Franchir le Rubicon
“Franchir le Rubicon” means to cross the Rubicon. It means to take a decisive and irreversible step, to take a decision and accept all its consequences, to make an irreversible choice, or to take an irrevocable decision.
The Rubicon is a river that in 49 BC separated Gaul from the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar, the great Roman general, had just conquered and subdued the Gauls. He was returning to Rome, which was then ruled by Pompey. Pompey had ordered that any general returning to Rome must enter Rome without his army, because Pompey feared a military coup.
Caesar should have dissolved his army at the border of Gaul and the Roman Empire, but he decided to disobey the rule and cross the Rubicon with his men. Upon deciding to do so, he announced fatalistically, “iacta alea est” (Latin for “the die is cast”), meaning that he and his men would now take their chances against Pompey and the might of Rome.
As Caesar and his army marched towards Rome, Pompey fled the city. Eventually, in 48 BC, Caesar and Pompey and their two armies clashed at Pharsalos. Pharsalos, now called Farsala, is a town in Greece, but in 49 BC it was part of the Roman Empire. Pompey’s army vastly outnumbered Caesar’s, with Pompey’s numbering somewhere between 36,000 and 45,000 men.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, Caesar thrashed Pompey’s army. Pompey fled his own camp disguised as an ordinary man, instead of as the general and statesman he was. So at this stage, Caesar’s gamble in crossing the Rubicon had paid off.
