Rome must fall.

Chapter 423 Crossing the Rubicon

But things did not develop as Caesar wished, and Pompey, his greatest support in Rome, finally betrayed him.

The Senate passed a resolution to take back his position as Governor of Gaul, disband his army, and let him return home alone. Not only would he not be able to win a triumphal ceremony based on his brilliant achievements in Gaul in recent years, but it would also be difficult for him to successfully win the election for consul. On the contrary, he would become vulnerable and would only attract more attacks from his political enemies.

If Pompey's promise had been reliable, Cicero would not have been forced into exile.

What Caesar longed for was to return home peacefully and gain a prominent position in Rome, so that all senators, even those who disliked him, would recognize his prestige, influence and authority, allowing him to realize more political ambitions.

Now it seems that not only can he not realize this wish, but he is very likely to end up like Milo, drifting overseas and living in poverty.

The Senate doesn’t want me to live! ... Caesar let out a long sigh.

Seeing Caesar holding the letter for a long time without saying anything, the messenger at the side could not help but ask him: "Governor, do you want to write back to Pompey?"

Caesar thought about it and nodded.

In his letter to Pompey, Caesar reviewed their past friendship, thanked Pompey for his past support, and then made it clear that if Pompey could get the Senate to pass a resolution allowing him to enjoy immunity from prosecution after giving up his governorship and returning to Rome, and also have partial command of the troops under his jurisdiction, he would be willing to seriously consider accepting the decree just passed by the Senate.

The messenger left with the letter Caesar had written.

Caesar immediately called his treasurer, Mark Antony.

Mark Antony was a distant relative of Caesar, and his name showed that he was not from a prominent Roman family.

The rise of Antony's family mainly came from his grandfather, who was one of the best orators in Rome at the time and even served as a consul, but died in the Great Purge after Marius returned to Rome. His father was mediocre and was ordered to eliminate pirates, but unfortunately he was defeated and died soon after. His mother remarried with the nine-year-old Antony, and his stepfather Lentulus was one of Catiline's conspirators and was ordered to be executed by Cicero.

It can be said that Anthony's growth life was quite bumpy. After he grew up, he became the younger brother of Curio the Younger. Curio the Younger introduced him to the pleasures of revelry, drinking and beautiful women, so he became addicted to these pleasures and had almost no self-control.

In short, the young people including Curio the Younger and Antonius were dissolute, daring, and notorious, and were hated by everyone in Rome.

In addition to these, Mark Antony's strong and energetic character made him particularly flamboyant and powerful, and he was not afraid of intimidation.

However, he was careless in character and not meticulous in his work, so he was not a qualified candidate for the position of financial officer. But Caesar chose him, on the one hand to win over Curio the Younger, and on the other hand because Caesar's family bloodline was weak and he did not have many relatives who could provide him with help. It was rare that Antony was his relative and was worthy of trust and training. More importantly, he met Caesar's principles of employing people.

Although the Ulysses family was a famous priest family in Rome, it did not make much achievements in the political arena and was far from being comparable to those famous families. By the time of Caesar, the family had fallen into decline. It did not have many retainers or strong political connections and mainly relied on Caesar's own efforts.

When Caesar took office as the governor of Gaul, most of the staff who were willing to follow him were upstarts in Rome. Those noble sons looked down on Caesar who had "come to power by chance" and distanced themselves from him because of their stance.

But there were a few ambitious young men from aristocratic families who were not afraid of authority by nature and hated the Roman officialdom tradition of only being able to advance step by step. They did not have a firm stance and were willing to work for Caesar as long as they were given the opportunity to rise quickly.

And because of their background and their unscrupulous style of doing things, they can often make those traditional Roman elders suffer, thus creating a situation that is favorable to Caesar. Claudius was like this, Curio the Younger was like this, and now Caesar has set his sights on Mark Antony.

It didn't matter if the province's finances were not handled well, Caesar had his own professionals to take care of it. He just wanted to give this distant relative a chance to move up to a higher level, and less than a year after Antony had served as the financial officer of the Governor of Gaul, Caesar used means to make Antony the Roman tribune for the next year.

Antony was naturally grateful to Caesar.

Now that the situation has changed, Caesar decides to release the evil wolf ahead of time.

He only implicitly expressed to Antony his disappointment with Pompey's betrayal and his anger at the Senate's constant suppression of him.

Antony immediately promised to do his best for Caesar. After Pompey received Caesar's reply, he thought Caesar had compromised.

