ABSTRACT
It should be clear by now that when Caesar paused at the river Rubicon on that fateful January day in 49, it was not just his own career, his future and his life that were at stake. Over the course of the previous 20 years he had established himself as the leader of a broad political movement. He had worked to rebuild that political movement from the ashes of defeat into a powerful factor in Roman life once again. All that he had achieved, while of course furthering his own career and enhancing his own standing, had at the same time been in the service of broad groupings in Roman society who were in various ways disadvantaged under the traditional oligarchy, and of a fundamental reform of the Roman governing system. The ten years he had spent building a peerless army via the wars of conquest in Gaul had not just created a personal power base and following, but had more importantly created an army that could stand up for the political movement he, Caesar, headed, against the determination of extremist optimate oligarchs to repress that political movement, prevent significant reform, and maintain the traditional system unchanged – by force if necessary.
