Julius Caesar: Rubicon to Rome

Julius Caesar, from Rubicon to Rome. January 49 BC. Following a successful three-year campaign in Gaul, Julius Caesar camps in Ravenna with his 13th legion, Gemina, while nine other legions are still under his command on the other side of the Alps. After months of growing tensions and negotiations between him and Pompey Magnus, who had the support of the Roman Senate, Caesar awaits the next move of his political opponents. Back in Rome, on the 7th of January, the Roman Senate conveys outside the city and carries a motion declaring Julius Caesar a public enemy and appoints Pompey to organize the defense of Italy. At this point, Pompey's main legions were camped in Spain and Greece, and his only available troops at hand consisted of two veteran legions, camped in southern Italy, legions that were sent back home by Caesar the year before at the Senate request. Unsure of the allegiance of those legions, as they fought under Caesar in Gaul for years, Pompey orders the levy of fresh troops across Italy. In Ravenna, news on the Senate's decision arrives to Caesar. Faced with a choice between prosecution and rebellion, Caesar mobilizes his legion and sends orders to his other legions in Gaul to follow as soon as they can, and three days later, on the 10th of January, starts his march southwards crossing the Rubicon River, becoming in effect a rebel against the Roman Senate. According to Suetonius, Caesar quoted his favorite poet Menander with the famous phrase, Alle iaii acta est, although this particular moment is nowhere mentioned in Caesar's own writings. On the 11th of January, Caesar easily captures Ariminum, as the city offered no resistance and joins his side. In the following days, with Ariminum in his hands, Caesar decides to divide his army in order to advance and secure more territory. Between the 12th and 14th of January, out of the ten cohorts that comprised his legion, five are sent under the command of Mark Antony to move westwards and capture Aretium. The city surrenders without a fight and takes Caesar's side in the war. At the same time, three other cohorts are sent southwards across the Adriatic coast to capture the cities of Pisaurum, Phanum, and finally Ancona, each garrisoned with one cohort only, as all three cities welcomed his troops and offered no resistance. Caesar himself remained in Ariminum with the last two cohorts of his legion. The entire region fell to his side willingly, and in a matter of days, he secured the whole area between Ravenna, Aretium, and Ancona. This swift advance of Caesar's troops and the lack of any resistance from the local garrisons in northern Italy caused confusion and panic in Rome. Pompey, having his soldiers still stationed far in southern Italy, while other troops still being levied, realizes that he has no real means to defend the city. On the 17th of January, he decides to abandon Rome and heads to Capua, along with the Roman senators, in order to check the levies in the city and to get close to his main army from Apulia. In an attempt to gain some time, he also sends a message to Ariminum, informing Caesar that he is open to negotiations in order to find a peaceful solution. Caesar receives the message and replies asking Pompey to hold the levies he started across Italy and demanded a meeting so they can mediate the issue. While he was still in Ariminum, news arrived that inhabitants of Iguvium are supportive to his cause. Caesar decides to send his two remaining cohorts there, along with the one from Pisaurum. A few days later, they secure the city, again with no resistance met, as the local garrison fled. According to his own account, as he was confident on the loyalty of the people, Caesar sees no need to further garrison those cities and recalls all the cohorts of his 13th Legion to form up at Ancona, preparing to continue the advance southwards into the Picenum region. His new target was the city of Auximum. In Capua, Pompey receives the reply from Caesar and sends back a final message agreeing to Caesar's term, with the condition that he withdraws from all the cities he captured and retreats to Gaul. Terms that obviously Caesar had no reason to accept. Most likely, both sides sent the message exchange with no real intentions of a diplomatic success, but as a way of gaining time and delaying his opponents. Pompey leaves Capua, continuing his route towards the region of Apulia, where his main army was located. He sends his trusted officer, Vibulius Rufus to Picenum, to check the loyalty of the inhabitants of the region. At this point, no one really knows what Pompey's plans are, as Cicero describes. His continuous retreat southwards and lack of response adds to the confusion on the Republican side. In Corfinium, Domitius, the person appointed by the Senate to succeed Caesar as the governor of Gaul, unhappy with the lack of reaction of Pompey, decides to take matters into his own hands. Domitius starts to raise local troops on his own in order to make a stand and block Caesar's advance at Corfinium. Meanwhile in Ancona, Caesar, with his only legion reformed, starts his advance towards Auximum. Hearing of his approach, the city's leaders convinced the local garrison to abandon the city in order to avoid a siege. The garrison commander agrees and withdraws from the city with his ten cohorts, planning to head south towards Pompey. The column is intercepted by the advanced cohorts of Caesar and a small skirmish takes place as the Pompeian troops refuse the battle and flee. Most soldiers deserted and a small part switch sides and join Caesar's ranks. Auximum falls around the 28th of January and after thanking its inhabitants for their actions, Caesar continues his way in Picenum, securing the region, slowly heading towards Asculum, the main city in the area. On the way, he is joined by one of his legions returning from Gaul, the 12th legion. With his army effectively doubled to 20 cohorts, Caesar closes in on Asculum. The commander of the local garrison, a ten cohorts force, also decides to evacuate the city and retreat southwards to Pompey's troops. On the way, most of his soldiers desert him and flee into the region. The few cohorts remaining in his possession are found by Vibulius Rufus, the officer sent in Picenum by Pompey. Rufus was accompanied by a small force he collected from the local garrisons and levees in the area. He added the remaining cohorts from Asculum to its force, assembling in total a small army of 13 cohorts. Caesar, meanwhile, occupied the city of Asculum and camped there for a