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$Title{Julius Caesar
Chapter VI: Crossing The Rubicon}
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$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
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$Subject{caesar
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$Date{1900}
$Log{Hear Caesar At The Bridge*50590009.aud
See Crossing The Rubicon*0002101.scf
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Title:       Julius Caesar
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter VI: Crossing The Rubicon

     There was a little stream in ancient times, in the north of Italy, which
flowed westward into the Adriatic Sea, called the Rubicon.  This stream has
been immortalized by the transactions which we are now about to describe.

[See Crossing The Rubicon: In history the Rubicon is a grand, permanent, and
conspicuous stream.]

     The Rubicon was a very important boundary, and yet it was in itself so
small and insignificant that it is now impossible to determine which of two or
three little brooks here running into the sea is entitled to its name and
renown.  In history the Rubicon is a grand, permanent, and conspicuous stream,
gazed upon with continued interest by all mankind for nearly twenty centuries;
in nature it is an uncertain rivulet, for a long time doubtful and
undetermined, and finally lost.

     The Rubicon originally derived its importance from the fact that it was
the boundary between all that part of the north of Italy which is formed by
the valley of the Po, one of the richest and most magnificent countries of the
world, and the more southern Roman territories.  This country of the Po
constituted what was in those days called the hither Gaul, and was a Roman
province.  It belonged now to Caesar's jurisdiction, as the commander in Gaul.
All south of the Rubicon was territory reserved for the immediate jurisdiction
of the city.  The Romans, in order to protect themselves from any danger which
might threaten their own liberties from the immense armies which they raised
for the conquest of foreign nations, had imposed on every side very strict
limitations and restrictions in respect to the approach of these armies to the
Capitol.  The Rubicon was the limit on this northern side.  Generals
commanding in Gaul were never to pass it.  To cross the Rubicon with an army
on the way to Rome was rebellion and treason.  Hence the Rubicon became, as it
were, the visible sign and symbol of civil restriction to military power.

     As Caesar found the time of his service in Gaul drawing toward a
conclusion, he turned his thoughts more and more toward Rome, endeavoring to
strengthen his interest there by every means in his power, and to circumvent
and thwart the designs of Pompey.  He had agents and partisans in Rome who
acted for him and in his name.  He sent immense sums of money to these men, to
be employed in such ways as would most tend to secure the favor of the people.
He ordered the Forum to be rebuilt with great magnificence.  He arranged great
celebrations, in which the people were entertained with an endless succession
of games, spectacles, and public feasts.  When his daughter Julia, Pompey's
wife, died, he celebrated her funeral with indescribable splendor.  He
distributed corn in immense quantities among the people, and he sent a great
many captives home, to be trained as gladiators, to fight in the theaters for
their amusement.  In many cases, too, where he found men of talents and
influence among the populace, who had become involved in debt by their
dissipations and extravagance, he paid their debts, and thus secured their
influence on his side.  Men were astounded at the magnitude of these
expenditures, and, while the multitude rejoiced thoughtlessly in the pleasures
thus provided for them, the more reflecting and considerate trembled at the
greatness of the power which was so rapidly rising to overshadow the land.

     It increased their anxiety to observe that Pompey was gaining the same
kind of influence and ascendency too.  He had not the advantage which Caesar
enjoyed in the prodigious wealth obtained from the rich countries over which
Caesar ruled, but he possessed, instead of it, the advantage of being all the
time at Rome, and of securing, by his character and action there, a very wide
personal popularity and influence.  Pompey was, in fact, the idol of the
people.  At one time, when he was absent from Rome, at Naples, he was taken
sick.  After being for some days in considerable danger, the crisis passed
favorably, and he recovered.  Some of the people of Naples proposed a public
thanksgiving to the gods, to celebrate his restoration to health.  The plan
was adopted by acclamation, and the example, thus set, extended from city to
city, until it had spread throughout Italy, and the whole country was filled
with the processions, games, shows, and celebrations, which were instituted
every where in honor of the event.  And when Pompey returned from Naples to
Rome, the towns on the way could not afford room for the crowds that came
forth to meet him.  The high roads, the villages, the ports, says Plutarch,
were filled with sacrifices and entertainments.  Many received him with
garlands on their heads and torches in their hands, and, as they conducted him
along, strewed the way with flowers.