He was very happy to read Caesar's letter in public in the Senate, comforting the uneasy senators and asking them to make some compromises as required in the letter, granting Caesar immunity and partial command of the army.

It was sternly rejected and refuted by Cato, Marcellus and others.

Just when the two sides were in a stalemate, Antony, who was ordered to return to Rome early, attended the Senate as Caesar's representative and made a particularly harsh and vicious speech, attacking Cato, humiliating Pompey's entire political career, and even threatening armed conflict.

The whole venue was in uproar. Pompey stood there in shock. Thinking back to the past few days when he had been desperately defending Caesar, he felt that he had been greatly deceived and humiliated by Caesar. He trembled and shouted angrily: "A small treasurer under Caesar is so arrogant and domineering. What do you think will happen if Caesar dominates Rome?!"

After the meeting, Pompey invited all the senators to his house and solemnly gave them a guarantee: he firmly supported the Senate and was willing to lead the army to fight if necessary!
Just when Pompey and the conservative senators reached a consensus that Caesar must be removed from his post as governor even at the cost of starting a war, Caesar was reviewing the 13th Legion in Ravenna and delivering a speech.

He narrated with great emotion: he and his soldiers expanded the territory for Rome without fear of hardship or sacrifice, and made immortal contributions, but the senators were always unfair to him, and the soldiers were also implicated; he should have become consul with his brilliant achievements in Gaul, and then promulgated laws to allow soldiers to own land and enjoy the cheers of the Roman people, but the senators who hated him not only cut off his possibility of becoming consul, but also issued a decree to make him resign from the governor's post early, disband the army, and even question him...

In order to increase his persuasiveness, Caesar also brought Curio the Younger, who had come from Rome to discuss important matters, to the soldiers.

Curio the Younger deliberately wore ragged clothes and declared to the soldiers with a wronged look on his face that the Senate was trying to arrest him for trial because he was protecting Caesar, and he had finally escaped...

The soldiers were greatly shocked and shouted loudly: They were willing to avenge the injustices suffered by Caesar and the tribune (Curio the Younger)!
Although Caesar sent messengers to Gaul immediately after sending Mark Antony away to recall the two legions stationed there, Caesar only had one legion left in the northern Italian province at that time, which was the Thirteenth Legion, which he trusted the most.

This legion was formed shortly after he took office, and has been with him in battles ever since. All the soldiers have received his generous commendations, and all the officers have been appointed and promoted thanks to him, so he was very confident in persuading them to stand on his side.

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This was indeed the case. When all the soldiers and officers shouted that they were willing to declare war on Rome for him, Caesar was greatly encouraged. He did not even wait to meet up with the legions transferred from Gaul, but led the Thirteenth Legion directly south.

It was still mid-October 50 BC, nearly three months earlier than when Caesar declared war on Rome in his previous life.

Since the Gallic rebellion led by Vercingetorix did not happen in his previous life, Caesar's army was stronger and more fully prepared, which gave Caesar greater confidence. After learning that Pompey had openly betrayed him (Pompeii's attitude had always been ambiguous in his previous life) and that Cato and others were going to take ruthless action against him, he resolutely chose to use force.

Once the decision was made, Caesar's ability to act was amazing. Before reviewing the Thirteenth Legion, he had already sent some of his capable men and soldiers in plain clothes, secretly carrying weapons, to control Arminum.

On October 20, 50 BC (the 22nd year after the establishment of the Nix tribe), Caesar led the 13th Legion to the north bank of the Rubicon River and stopped.

According to Roman law, Caesar, as the governor of Gaul, had legal authority to govern the area north of the Rubicon River. However, if he led his army south of the Rubicon River without special orders from the Senate, he would become an out-and-out rebel.

Pompey and Cato were able to use this to call on Roman citizens to fight to defend the legitimate republic. Politically speaking, Caesar lost a move.

Caesar had no idea how the situation would develop as a result of his adventurous action, nor was he sure whether he could win the final victory, but he was clear about one thing: he could not retreat, because there was a cliff behind him!

Caesar's emotions were surging, but he finally calmed down and said calmly, "The dice has been rolled."

Then he urged his horse to be the first to wade across the river.

Thanks to the prior preparations, Caesar easily captured Arminum and stayed there for a while, waiting for Antony who had hurriedly fled from Rome.

Caesar sent him several cohorts to capture Aretium (now Arezzo), and also sent several cohorts to capture Pisorum, Phanum and Ancona respectively.

Wherever the army went, the towns opened their gates to welcome surrender. There was no fighting and everything went smoothly.

(End of this chapter)