day before continuing his march towards Corfinium. Knowing that Caesar is closing in, Rufus quickly marches with his army southwards in order to join with Domitius at Corfinium. Domitius raised on his own a force of 20 cohorts from the neighboring area. Around mid-February, Rufus arrived at the city, handing him his 13 cohorts, which placed Domitius in charge of 33 cohorts, more than three legions available to defend Corfinium. Informed that Caesar is on the way to the city, Domitius dispatches five cohorts to destroy the bridge over a small river, located a few kilometers north of the city, in order to delay his advance. As Caesar's force of two legions was marching towards the bridge, his forward cohorts arrived just in time and crossed the bridge, routing the Pompeian troops after a small skirmish. With the bridge captured and still intact, Caesar starts his march across the river towards Corfinium. At this point, Domitius realizes the opportunity of a victory for the Pompeian side, as the city of Corfinium is located in a valley surrounded by mountains. Caesar was in a very precarious strategic position. Domitius writes a letter to Pompey, urging him to send troops on his assistance, pointing out that Caesar could easily be trapped between the two armies and the mountains surrounding the area. Waiting for Pompey's answer, Domitius prepares for the siege, ordering his troops inside the city, placing them along the walls. Fortifications are built and balusters are placed on the walls, in order to oppose resistance to Caesar until Pompey would arrive to reinforce and attack Caesar's position from the rear. With his army across the river, Caesar builds a camp close to the city walls, waiting in a defensive position, as he could not start a siege being outnumbered by the defenders. After a few days, Caesar receives word that the population of Sulmor, a city located 10 kilometers southeast of Corfinium, decided to join his side. He dispatches Mark Antony with five cohorts of the 13th Legion to check the situation of the city. According to Caesar's own description, as soon as the inhabitants of Sulmor observed his troops approaching, they opened the gates, welcoming them, while the local garrison of seven cohorts willingly surrendered, ready to join his side. Mark Antony headed back to the camp along with the new seven cohorts. They returned in the same day and Caesar added the new troops to his own and uses them to further strengthen his camp. A few days later, more reinforcements arrived, his 8th Legion and along with 22 new cohorts levied from Gaul. This increased Caesar's army to almost five legions in total. Having his enemy outnumbered, Caesar decides to finally start the siege of Corfinium. The newly arrived troops are sent on the other side of the city and ordered to build a camp there. With the two camps built, Caesar orders the construction of siege earthworks and palisades around the walls, enclosing the city. As the constructions were almost finished, an emissary gets to Corfinium with the reply from Pompey. He declined Domitius's proposition and ordered him in return to evacuate Corfinium with his troops in order to join Pompey's main army in Apulia. With the city surrounded by Caesar's fortification, this was not an option for Domitius, who hides the message from his men and starts a plan to escape alone from the city. The troops, however, find out of their leader's intentions and after consultations between them, decided to seize their commander. Later that night, they sent envoys to Caesar's camp, announcing that they are ready to switch side and surrender their commander. Fearing that his own troops might plunder the city if the Pompeian garrison opened the gates during nighttime, Caesar postponed his answer until the next day and ordered his cohorts to deploy in very close order around the earthworks, so no one can escape from the city. The following morning, Caesar accepted the surrender of the Pompeian legions and ordered them to take the oath of allegiance to himself. Caesar also releases Domitius as a sign of goodwill and peacefully occupied the city. The siege of Corfinium can be considered a turning point in the Italian campaign, as Julius Caesar was placed in a precarious position in front of the city, with a small force of two legions, facing three enemy legions in the city, with the possibility of being potentially encircled by a secondary Pompeian force. Instead, only seven days later, he captured the city and left the area with a force of almost nine legions in total. The three legions captured at Corfinium were sent to Sicily to secure the area and Caesar prepared to continue his march, followed by a six legion force. When news of the fall of Corfinium reached Pompeiian Luceria, he realized that the tide of war had changed and decided not to fight in Italy and starts organizing a general retreat to Greece. He gathered all the forces at his disposal and marched from Luceria to Carnusium and from there to the port of Brundisium, ordering the remaining troops scattered in Apulia to meet him there in order to evacuate Italy. Caesar, realizing his intentions, also starts his march towards Brundisium, the campaign thus becoming a race to the sea. Pompey reaches Brundisium around the 4th of March, with Caesar's army following close behind. The fleet at his disposal could not carry all his troops, so only the Roman senators and a part of his army embarked and set sail to Dyrrhachium, while Pompey remained with 20 cohorts to defend the city until the fleet returns for him. Five days later, on the 9th of March, Caesar reaches Brundisium and besieges the city. With no fleet at his disposal, Caesar's attempts of trapping the port fails. After nine days of engagements, on the 17th of March, the Pompeian fleet returns, allowing Pompey to escape to Greece with his 20 cohorts, as described in more detail in one of our previous videos. The escape of Pompey meant the civil war was not over yet, as he still had loyal legions available in Spain. In the following weeks, Caesar headed to Rome and consolidated his political situation in Italy, before heading over to Spain later on that year. His campaign in Italy lasted less than three months from the crossing of the Rubicon. Starting with one legion only, as a rebel against the Republic, Caesar managed to bring down the Senate and Pompeian forces, combining marching speed, the element of surprise, and political persuasion, as most of the cities willingly fell at his approach, and virtually no battles took place during the campaign.