Information about Rubicon

"Rubicon" (Rubicō, Italian: Rubicone) is a 29km long river in northern Italy. The river flows from the Appennines to the Adriatic sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region between the towns of Rimini and Cesena.

"Crossing the Rubicon" is a popular idiom meaning to go past a point of no return; the river was a Roman boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy. Julius Caesar crossed the river in 49 BC deliberately as an act of war. Historian Suetonius quoted Caesar as having said, "the die is cast" upon taking this action.^[1]

Since the river has changed its riverbed many times through the years, it is not possible to affirm where the original Rubicon flowed when Julius Caesar crossed it. However, it is common to identify those historical waters to be the current Pisciatello river, since the current Rubicon abandoned its original riverbed.

History

The river is notable as Roman law forbade any general from crossing it with an army. The river was considered to mark the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north and Italy proper to the south; the law thus protected the republic from internal military threat. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, supposedly on January 10 of the Roman calendar, to make his way to Rome he broke that law and made armed conflict inevitable. According to Suetonius he uttered the famous phrase ālea iacta est ("the die is cast").^[2]

Suetonius also described how Caesar was apparently still undecided as he approached the river, and the author gave credit for the actual moment of crossing to a supernatural apparition. The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has survived to refer to any people committing themselves irrevocably to a risky and revolutionary course of action – similar to the current phrase "passing the point of no return". It also refers, in limited usage, to its plainer meaning of using military power in a non-receptive homeland.

Location confusion

After Caesar’s crossing, the Rubicon was a geographical feature of note, but only for a few years, until Emperor Augustus abolished the Province of Gallia Cisalpina (today’s northern Italy), and the river ceased to be the extreme border line of Italy. Augustus’ decision caused the Rubicon to lose a great deal of importance, and as memories faded, the name “Rubicon” gradually disappeared from local toponymy.

After the Roman Empire fell, and during first centuries of the Middle Ages, the coastal plain between Ravenna and Rimini was flooded many times. The Rubicon, together with other small rivers of the region, often changed its course during this period. For this reason, and in order to supply fields with water after the revival of agriculture after the Middle Ages, during the 14th and 15th centuries hydraulic works were built to prevent other floods and to regulate streams. As a result of this, these rivers eventually turned into straight lines, which is how they appear today. As the centuries went by, several rivers of Italian Adriatic coast between Ravenna and Rimini have at times been said to correspond to the ancient Rubicon. The Via Aemilia (National Road N°9), still follows its original Roman course as it runs between hills and plain. Attempts to deduce the original flow of the Rubicon can be done only by studying written documents and other archaeological evidence such as Roman milestones which indicate the distance between the ancient river and the nearest Roman towns.

It is important to underline that the starting point of a Roman road (some kind of “mile zero”), from which distances were counted, was always the crossing between Cardo and Decumanum, the two basic streets in every Roman town, running north-south and east-west, respectively. In a section of the Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient document showing the network of Roman roads, a river in north-eastern Italy labeled “fl. Rubico” is marked at a position 12 (Roman) miles (18 km) north of Rimini along the coastline; 12 miles is the distance between Rimini and a place called “Ad confluentes,” drawn west of the Rubicon, on the Via Aemilia.

In 1933, after various efforts spanning centuries, the river called Fiumicino, crossing the town of Savignano di Romagna (now Savignano sul Rubicone), was officially identified as the former Rubicon. The final proof confirming this theory came only in 1991^[3], when three Italian scholars (Pignotti, Ravagli and Donati), after a comparison between Tabula Peutingeriana and other ancient sources (including Cicero), showed that the distance running from Rome to Rubicon river was 200 miles. Key elements of their work are:

• The locality of San Giovanni in Compito (now a western quarter of Savignano) has to be identified with old Ad Confluentes (“compito” means confluence of roads and it’s synonymous with “confluentes”);
• The distance between Ad Confluentes and Rome, according the Tabula Peutingeriana, is 201 miles;
• The distance from today’s San Giovanni in Compito and Fiumicino river is 1 (Roman) mile (1.48 km), according to ancient sources.

Present

Today there is very little evidence of Caesar’s historical passage. Savignano sul Rubicone is an industrial town and the river became one of most polluted in the Emilia-Romagna region. The intense exploitation of underground waters in the upper course of the Rubicon, together with natural drying of its spring, have reduced its flow. It was a minor river even during Roman times (“parvi Rubiconis ad undas” as Lucan said). The Rubicon has since lost its natural route except in its upper course, between low and woody hills.

The mouth is probably the place where the historical passage occurred. Caesar was travelling with his soldiers from Ravenna to Rimini, which were both near the sea. The location of the mouth of the river must be 17 km north from Rimini. Today it is a crowded tourist region, with modern hotels and shops. The correct area of the historical crossing, today’s locality of Gatteo Mare, has no signs commemorating the event, nor is the former position of the river commemorated.

Crossing the Rubicon is also a book published by New Society Publishers. Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire At the End of the Age of Oil. By Michael C. Ruppert.

External links

• Rubico (49 BCE) Brief notice with a photo of the bridge at Savignano today.

Notes