Wide Angle 9 - Crossing the Rubicon

This week’s Wide Angle is about a phrase that is commonly used in the English language but has a huge historical significance. I thought it would be a good idea to give a peep into the history of this phrase. The phrase is “Crossing the Rubicon”. This phrase is used to describe an event which is extremely path breaking, when the protagonist associated with it has to undergo a series of dilemmas before arriving at a decision to take a particular course of action – literally biting the bullet. Many events fit into this category e.g. India’s N-tests in 1998, Hitler’s invasion of Soviet Union (he thought long and hard), Japan’s decision to invade US instead of USSR in the Second World War etc. This event is also a point of no return for the person because the decision once taken unleashes a series of events that one may not be able to totally control. This is also what makes the decision so difficult to make. The phrase is taken from an event that happened in ancient history in Rome and is linked to Julius Caesar. It was Julius Caesar who crossed the Rubicon River and forever changed the face of Roman history after weeks of agonizing thought.

First a brief history of the Roman republic itself. Rome is surrounded by seven hills and is located at the banks of the river Tiber. It is said to have been found by two brothers Remus and Romulus after whom the city was named. It was ruled over by Greek origin kings called Etruscans till the 5th century BC who were often unpopular. The Roman people rose against these kings repeatedly until in 510 BC, the last king Tarquinius Superbus was overthrown by Lucius Brutus and Rome was established as a republic. Word as per the western historians (who have also written our history) is that this was history’s first functional republic though I have read some accounts of communities in ancient Orissa who were republics too. Anyway, the way the republic was administered was through the Senate which derived most of its senators through a class of noblemen called Patricians. The common folk of Rome were called Plebians and there was “An Assembly of the People” for them where they could pass resolutions.

The senators had to be elected every few years though they achieved this through patronage and often money power. To help run the republic smoothly from a leadership perspective, two Consuls were elected who would coordinate and run the republic and its empire. This was arranged in such a way so that no single person could dominate because one consul could veto the actions of the other consul. Also, the consuls had a term of only one year after which they had to be re-elected. This was done so that no one got used to office and to avoid dictatorial tendencies developing. There was also a provision to appoint someone a dictator for 6 months in case of an emergency but he had to relinquish control after those six months were over. To represent the plebs and their voices, there was a tribune elected who would speak for the people, this was a very powerful position to begin with but was eventually brought under senatorial control.

Anyway, this republic developed extraordinary martial capabilities and produced outstanding generals so that Rome first captured all of Italy by edging out all other neighbor kingdoms and subjugating them. The expansion then moved to East with the Balkans and Greece coming under the Roman boot. It also moved South after the defeat of Carthage (modern day Tunisia) into Africa with Egypt also coming under Roman control. As the power of the empire grew, the stakes became higher and inevitably led to the rise of very powerful military men. The army also changed its characteristics from being a peasant army in the early days (where people campaigned for 6 months and then got back to harvest their fields) to a more professional army.

With the rise of military strongmen came the need to maintain the republic without letting any of them become a dictator. There were also violent civil wars as those that brought Marius or Sulla in power around 102-101 BC. During the time of military strongmen ruling, they ensured that the senate either appointed them dictators or made them consul for as long as they wanted but these phases never lasted long and the republic endured. One rule that was always followed was that a general would not be allowed to enter Rome with his war clothes on and he always had to leave his army command if he had to enter the Senate.

Now coming back to Caesar. Before Caesar, another character made a huge mark in Roman conquest around 80BC, he was Pompey Magnus. He was a brilliant general who was credited with crushing the slave rebellion, cleaning the pirates out of the Mediterranean and a lot of victories in various battles. In 70 BC, he formed a Triumvirate with Julius Cesar (who was an administrator in the civil service at that time) and Crassus and ruled Rome with Senate support for some time. Then Caesar was given the command of an army to go out and completely capture Gaul (modern day France). Caesar proved to be a brilliant general and won many famous victories in Gaul, Germania and campaigned up to Britain. The loot that he brought back made him very popular in Rome amongst the plebs and this was causing the Senate to become restive.

Pompey who was living a sedentary life in Rome also became nervous with Caesar’s growing popularity and power and started scheming in order to convince the senate that Caesar was dangerous since he could overthrow the republic any time and become king (this was the biggest fear the Senators had). Caesar wanted his consulship continued but Pompey made the senate declare that Caesar would have to give up his army before he could get it and that he would have to come to Rome to get it. Caesar felt that if he did so, he would be executed or rendered irrelevant since he would be powerless. The senate remained unyielding in its attitude towards Caesar, passing an emergency decree called senatus consultum ultimum, a kind of emergency decree that authorized execution without trial.

At that moment Caesar was stationed outside Italy at the banks of the Rubicon River. He was in two minds as to what to do – if he entered Italy without his army, he would be powerless and a common citizen – if he entered with the army, it was open rebellion and he would be an outlaw. After weeks of agonizing thought, he decided to “Cross the Rubicon” with his troops and march on to Rome. He is said to have uttered his famous words, “Alea iacta est” – ‘The die is cast”.

The moment the senate and Pompey heard about Caesar’s entry into Italy with his army, most of them fled Rome because none of them had any armies in Italy though Pompey had troops in Spain. Caesar entered Rome without opposition and made himself a “Consul” and in the next few years completely routed Pompey and his supporters. The Senate was stuffed with Caesar’s supporters. Caesar had effectively become king; no one dared oppose him in Rome. However, he was killed by Brutus and other people because they did not want a tyrant coming up. The trend had been set though and after Caesar, Octavian – his nephew captured power and ruled like an emperor for the next 40 years. The republic was completely buried during this time and the Roman Republic became a Roman Empire. Octavian was succeeded by a long list of emperors till 5th century AD when the empire dissolved.

Thus the decline and rout of the Roman Republic experiment can be attributed to that one moment in history when Caesar had to make his decision about whether he should cross the river or not. He did “Cross the Rubicon” and brought on the end of the Roman Republic. Many such moments have happened in history post this which have been equal game changers. We often face such moments in our lives when we are at the threshold of something new or doing something unexpected and don’t know what to do. This is our “Crossing the Rubicon” moment – hope you survive them and make the right decisions.