     In fact, Pompey considered himself as standing far above Caesar in fame
and power, and this general burst of enthusiasm and applause, educed by his
recovery from sickness, confirmed him in this idea.  He felt no solicitude, he
said, in respect to Caesar.  He should take no special precautions against any
hostile designs which he might entertain on his return from Gaul.  It was he
himself, he said, that had raised Caesar up to whatever of elevation he had
attained, and he could put him down even more easily than he had exalted him.

     In the mean time, the period was drawing near in which Caesar's command
in the provinces was to expire; and, anticipating the struggle with Pompey
which was about to ensue, he conducted several of his legions through the
passes of the Alps, and advanced gradually, as he had a right to do, across
the country of the Po toward the Rubicon, revolving in his capacious mind, as
he came, the various plans by which he might hope to gain the ascendency over
the power of his mighty rival, and make himself supreme.

     He concluded that it would be his wisest policy not to attempt to
intimidate Pompey by great and open preparations for war, which might tend to
rouse him to vigorous measures of resistance, but rather to cover and conceal
his designs, and thus throw his enemy off his guard.  He advanced, therefore,
toward the Rubicon with a small force.  He established his headquarters at
Ravenna, a city not far from the river, and employed himself in objects of
local interest there, in order to aver as much as possible the minds of the
people from imagining that he was contemplating any great design.  Pompey sent
to him to demand the return of a certain legion which he had lent him from his
own army at a time when they were friends.  Caesar complied with this demand
without any hesitation, and sent the legion home.  He sent with this legion,
also, some other troops which were properly his own, thus evincing a degree of
indifference in respect to the amount of the force retained under his command
which seemed wholly inconsistent with the idea that he contemplated any
resistance to the authority of the government at Rome.

     In the mean time, the struggle at Rome between the partisans of Caesar
and Pompey grew more and more violent and alarming.  Caesar through his
friends in the city, demanded to be elected consul.  The other side insisted
that he must first, if that was his wish, resign the command of his army, come
to Rome, and present himself as a candidate in the character of a private
citizen.  This the constitution of the state very properly required. In answer
to this requisition, Caesar rejoined, that, if Pompey would lay down his
military commands, he would do so too; if not, it was unjust to require it of
him.  The services, he added, which he had performed for his country, demanded
some recompense, which, moreover, they ought to be willing to award, even if,
in order to do it, it were necessary to relax somewhat in his favor the
strictness of ordinary rules.  To a large part of the people of the city these
demands of Caesar appeared reasonable.  They were clamorous to have them
allowed.  The partisans of Pompey, with the stern and inflexible Cato at their
head, deemed them wholly inadmissible, and contended with the most determined
violence against them.  The whole city was filled with the excitement of this
struggle, into which all the active and turbulent spirits of the capital
plunged with the most furious zeal, while the more considerate and thoughtful
of the population, remembering the days of Marius and Sylla, trembled at the
impending danger.  Pompey himself had no fear.  He urged the Senate to resist
to the utmost all of Caesar's claims, saying, if Caesar should be so
presumptuous as to attempt to march to Rome, he could raise troops enough by
stamping with his foot to put him down.

     It would require a volume to contain a full account of the disputes and
tumults, the maneuvers and debates, the votes and decrees which marked the
successive stages of this quarrel Pompey himself was all the time without the
city.  He was in command of an army there, and no general, while in command,
was allowed to come within the gates.  At last an exciting debate was broken
up in the Senate by one of the consuls rising to depart, saying that he would
hear the subject discussed no longer.  The time had arrived for action, and he
should send a commander, with an armed force, to defend the country from
Caesar's threatened invasion.  Caesar's leading friends, two tribunes of the
people, disguised themselves as slaves, and fled to the north to join their
master.  The country was filled with commotion and panic.  The Commonwealth
had obviously more fear of Caesar than confidence in Pompey.  The country was
full of rumors in respect to Caesar's power, and the threatening attitude
which he was assuming, while they who had insisted on resistance seemed, after
all, to have provided very inadequate means with which to resist.  A thousand
plans were formed, and clamorously insisted upon by their respective
advocates, for averting the danger.  This only added to the confusion, and the
city became at length pervaded with a universal terror.

