Night at the Rubicon

January 49 BC: Caesar leaves Ravenna by night and reaches the Rubicon.

Transcript

Ravenna, evening. According to Suetonius, Caesar watches gladiators train as if nothing were happening.

He sits down to dinner, takes polite leave of his guests and asks them to wait for him to come back.

After dark he leaves in a hired cart, drawn by mules from a bakery.

Before dawn he stands at a small river. Beyond it lies Italy.

For a long time he is silent. Plutarch says he talks with friends about what this river will change.

Then he gallops for the far bank, as if to leave no time to change his mind.

Ariminum wakes up already in his hands.