Читать книгу Secrets Of The Rubicon. Rome’s Ruby Red Line онлайн

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When Caesar returned to Italy from French Transalpine Gaul he brought with him more legions than he had left with and amassed them in Romagna near the border of the Rubicon, which then divided the Italian Gaul Togata with the republic of Rome.

This was because, as he proceeded in his conquests, he had enlisted and formed several legions, called Gallic legions.

These Gallic legions were formed not only by fighters but also by many colonists, women and children followers, to whom Caesar had promised honors and land on Italian soil if they were victorious. Now that he had won, he had brought them to Italy with him and they were amassed near the Rubicon.

In view of the threat, the Rubicon was hastily reinforced by Pompey's troops to try to block Caesar in some way, after having amassed his legions near the Rubicon had in front of him a practically open pathway to Rome.

About thirty years earlier, that province and those lands had been ruined and depopulated by a violent civil war between Cesena, Forlì and Faenza, which had been won by the optimates under Sulla over the populares under Caius Marius, who was Julius Caesar's uncle. Then, Caesar, returning from the French Gauls, was resettling and reconquering this land with populations and legions that were following him from Gaul and Provence.²⁰