     While this was the state of things at Rome, Caesar was quietly
established at Ravenna thirty or forty miles from the frontier.  He was
erecting a building for a fencing school there and his mind seemed to be
occupied very busily with the plans and models of the edifice which the
architects had formed.  Of course, in his intended march to Rome, his reliance
was not to be so much on the force which he should take with him, as on the
co-operation and support which he expected to find there.  It was his policy,
therefore, to move as quietly and privately as possible, and with as little
display of violence, and to avoid every thing which might indicate his
intended march to any spies which might be around him, or to any other persons
who might be disposed to report what they observed at Rome. Accordingly on the
very eve of his departure, he busied himself with his fencing school, and
assumed with his officers and soldiers a careless and unconcerned air, which
prevented any one from suspecting his design.

     In the course of the day he privately sent forward some cohorts to the
southward, with orders for them to encamp on the banks of the Rubicon.  When
night came he sat down to supper as usual, and conversed with his friends in
his ordinary manner, and went with them afterward to a public entertainment.
As soon as it was dark and the streets were still, he set off secretly from
the city, accompanied by a very few attendants.  Instead of making use of his
ordinary equipage, the parading of which would have attracted attention to his
movements, he had some mules taken from a neighboring bake-house, and
harnessed into his chaise.  There were torch-bearers provided to light the
way.  The cavalcade drove on during the night, finding, however, the hasty
preparations which had been made inadequate for the occasion.  The torches
went out, the guides lost their way, and the future conqueror of the world
wandered about bewildered and lost, until, just after break of day, the party
met with a peasant who undertook to guide them.  Under his direction they made
their way to the main road again, and advanced then without further difficulty
to the banks of the river, where they found that portion of the army which had
been sent forward encamped, and awaiting their arrival.

     Caesar stood for some time upon the banks of the stream, musing upon the
greatness of the undertaking in which simply passing across it would involve
him.  His officers stood by his side.  "We can retreat now," said he, "but
once across that river and we must go on." He paused for some time, conscious
of the vast importance of the decision, though he thought only, doubtless, of
its consequences to himself.  Taking the step which was now before him would
necessarily end either in his realizing the loftiest aspirations of his
ambition, or in his utter and irreparable ruin.  There were vast public
interests, too, at stake, of which, however he probably thought but little.
It proved, in the end, that the history of the whole Roman world, for several
centuries, was depending upon the manner in which the question now in Caesar's
mind should turn.

     There was a little bridge across the Rubicon at the point where Caesar
was surveying it.  While he was standing there, the story is, a peasant or
shepherd came from the neighboring fields with a shepherd's pipe - a simple
musical instrument, made of a reed, and used much by the rustic musicians of
those days.  The soldiers and some of the officers gathered around him to hear
him play.  Among the rest came some of Caesar's trumpeters, with their
trumpets in their hands.  The shepherd took one of these martial instruments
from the hands of its possessor, laying aside his own, and began to sound a
charge - which is a signal for a rapid advance - and to march at the same time
over the bridge "An omen! a prodigy!" said Caesar.  "Let us march where we are
called by such a divine intimation.  The die is cast."

[Hear Caesar At The Bridge]
He pressed forward over the bridge.

     So saying, he pressed forward over the bridge, while the officers,
breaking up the encampment, put the columns in motion to follow him.

     It was shown abundantly, on many occasions in the course of Caesar's
life, that he had no faith in omens.  There are equally numerous instances to
show that he was always ready to avail himself of the popular belief in them,
to awaken his soldiers' ardor or to allay their fears.  Whether, therefore, in
respect to this story of the shepherd trumpeter, it was an incident that
really and accidentally occurred, or whether Caesar planned and arranged it
himself, with reference to its effect, or whether, which is, perhaps, after
all, the most probable supposition, the tale was only an embellishment
invented out of something or nothing by the story-tellers of those days, to
give additional dramatic interest to the narrative of the crossing of the
Rubicon, it must be left for each reader to decide.

     As soon as the bridge was crossed, Caesar called an assembly of his
troops, and, with signs of great excitement and agitation, made an address to
them on the magnitude of the crisis through which they were passing.  He
showed them how entirely he was in their power; he urged them, by the most
eloquent appeals, to stand by him, faithful and true, promising them the most
ample rewards when he should have attained the object at which he aimed.  The
soldiers responded to this appeal with promises of the most unwavering
fidelity.

