offering to give up his command if Pompey would do the same.
A violent debate followed in the senate, and a decree was passed that
unless Caesar laid down his command by a certain day he should be
declared an outlaw and enemy of Rome. At the same time the two consuls
were made dictators, and the two tribunes who favored Caesar--one of them
the afterwards famous Marc Antony--fled for safety from Rome.

The decree of the senate was equivalent to a declaration of war. On the
one side was Pompey, proud, over-confident, and unprepared. On the other
was Caesar, knowing his strength, satisfied in the power of the money he
had so freely distributed, and sure of his men. He called his soldiers
together and asked if they would support him. They answered that they
would follow wherever he led. At once he marched for the Rubicon, the
limit of his province, to cross which stream meant an invasion of Italy
and civil war.

Plutarch tells us that he halted here and deeply meditated, troubled by
the thought that to cross that stream meant the death of thousands of
his countrymen. After a period of such meditation, he cried aloud, "The
die is cast; let us go where the gods and the injustice of our foes
direct!" and, spurring his horse forward, he plunged into the stream.

This story, which has been effectively used by a great epic poet of
Rome, probably relates what never happened. From all we know of Caesar,
the question of bloodshed in attaining the aims of his ambition did not
greatly trouble his mind. Yet the story has taken hold, and "to cross
the Rubicon" has become a proverb, signifying the taking of a step of
momentous importance.

Caesar, after the legions sent the senate, had but a single legion left
with him. He sent orders to others to join him with all haste, but they
were distant. As for Pompey, knowing and despising the weakness of his
rival, he had made no preparations. He had Caesar's two legions at Capua
and one of his own at Rome, while thousands of Sulla's veterans were
settled in the country round. "I have but to stamp my foot," he said,
"and armed men will start from the soil of Italy."

He did not stamp, or, if he did, the armed men did not start. Caesar
marched southward with his accustomed rapidity. Town after town opened
its gates to him. Labienus, one of his principal officers, deserted to
Pompey. Caesar showed his contempt by sending his baggage after him. Two
legions from Gaul having reached him, he push