meanwhile, fled to Brundisium in the heel of Italy, where they hoped to secure the bulk of the transport vessels available in the region. The majority of Pompey's forces were removed across the Adriatic to Dyrrhachium, along with the bulk of the Senate, but by early March of 49 BC he still had nearly two full legions with him in Brundisium.

Caesar approached quickly with six legions in an attempt to put an end to the resistance then and there. Attempting to box Pompey in, Caesar tried to negotiate peace, but Pompey delayed just long enough to make good his escape. Despite Caesar's attempts to block the harbor, the Republicans controlled the navy and Pompey escaped with his forces intact. Caesar now faced an important choice. Without transports, he would have to face a difficult crossing in order to pursue Pompey, and Pompey's large army of seven legions waited without their commander in Spain.

He also needed to go to Rome to settle a situation that was certainly bordering on riotous. Though Caesar so far had shown clemency to his opponents, people in Rome weren't sure if the new conqueror would be like Sulla and Marius. To complicate matters further, Caesar's Legate Titus Labienus, who was left in command of Cisalpine Gaul, decided to switch sides and support Pompey. Caesar decided the best course of action was to settle matters in Rome, then move north to deal with Labienus, and then west to confront Pompey's army in Spain.

His legate Curio was sent to Sicily with three legions where the ultra-conservative Cato was governor, to not only stamp out resistance, but to secure its valuable grain supplies.