The patricians became more confident than ever, pressing Pompey for his support in case Caesar tried to repeat Sulla’s takeover. Pompey confidently assured the Senate: ‘Wherever I stamp my foot in Italy, there will spring up enough troops in an instant–both cavalry and infantry.’ Gaius Claudius Marcellus, an ultraconservative consul, spread a false rumor that Caesar was marching on Rome and ordered Pompey to take Legiones VI and XV north. Pompey’s response to this unconstitutional order was evasive. He promised to fight Caesar ‘unless we can do better.’ Caesar in turn recalled his Legiones VIII and XII from their winter quarters, and on the last day of 50 bc, he sent his tribune, Gaius Curio, to Rome with an ultimatum: Either Pompey and Caesar would lay down their arms at the same time, or Caesar would use his armies ‘to avenge the wrongs done to him.’

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But the Senate was now too emboldened to be cowed by such a threat from Caesar. Convinced Caesar’s goal was the overthrow of the republic, Pompey marched from Capua with Caesar’s two veteran legions, plus a third newly recruited legion. He camped them near Rome. The Senate repealed Pompey’s earlier law allowing Caesar to run for consul without giving up his command. It appointed Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus to replace Caesar in Gaul. When Caesar’s tribunes Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) and Quintus Cassius vetoed these and other patrician measures, the patricians forcibly expelled them from the Senate chambers and passed the Senatus Consultum Ultimum, or Ultimate Decree, empowering Rome’s officials to take whatever steps necessary to protect the republic. The Senate divided Italy into recruiting districts, placing each under a patrician who was to call for recruits in the names of the Senate and Pompey the Great.

Caesar Casts the Die
In January of 49, Caesar could immediately deploy his Legio XIII from Cisalpine Gaul (roughly 5,000 men), while Legiones VIII and XII were marching to reinforce him. Wary of Pompey’s seven veteran legions in Spain, Caesar sent three legions to the Pyrenees mountains to block any patrician countermoves from the west.

Caesar knew that his army was outnumbered and strategically surrounded. Its ranking general, Labienus, who felt cheated by his secondary role in the Gallic battles, was ready to defect to the patricians. Although the populace generally favored Caesar’s policies, they would not rise to support him while the result was in doubt, and Caesar’s grain supply from Gaul could not be guaranteed during a long Italian campaign. Of equal importance, Caesar recognized the political constraints on his military options in this civil war. The heavy-handed tactics he employed in Gaul would backfire in Italy by antagonizing the public, by whom he needed to be seen as the aggrieved party.

Pompey, in contrast, held three legions in Italy as well as his main army in Spain. He would have access to thousands of recruits from African and Asian provinces, whose rulers owed their careers to him. Most important, however, Pompey controlled Rome’s fleet of 500 warships and light galleys, enabling him to transfer forces from one theater to another as events dictated. Pompey believed that Caesar would have to concentrate his scattered troops in Gaul before he could move south toward Rome. By that time, Pompey would have recruited and trained additional forces and brought his veterans home from Spain.

But Caesar was not about to let that happen. On January 10, 49 bc, Caesar led 5,000 men to the Rubicon River, which marked the border of Gaul and Italy; crossing it meant war. Caesar lingered briefly, considering the implications of his actions, then made his famous remark, ‘Alea iacta est‘ (’The die is cast’), and led his troops over into Italy.

Ariminum fell first without a struggle. Caesar began moving south, capturing three more towns, while Mark Antony, leading five cohorts, captured Arretium on the Via Cassia, opening a second route south to Rome. Other northern Italian towns fell to the populares, who soon fielded some 20,000 hardened veterans. Throughout his Italian campaign, Caesar took pains to ensure that his troops left the townspeople and their property unharmed. He wanted no reports of atrocities jeopardizing his popular support.

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