     The first town on the Roman side of the Rubicon was Ariminum.  Caesar
advanced to this town.  The authorities opened its gates to him - very
willing, as it appeared, to receive him as their commander.  Caesar's force
was yet quite small, as he had been accompanied by only a single legion in
crossing the river.  He had, however, sent orders for the other legions, which
had been left in Gaul, to join him without any delay, though any
re-enforcement of his troops seemed hardly necessary, as he found no
indications of opposition to his progress.  He gave his soldiers the strictest
injunctions to do no injury to any property, public or private, as they
advanced, and not to assume, in any respect, a hostile attitude toward the
people of the country.  The inhabitants, therefore, welcomed him wherever he
came, and all the cities and towns followed the example of Ariminum,
surrendering, in fact, faster than he could take possession of them.

     In the confusion of the debates and votes in the Senate at Rome before
Caesar crossed the Rubicon, one decree had been passed deposing him from his
command of the army, and appointing a successor.  The name of the general thus
appointed was Domitius.  The only real opposition which Caesar encountered in
his progress toward Rome was from him.  Domitius had crossed the Apennines at
the head of an army on his way northward to supersede Caesar in his command,
and had reached the town of Corfinium, which was perhaps one third of the way
between Rome and the Rubicon.  Caesar advanced upon him here and shut him in.

     After a brief siege the city was taken, and Domitius and his army were
made prisoners.  Every body gave them up for lost, expecting that Caesar would
wreak terrible vengeance upon them.  Instead of this, he received the troops
at once into his own service, and let Domitius go free.

     In the mean time, the tidings of Caesar's having passed the Rubicon, and
of the triumphant success which he was meeting with at the commencement of his
march toward Rome, reached the Capitol, and added greatly to the prevailing
consternation.  The reports of the magnitude of his force and of the rapidity
of his progress were greatly exaggerated.  The party of Pompey and the Senate
had done every thing to spread among the people the terror of Caesar's name,
in order to arouse them to efforts for opposing his designs; and now, when he
had broken through the barriers which had been intended to restrain him, and
was advancing toward the city in an unchecked and triumphant career, they were
overwhelmed with dismay Pompey began to be terrified at the danger which was
impending.  The Senate held meetings without the city - councils of war, as it
were, in which they looked to Pompey in vain for protection from the danger
which he had brought upon them.  He had said that he could raise an army
sufficient to cope with Caesar at any time by stamping with his foot.  They
told him they thought now that it was high time for him to stamp.

     In fact, Pompey found the current setting every where strongly against
him.  Some recommended that commissioners should be sent to Caesar to make
proposals for peace.  The leading men, however, knowing that any peace made
with him under such circumstances would be their own ruin, resisted and
defeated the proposal.  Cato abruptly left the city and proceeded to Sicily,
which had been assigned him as his province.  Others fled in other directions.
Pompey himself, uncertain what to do, and not daring to remain, called upon
all his partisans to join him, and set off at night, suddenly, and with very
little preparation and small supplies, to retreat across the country toward
the shores of the Adriatic Sea.  His destination was Brundusium, the usual
port of embarkation for Macedon and Greece.

     Caesar was all this time gradually advancing toward Rome.  His soldiers
were full of enthusiasm in his cause.  As his connection with the government
at home was sundered the moment he crossed the Rubicon, all supplies of money
and of provisions were cut off in that quarter until he should arrive at the
Capitol and take possession of it.  The soldiers voted; however, that they
would serve him without pay.  The officers, too, assembled together, and
tendered him the aid of their contributions.  He had always observed a very
generous policy in his dealings with them, and he was now greatly gratified at
receiving their requital of it.

     The further he advanced, too, the more he found the people of the country
through which he passed disposed to espouse his cause.  They were struck with
his generosity in releasing Domitius.  It is true that it was a very sagacious
policy that prompted him to release him.  But then it was generosity too.  In
fact, there must be something of a generous spirit in the soul to enable a man
even to see the policy of generous actions.

     Among the letters of Caesar that remain to the present day, there is one
written about this time to one of his friends, in which he speaks of this
subject.  "I am glad," says he, "that you approve of my conduct at Corfinium.
I am satisfied that such a course is the best one for us to pursue, as by so
doing we shall gain the good will of all parties, and thus secure a permanent
victory.  Most conquerors have incurred the hatred of mankind by their
cruelties, and have all, in consequence of the enmity they have thus awakened,
been prevented from long enjoying their power.  Sylla was an exception; but
his example of successful cruelty I have no disposition to imitate.  I will
conquer after a new fashion, and fortify myself in the possession of the power
I acquire by generosity and mercy."

     Domitius had the ingratitude, after this release, to take up arms again,
and wage a new war against Caesar.  When Caesar heard of it, he said it was
all right.  "I will act out the principles of my nature," said he, "and he may
act out his."

