ears of
his absence Pompeius had moved more and more to the Conservative point
of view. His jealousy of Caesar had grown. The long struggle came to a
head when Caesar's time in Gaul drew to an end.

[Illustration: MARCUS ANTONIUS from a coin]

Caesar from his winter quarters at Ravenna declared that he was ready to
disband his army and return to Rome as a private citizen as soon as
Pompeius demobilized his troops. Pompeius actually had a larger force of
men under arms than Caesar, including two legions which Caesar had
borrowed and sent back to him. In the Senate Curio proposed that both
generals should lay down their commands. This was agreed to. Pompeius
refused. A few months later the question came up again. Curio, who had
been to Ravenna, where Caesar was, read a letter from him. In this he
said he would disarm, if Pompeius did the same. The Senate declared the
letter was dangerous, and the man who wrote it dangerous. A friend of
Pompeius then proposed that by a certain day Caesar, if not disarmed,
should be regarded as a traitor. When Marcus Antonius and Cassius,
another tribune, vetoed this, they were expelled from the Senate and
threatened with swords by Pompeius's adherents. Caesar could no longer
have any doubt as to what awaited him in Rome. He explained how things
stood to his soldiers: they cried to him to march on (49).

By Sulla's law the Rubicon was the military boundary of Italy. No one
might cross it under arms. Caesar paused for a moment on the bank; then
suddenly crying, 'The die is cast', he crossed the river at the head of
his men and marching with great speed entered Ariminum.

The poet Lucan, writing long afterwards, tried to penetrate the secrets
of his mind, and guess what passed in it at this moment.

_The Approach to the Rubicon: a Poet's Phantasy_

Caesar had already hurried across the frozen Alps, pondering in
his heart vast schemes of war to come; but when he reached the
narrow waters of the Rubicon, the vision of his distracted country
rose awful to his gaze, with saddened features clear seen through
the gloom and white locks flowing from beneath her crown of
towers. All dishevelled and bare-armed she stood before him,
uttering words broken by sighs: 'Whither do ye press on? Whither
do ye bear these my standards? If ye come as loyal citizens, thus
far and no further.' Then Caesar shuddered in every limb, his hair
stiffened, and faintness of heart, checking h