Eli5: Why was it world-changing that Caesar crossed the Rubicon?
In: 1397
Because it was one of the major events that started the chain reaction which ultimately led to the destruction of the Roman Republic and it’s replacement with an Empire.
Chances are the Republic would have fallen at some point anyway even if Caesar himself was not responsible because things were starting to fall apart at that point, but nonetheless that choice ultimately led to him going to war against the senate and being appointed consul for life as appeasement.
“Crossing the Rubicon” has become an idiom for “point of no return” – once you do this the cascade of events will begin and you can’t stop it.
When Caesar marched his armies across the Rubicon and towards Rome the intentions were clear – he was instigating a civil war to install himself as Emperor of Rome.
You can’t undo such an action, it would either end with Emperor Julius Caesar or Beheaded Julius Caesar.
It was a point of no return.
One Caesar crossed the rubicon he crossed into Italy proper. And bringing his army across without the approval of the senate was a big huge No-No.
Caesar crossing the rubicon is to Rome like the shelling of fort sumpter is to the USA. That shelling official started the American civil war, same goes for Caesar crossing the rubicon.
Had he stayed on the other side, it’s possible that things could’ve been worked out diplomatically. But once he crossed he officially embarked on his journey to be in charge.
Now the crossing itself? Eh. It might have not been important at all had Caesar LOST. Then it would maybe be a footnote that no one cared about. But he didn’t lose. He won. And changed the fabric of the Roman Empire. Which is a pretty big deal.
When returning from war, the rubicon was the official/ceremonial place where an army disbanded and soldiers became citizens again.
When ceaser crossed the rubicon, he did so with his army intact. Meaning he literally marched an army towards Rome, declaring his intent for everyone to see.
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Caesar was the general of a Roman Army unit in Gaul (the border of Spain and what Rome considered it’s home territory. Roman Generals were also territorial governors similar to how feudalism worked in the middle ages. By law they could only command their army within the territory appointed by them. Inside Italy itself, only praetors and consuls had the right to command. In order to help prevent civil war any general that entered Italy leading his troops would forfeit his legal right to command and any of his orders considered illegal.
Over the previous decade, Cesar had built up a fortune and a powerful army in conquering Gaul. While away, Cesar made known his wish to renew his consulship in absentia. This would be like a general also being a congressman in the US. Other consuls feared the kind of money and power he could bring, especially since he was the successful leader of a military conquest. So there were several attempts to strip him of his title and deny him the right to renew his consulship. In the end if he made no action his political career would be over. Someone else would be appointed to govern Gaul and he would become a landowner in a far flung Roman conquest.
So by crossing the border into Italy, the Rubicon, at the head of an army Julius Caesar intentionally broke Roman law and made himself and anyone who followed him a traitor.
Thus the term became an expression of taking an action which you cannot undo.
Well first off, it’s a face off between some of the most powerful people (proportionally) of all time. Pompey vs Caesar truly was the showdown of the millennium. Two epically powerful and legendary heroes, fighting for the future of civilization. That sounds like fantasy book fluff, but it really isn’t. It actually happened.
Because by crossing the Rubicon, Caesar basically changed the course of western civilization, and the impacts of doing so are pretty much responsible for where we are today. It’s basically a massive lynchpin in history in that it decided how borders were drawn ever since.
So, Caesar was a big, big political player in Rome and had maneuverered his way into a governorship of the province of Gaul. During his 10 year stint in Gaul, Caesar had essentially built up a massive army, loyal to *him* personally. Using his loyalties, his vast, vast wealth, and influence, he engineered what was essentially a military coup. He took arguably the greatest civilization born out of Europe at the time, and decided things weren’t working. He saw himself as the person who could fix the Republic’s problems.
The problem was, that the most of Rome, did not agree. The people in charge saw this as a threat to their authority. The ruling elite where truly the most powerful families proportionally in history. Owning up to 99.9% of the wealth of Rome. To give you an idea, these people adjusted for inflation are far richer than the richest billionaires today, yet the average Roman citizen was far poorer than the poorest of people today, anywhere in the world. That’s how unequal Rome was, and how powerful these ruling classes were (to give you a rough idea). Anyway, these ruling classes didn’t have much time to react, so the rushed defence was that if Caesar was to cross the Rubicon into Italia proper, that would be the end of either Caesar, or the end of the Roman Republic.
