Caesar Crosses the Rubicon: Lucan

Now on his journey, Caesar had overcome the icy Alps and had conceived in his mind great movements and future wars.

As he came to the waters of the small Rubicon, a great vision of his trembling homeland, clear in the darkness of the night showing great sorrow in her face letting loose her white hair on a head crowned with turrets, standing with torn locks and her shoulders bare, speaking with mixed groans:“Where are you going beyond this point? Where are you carrying my standards, men? If you come here lawfully, as citizens, you are allowed to come as far as this.”

Then horror struck the limbs of the leader (Caesar). His hair stood on end, and a weakness holding back his step, stopped him on the edge of the river bank.

Soon he said “Oh! (Jupiter) Thunderer who looks out at the walls of the great city of Rome from the Tarpeian rock, and you Trojan Penates (the household Gods) of the clan of Iulius (Julius), and you the secrets of Romulus who was carried off, and you Jupiter of Latium who was living in the high Alba Longa , and you hearths of Vesta, and you oh Rome, image of divine power, look favourably on my undertakings.

I do not pursue you (Rome) with avenging arms: look! I am here, Caesar, conqueror on land and sea, everywhere I am your soldier. That person will be guilty, who makes me your enemy” then he ended the war’s delay and carried his standards quickly through the swollen river.

Caesar, as he touched the opposite side and set foot on the forbidden fields of Italy, Caesar said “Here here, I leave behind peace and violated laws. I follow you fortune. Now let treaties be from here. We have trusted them enough. We must use war as a judge.”