Over the stream dashed some of the soldiers, perhaps to dance to the shepherd’s lilting measure.
It was an omen! Cæsar at once made up his mind. ‘Let us go where the omen of the gods and the iniquity of our enemies call us,’ he cried. ‘The die is cast.’
Then at the head of his army, on the 16th January 49 B.C., Cæsar crossed the Rubicon.
So important was the decision, that the words, ‘to cross the Rubicon,’ grew into a proverb. And still to-day, when one takes the first step towards a great undertaking, one is said to have ‘crossed the Rubicon.’
CHAPTER CXI
CÆSAR AND THE PILOT
As Cæsar marched through Italy, town after town threw open its gates to welcome the general who had at last returned from Gaul, where his victories had covered him with glory.
What Pompey thought as he heard of the triumphal progress of his rival we do not know. But he could not fail to see how he had been deceived when he believed that the affection of the people had been centred on himself alone.
Not a single battle did Cæsar have to fight before he reached the gates of Rome. Even here he was free to enter the city, for Pompey, although his army was as large as that of his rival, had fled.
The defence of the city had been left in the hands of the Consuls. But they felt unable to face the general, who came with his army behind him, so they also escaped from the city and joined Pompey. In their fear they did not even stay to open the treasury to take from it the money that would be needed to help Pompey to carry on the war.