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Go Rubicon and conquer all of Rome

It so happened that many historical events not only settle in works, chronicles and chronicles, but are firmly fixed in a living speech, and even people who have not heard of the real background of phraseology could use them. So it happened with the famous crossing of Caesar through the legendary river. The commander decided to cross the Rubicon, the phraseology remained in the speech of the descendants.

This river is now called Fiumicino, flows into the Adriatic and flows between two Italian cities: Rimini and Cesena. Its name was born from "rubeus" (that is, "red" in Latin, because its waters flow through clay soils). Now it is a small river, almost dry, because its waters have been used for many centuries to irrigate fields. But in Caesar's time it was precisely along the reddish rivulet that the border between Italy itself and one of the Roman lands-Cisalpine Gaul. Gaius Julius, then a proconsul, commanded the 13th Paige Legion and was obliged to stop at the river: the proconsul could command the soldiers only in the provinces and could not lead the legions in the lands of Italy proper. This would be a direct violation of the law and the powers of the Senate, a state crime and therefore punishable by death. But there was no other choice, alas.

Then Caesar fought for power with the Senate of Rome, having taken control of the province of Gaul. The famous commander did not immediately decide to fight, he could go to various agreements, if only there was no bloodshed, and even with all his might dragged out the talks, postponing the beginning of actual military operations. However, his efforts did not lead to success, far too many wishing war. His opponent was Pompey, who had a huge Roman army. Caesar's position was not particularly rosy: the bulk of his army was behind the Alps. We needed rapid moves and decisive options, and there was no time to wait for reinforcements. Therefore, in January 49 BC, Gaius Julius ordered his commanders to cross the Rubicon and occupy the town of Armin, which was located to the south of the mouth of the river. This demarche called him not just to cross the Rubicon, the significance of this step was enormous.

A brilliant military leader was able to smash the powers of the Senate and become the sovereign and sole ruler of the Eternal City, because the opponents panicked and fled, as soon as they heard about the demarche of Caesar. For him, this transition was also a fateful event. If you believe the story of the historian Suetonius, deciding to cross the Rubicon, the commander even said: "The die is thrown." After the victory, Guy Julius Caesar was able to conquer not only the people's love, but also created a powerful state that existed for another fifty years.

Ever since, the expression "to cross the Rubicon" has turned into a cruise phrase, which means the commission of a decisive act, the adoption of a fateful decision. That is, it is a significant step, dividing events forever into "before" and "after", fundamentally changing the state of affairs. There is no way back after such a decision. The expression is rather old, common in many languages of the world.

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