Crossing the Rubicon

Did you know that the Roman Republic did not really become an "Empire" until Julius Caesar decided to cross the Rubicon River in Northern Italy? Hence, the famous quote used widely today, "....once you cross the Rubicon there is no turning back". I heard this quote this past week, and I decided to do some research on it.

Here is a good one from Suetonius in the late first century AD describing Caesar's dilemma upon reaching the River Rubicon: "Then, catching up with his cohorts at the river Rubicon, the point at which his province ended, he paused for a moment, and understanding what a huge thing he was planning, he turned and spoke to the men with him. "Even now we could turn back; but once we cross that tiny bridge, then everything will depend on armed force". On 17 January 49 BC, news reached Rome that Caesar had crossed the Rubicon...less than six years later, Caesar landed on the shores of Great Britain not too far from the White Dover cliffs...and the rest is history. The Roman Empire in various forms would last for more than a thousand more years.

In 1991, archaelogists finally pinpointed the original remains of the River Rubicon after having changed courses and disappeared many times during the last 2,000 years - it is almost precisely 200 miles north of the center of modern day Rome!!