Legion Of Mary Tessera Audio

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Namuncura Mckoy

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Aug 3, 2024, 4:59:32 PM8/3/24

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Thousands of pages have been written about Julius Caesar, Pompey and the Civil War fought between them. Movies have been made, books have been written, TV-series produced,so we shall not dwell too long on the issues of war.

The alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus had been an informal coalition, know to history as the First Triumvirate. Crassus, however, fell in the battle of Carrhae in the Parthian war.

For quite some time, he had moved within a rather grey area, legally speaking; by 51 B.C. the Senate wished to replace him as governor of Gaul and decided that his army should be disbanded by November 13, 50 B.C. (Rondholz, p. 433)

According to Suetonius, after some hesitation at the river, Caesar was given a sign by the gods as an apparition, playing a reed pipe, snatched a trumpet from a by-standing soldier and sounded a battle signal. Caesar then cried out:

As Caesar uttered these words the point of no return had not yet been reached, he had not yet made his move, because he said Iacta alea est BEFORE he crossed the river, not afterward.

Neither does the historian Livy in his Ab Urbe Condita, written only 17 years or so after the event. (Tucker, p. 246) The relevant volume (liber 109), however, containing these events is missing. What we have left is the Periochae, i.e. summaries of the book itself. The summary does not mention the Rubicon or Iacta alea est, the book might have.

The poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, or Lucan, has Caesar meet with a white-haired, sad-faced personification of Rome to ask Caesar not to go further. Instead of the famous Iacta alea est, Caesar says:

So, the proverb, or expression, that Plutarch, Suetonius and Appian put on the lips of Julius Caesar is most likely a very old one. And perhaps he uttered the words in Greek, perhaps in Latin, perhaps not at all.

Fighting for the price was the Fiumicino, defended by Giancarlo Mazzuca, writer and newspaper editor, the river Pisciatello or Urgn, as debated by local teacher and journalist Paolo Turroni, and the Uso as argued by archaeologist Cristina Ravara Montebelli.

For Caesar to march the thirteenth legion into Italy in January was unprecedented and took Pompey by complete surprise. No one expected any developments for the winter. (Boatwright, Gargola & Talbert, p. 155)

Plutarch. Moralia, Volume III: Sayings of Kings and Commanders. Sayings of Romans. Sayings of Spartans. The Ancient Customs of the Spartans. Sayings of Spartan Women. Bravery of Women. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, Cambridge, MA, 1931.