Caesar’s victory meant that it was the latter. Caesar invaded, destroyed the Roman Republic and built the Roman Empire in it’s place, with Caesar as the sole Dictator and went to work reforming Rome.
1. He implemented land reforms, added social and political measures in order to stabilize the state and improve the standard of living for the lower classes.
2. He started (and mostly personally funded) vast infrastructure projects, such as roads, public buildings, cities, all to turn Rome into a machine that generated wealth for the elite, into one that more fairly compensated normal people
3. He wiped as much of the old guard away as he could. Even reinventing the Calendar, so as to distinguish his rulership over his predecessors.
4. He bought the loyalty of senators that previously defied him. Basically buying Rome’s political class for personal use.
5. He implemented a professional Roman army, with the sole goal of expanding the empire as far as possible. And basically bring it to it’s most illustrious and expansive point.
Don’t get it twisted, Caesar was no altruist. He did what was necessary to secure power, and sometimes that happened to align with the needs of the people. But hey, the results speak for themselves.
All the “glory of Rome”, European kings taking the title “Czar” and “Kaisar”, European kingdoms deigning authority and legitimacy through Roman inheritance, and wanting to reconnect with these glory days of Empire are all because Caesar chose to cross the Rubicon.
Basically, much of European history can all be traced back to that point. It’s a true lynchpin of History.
It was Rome-changing because it started a great political change and ultimately a civil war that would give rise to the Imperial system over the current Republican system (which was failing)
It was Rome-changing because whatever affected Rome affected all the western world, then and in many ways up until the present.
You might find [this /r/askhistorians thread](https://np.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/xmcykv/the_rubicon_river_is_one_of_the_most_famous_in/) interesting in this context. The idea of “Caesar crossing the Rubicon” doesn’t appear until some time after Caesar’s death, and the modern idea of what happened came about nearly 100 years later.
The myth behind it is that at the time, Rome had strict rules in place to prevent military dictatorships (or dictatorships of any kind). One of those rules was that Roman armies weren’t allowed into the main part of Italy without explicit permission. Generally the dictatorships that had happened were the result of someone breaking this rule and bringing their armies into Italy, at which point their opponents would rush in as well. This happened a generation or so before Caesar with Sulla, who was briefly dictator of Rome.
In the myth, the Rubicon (noting that no one today is quite sure where it was) was the boundary between where Caesar was allowed to take his army, and where he wasn’t. By crossing it he was essentially declaring war on Rome and would either win – as he did, becoming dictator for life – or lose and die a traitor.
The reality is probably a bit more complicated; tensions were increasing between Caesar and Pompey (his main political rival, based in Greece while Caesar was based in Gaul). Pompey had been married to Caesar’s daughter, in an attempt to keep peace between them, but she had died. Similarly, the third person holding Rome together (Marcus Licinius Crassus – who had become rich and powerful under Sulla’s dictatorship and was a mentor and patron to Caesar) died at the Battle of Carrhae (in what is now Turkey).
There were negotiations between Caesar, Pompey and the Roman Senate to try to sort things out (supposedly Caesar was willing to give up a lot of his power provided Pompey did as well), but as Pompey had troops around Rome the Roman Government was more afraid of him that Caesar, so weren’t willing to order him to disarm.
It is hard to know for sure what happened – there are conflicting accounts, and the more famous ones weren’t written for decades (and they all have some political biases).
The outcome was that Caesar marched his troops on Rome (either before or after Pompey’s Rome had effectively declared war on him). Pompey was outmanoeuvred and ended up fleeing to his stronghold in Greece (where most of his forces were) along with much of the Senate. This was followed by a year or so of fighting across Spain, Greece and the Roman world between them, with Pompey losing, fleeing to Egypt and being assassinated. The civil war would continue for another couple of years (spreading to Egypt, with Caesar supporting Pharaoh Cleopatra against her rival Ptolemy), eventually settling down in 45 BC, with the last Pompeian forces being defeated, a year before Caesar would be assassinated.
slight tack on since i did not see it mentioned… the crossing of the rubicon also included Big C burning the bridge behind him, and became the source of the saying about being careful about burning bridges, as if his gambit failed he had no retreat.
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