While the Roman Republic was teetering on the brink of civil war
While the Roman Republic was teetering on the brink of civil war, Julius Caesar was leading his army to a crushing victory in the Gallic Wars, completely subduing the Celts and Gauls in and around modern day France. Caesar was a controversial figure in Rome and his battlefield success and popularity contributed to the Roman Senate’s jealousy and suspicion of him. In 50 B.C. the Senate ordered him to disband his army and return to Rome. Caesar assumed that once there he would be arrested and exiled. In response to the summons, Caesar proceeded toward Rome, but he was accompanied by one of his legions. When he reached the Rubicon, the river that separated Italy from Gaul, he paused. Under Roman law, any military commander who entered the Italian peninsula at the head of an army was deemed an enemy of the state, and he and all of his soldiers were subject to execution. Caesar knew that if he led his men across the Rubicon, civil war would follow. According to the Roman historian ...