When Caesar had finished subduing and violently seizing the country of Gaul and the folk of Lochlann and of the island of Britain, for the space of the ten years that we have mentioned, he turns forward to Italy. He sent legates and envoys to the senate to ask them for a triumph, and to demand the extension of (his) consulate, for he had finished the reduction of all the nations that had been committed to him. When the Roman senate heard that, through Pompey's direction and persuasion, they passed a decree, that Caesar should never be allowed into the city together with his army; but that, if he desired to have a triumph from the senate, he should leave his armies in the Alps and he himself come to the city.
When that was told to Caesar, he was sure and certain that they were separating him from his troops in order to kill him; and he resolved that he would never go to Rome without an army around him.
Then came Caesar forward in his royal course, and marched right on eastward over the ancient, snowy peaks of the
He was there searching and scrutinizing in his mind how he should carry on his warfare and deliver his battle. On the bank of the river Caesar then saw a wonderful vision and a strange dream. It seemed to him that Rome came to him in guise of a woman with a fair and goodly, ever-bright form, through the dark covert of the shadowy night above her. An appearance of grief and sorrow was on her face. Grey, full-many tresses dishevelled and spread round her covered head: arms all bare awaiting the battle: tremulous fear and dread were upon her: great sighing and vast lamentation she had.
It seemed to him that she began converse with him and said valourously: ‘On what path is this course going, ye men?’ quoth she. ‘Whither do ye bring my standards? If ye follow law or ancient custom, stay here at the river Rubicon, for it is not meet to cross it with attendance of standards or arms.’
So Caesar fretted terribly, fearfully, hugely, from crown to sole, and the hair round his head hardened and stiffened (?) at the greatness of the horror and the terror which befell him. He afterwards began to supplicate the adorable gods to prosper his course, and he said: ‘O almighty Jove, O gods of the Trojans of the Julian race, and O Romulus royal-creative (?), and O everliving fires of the Vestal temples, let your help and succour be along with me. O rival of the all-golden powers on earth!’ saith he, that is, ‘O Rome most noble, mayst thou
When Caesar finished that supplication, a floodtide of anger and indignation filled him, through his own search and scrutiny, and he came vehemently and hastily with his soldiers to cross the river Rubicon; just as most vehemently the African lion would charge his foes, after being infuriated and enraged by lashing himself with his own tail; for they who know say that the lion's wrath does not arise until he himself or some one else attacks (?) him. Wherefore this he doth when he sees his foes approaching him, a vast lashing with the huge tuft on his tail he puts over his own shoulders, so that his wrath arises thereby, and he rushes at once towards his foes, without fear of blow or missile upon him.
Thus then Caesar's wrath and rage arose from the searching and meditation which he made: so he came anon to cross the river Rubicon with his armies. That river rises from a little dropping well, and is the boundary between the folk of Gaul and the battalions of Italy. Small and moderate and easy is its flow in time of summer. There were three causes for its increase when Caesar came to it, namely (first), it was the wintry time, and (second) it was the third (night) as regards the moon's age, when abundant moisture is usual. The third
Caesar arranged his cavalry against that river, from one brink to the other, and put the infantry beside them, so that on that occasion they (all) came safe through the stream, without breaking (a rank) without drowning a horse or man of the army.
When putting his foot on the further bank of the river, Caesar said: ‘Here we quit our peace and our friendship with the folk of Rome! What is there now save to follow Fortune, until the adjudication and decision of the great battle come between us.’
That night Caesar proceeds unslackly, unlazily, with the greatest swiftness that a stone would speed from a sling or an arrow from a bow; and he brought his numberless host and army to sack the fortress of Ariminum, that town near to him, which was under the sway of Pompey and the Roman senate. On the morrow the troops reached the town in the twilight of early morning on the morrow.
There was a heavy dark cloud of black mist in the morning at the beginning of that day. So dense was the mist that Caesar's troops came still and silently towards the fortress of Ariminum, and pitched their standards in the midst of the town. The market-folk did not perceive them till they heard the sonorous clang of the fair-sided, smooth-bright trumpets, of the straight horns, and of the pipes of battle, the snorting of the horses, the panting of the soldiers, the screaming of the keen, edged javelins, and the confused noise of the great host seizing the market-place.
The rest of the people of the fortress of Ariminum was broken thereby. A ‘wakening of foes’, and an ‘attack by foreigners’, and a ‘disturbance by enemies’ was then inflicted on the warriors of the town. Then the braves of the place went to their weapons; and swords blunt and rusty, and spears crook-pointed, quivering, and ancient shields with decayed rims, were taken, for they had not needed them for long spaces of time, because of the rigidity and strong firmness of the peaceful disciplinary law to which they were subject.
Then they came on the rampart of the town and recognised the standards of the Romans. Well-known was their colour, and easy it was to recognise them, for the form of an eagle was on each side of the standard. For three reasons the Roman standards were arranged in that wise. The first cause was that every one might understand that the Romans were of the race of Jove, for the eagle is a bird sacred to Jove. The second cause was that every one might understand that the Roman dominion was near to the dominion of the gods, since the eagle is the bird whose flight is highest on earth. The third cause was that everyone might understand that the lordship of the Romans was over all the men of the world, as the lordship of the eagle is over all the birds.
So when the people of the fortress of Ariminum recognised the well-known eagles and the Roman standards, and when they saw Caesar (standing) as a high, formidable yewtree amid the army, they started at once, and fear and dread filled them at beholding Caesar. They began to groan and to lament in stillness and silence. ‘Alas’, said every man of them in his mind, ‘woe to him whose ‘proper sod’ is this land! woe to him that
That was the reflection and secret lamentation of everyone apart in the fortress of Ariminum. For fear of Caesar, no one durst let it be heard from him; but they were thus in their bands and multitudes, roaming and unsteady, even as are irresolute flocks of fluttering birds after the wintry cold has smitten them.
Thereupon came the full light of the day, and after that Caesar took the town.