     Another instance of Caesar's generosity occurred, which is even more
remarkable than this.  It seems that among the officers of his army there were
some whom he had appointed at the recommendation of Pompey, at the time when
he and Pompey were friends.  These men would; of course, feel under
obligations of gratitude to Pompey, as they owed their military rank to his
friendly interposition in their behalf.  As soon as the war broke out, Caesar
gave them all his free permission to go over to Pompey's side, if they chose
to do so.

     Caesar acted thus very liberally in all respects.  He surpassed Pompey
very much in the spirit of generosity and mercy with which he entered upon the
great contest before them.  Pompey ordered every citizen to join his standard,
declaring that he should consider all neutrals as his enemies. Caesar, on the
other hand, gave free permission to every one to decline, if he chose, taking
any part in the contest, saying that he should consider all who did not act
against him as his friends.  In the political contests of our day, it is to be
observed that the combatants are much more prone to imitate the bigotry of
Pompey than the generosity of Caesar, condemning, as they often do, those who
choose to stand aloof from electioneering struggles, more than they do their
most determined opponents and enemies.

     When, at length, Caesar arrived at Brundusium, he found that Pompey had
sent a part of his army across the Adriatic into Greece, and was waiting for
the transports to return that he might go over himself with the remainder. In
the mean time, he had fortified himself strongly in the city.  Caesar
immediately laid siege to the place, and he commenced some works to block up
the mouth of the harbor.  He built piers on each side, extending out as far
into the sea as the depth of the water would allow them to be built.  He then
constructed a series of rafts, which he anchored on the deep water, in a line
extending from one pier to the other.  He built towers upon these rafts, and
garrisoned them with soldiers, in hopes by this means to prevent all egress
from the fort.  He thought that, when this work was completed, Pompey would be
entirely shut in, beyond all possibility of escape.

     The transports, however, returned before the work was completed.  Its
progress was, of course, slow, as the constructions were the scene of a
continued conflict; for Pompey sent out rafts and galleys against them every
day, and the workmen had thus to build in the midst of continual
interruptions, sometimes from showers of darts, arrows, and javelins,
sometimes from the conflagrations of fireships, and sometimes from the
terrible concussions of great vessels of war, impelled with prodigious force
against them.  The transports returned, therefore, before the defenses were
complete, and contrived to get into the harbor.  Pompey immediately formed his
plan for embarking the remainder of his army.

     He filled the streets of the city with barricades and pitfalls, excepting
two streets which led to the place of embarkation.  The object of these
obstructions was to embarrass Caesar's progress through the city in case he
should force an entrance while his men were getting on board the ships.  He
then, in order to divert Caesar's attention from his design, doubled the
guards stationed upon the walls on the evening of his intended embarkation,
and ordered them to make vigorous attacks upon all Caesar's forces outside.
He then, when the darkness came on, marched his troops through the two streets
which had been left open, to the landing place, and got them as fast as
possible on board the transports.  Some of the people of the town contrived to
make known to Caesar's army what was going on, by means of signals from the
walls; the army immediately brought scaling ladders in great numbers, and,
mounting the walls with great ardor and impetuosity, they drove all before
them, and soon broke open the gates and got possession of the city.  But the
barricades and pitfalls, together with the darkness, so embarrassed their
movements, that Pompey succeeded in completing his embarkation and sailing
away.

     Caesar had no ships in which to follow.  He returned to Rome.  He met, of
course, with no opposition.  He re-established the government there, organized
the Senate anew, and obtained supplies of corn from the public granaries, and
of money from the city treasury in the Capitol.  In going to the Capitoline
Hill after this treasure, he found the officer who had charge of the money
stationed there to defend it.  He told Caesar that it was contrary to law for
him to enter.  Caesar said that, for men with swords in their hands, there was
no law.  The officer still refused to admit him. Caesar then told him to open
the doors, or he would kill him on the spot. "And you must understand," he
added, "that it will be easier for me to do it than it has been to say it."
The officer resisted no longer, and Caesar went in.

     After this, Caesar spent some time in vigorous campaigns in Italy, Spain,
Sicily, and Gaul, wherever there was manifested any opposition to his sway.
When this work was accomplished, and all these countries were completely
subjected to his dominion, he began to turn his thoughts to the plan of
pursuing Pompey across the Adriatic Sea.