Crossing the Rubicon ... It's got something to do with Caesar

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A. Yes. It's an expression meaning passing the point of no return, or committing oneself to a course of action. It's taken from Caesar's action in crossing the river Rubicon, the boundary between his province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy, when he was told not to.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q. Oh. Remind me about the great man.

A. Certainly, Caius Julius Caesar (100-44BC), general, dictator, and statesman, changed the course of the history of the Greco-Roman world decisively and irreversibly. Caesar's family, the Julii, traced their lineage back to the goddess Venus. In 78 Caesar went to Rhodes to study oratory under Molon. En route he was captured by pirates. Caesar raised his ransom, raised a naval force, captured his captors, and had them crucified.

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Q.� Quite a lad then What about his political career

A.� In 69 or 68 Caesar was elected quaestor - a financial administrator.� He was elected pontifex maximus - president of the pontifical college - in 63. By now he had become a controversial political figure. He became governor of Southern Spain in 61-60.

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He stood as consul - the highest position - in 59 and formed a coalition - the triumvirate - with Pompey and Crassus, booth great generals.

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Q.� A bit of a carve-up then

A.� Precisely.� Early in 59, Pompey sealed his alliance with Caesar by marrying Caesar's only child, Julia. As consul, Caesar introduced a bill for the allotment of Roman public lands in Italy, making provision for Pompey's soldiers.

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Caesar went off to conquer Gaul and the triumvirate continued to hold strong. But Caesar was becoming too powerful. In 55, it was the turn of Pompey and Crassus to be consuls and it was time for Caesar to lay down the command of his armies. The Senate, sensing that Caesar had no intention of giving up his power, decided that if he didn't stop, he would be treated as a public enemy.

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Q.� Where did all this happen

A.� On 10-11 January, 49, Caesar led his troops across the little river Rubicon, the boundary between his province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy. Crossing the Rubicon, Caesar spoke the famous words alea iacta sit ('let the dice be cast'). This was civil war.

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Q.� And he won it

A.� Caesar drove his opponents out of Italy and then crushed Pompey's army in Spain. Toward the end of 49, he followed Pompey across the Adriatic and won a decisive victory at Pharsalus on 9 August, 48. Caesar pursued Pompey from Thessaly to Egypt, where Pompey was murdered. Caesar wintered in Alexandria, fighting with the populace and dallying with Queen Cleopatra. In 47 he fought a brief local war in northeastern Anatolia with Pharnaces, king of the Cimmerian Bosporus.

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Caesar then returned to Rome, but a few months later he left for Africa and crushed his enemy's army at Thapsus and returned to Rome, only to leave in November for Spain to deal with a fresh outbreak of resistance, which he smashed at Munda on 17 March, 45.

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Q.� Then

A.� He then returned to Rome. On 15 March, 44, in the Senate House at Rome, he was stabbed to death by Brutus, a man he loved and trusted. Et tu, Brute ('You too, Brutus ') were his dying words.

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Steve Cunningham