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Rubico (49 BCE)

Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius.

Bust of Julius Caesar. Vatican museums, Rome (Italy). Photo Jona Lendering.

In January 49, Julius Caesar crossed the river Rubico, the boundary between his province Cisalpine Gaul and Italy. In his company were soldiers of the Thirteenth legion, and their presence made the crossing of the river an act of treason. Caesar was well aware of this, and quoted the line from his favorite poet Menander: "Let the die be cast". He was now marching against the Senate (text).

The crossing of the river was the beginning of a civil war, in which general Pompey the Great defended the rights of the Senate. However, Caesar was swift: seeing that Pompey's army was in Hispania, he decided to strike at "an army without general" first, then returned to Italy, crossed the Adriatic sea, and defeated "a general without army" in August 48 in the battle of Pharsalus. The Roman republic had come to an end.

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On the line of photo's, the picture to the left shows a bridge that is part of a modern road that follows the course of the ancient Via Aemilia and crosses the river near modern Savignano. Here is a satellite photo. The second and third photos, kindly sent to me by Mr. Uwe Bahr, show an ancient bridge in the neighborhood. So here's a choice: a modern bridge on what appears to be the right place, or an old bridge that appears to be on the wrong place.

The bridge across the Rubico. Photo Jona Lendering.

To make things more complex, the identification of the Rubico is contested. The Peutinger map says that the river was twelve Roman miles (18 km) northwest of modern Rimini; following the course of the ancient Via Aemilia, we would arrive in Savignano, and the little river -which has been known as Fiumicino since times immemorial- has consequently been rebaptized in 1933. The statue of Caesar on the old bridge was added at the same time.

However, written sources indicate that the river has changed its course several times. Personally, I think that the presence of the ancient bridge proves that the watercourse of the Fiumicino/Rubico was already in existence in Antiquity. One of the two bridges near Savignano must be the place where, according to Livy, Caesar and the Thirteenth "assailed the world".

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