Caesar crosses the Rubicon
'The die is cast': Caesar's legion starts a civil war
In January 49 BC Julius Caesar led the Thirteenth Legion across the Rubicon, the border stream between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy, defying the ban on bringing an army into Italy. It meant war with the Senate and Pompey; the phrase 'the die is cast' and the crossing itself became a byword for an irreversible decision.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 1st century BC
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Middle East
- 63 BC Pompey takes Jerusalem — 14 years earlier
Africa
- 30 BC Death of Cleopatra — 19 years later
Alive at the time
- Julius Caesar (aged 51)
- Cleopatra (aged 20)
- Augustus (aged 14)
- Cicero (aged 57)
- Pompey the Great (aged 57)
- Herod the Great (aged 23)
- Virgil (aged 21)
- Amanirenas (aged 11)
- Livia Drusilla (aged 10)