CROSSING THE RUBICON.

[Sidenote: The Rubicon.]

There was a little stream in ancient times, in the north of Italy, which
flowed westward into the Adriatic Sea, called the Rubicon. This stream
has been immortalized by the transactions which we are now about
to describe.

[Sidenote: Its insignificance as a stream.]

The Rubicon was a very important boundary, and yet it was in itself so
small and insignificant that it is now impossible to determine which of
two or three little brooks here running into the sea is entitled to its
name and renown. In history the Rubicon is a grand, permanent, and
conspicuous stream, gazed upon with continued interest by all mankind
for nearly twenty centuries; in nature it is an uncertain rivulet, for a
long time doubtful and undetermined, and finally lost.

[Sidenote: Importance of the Rubicon as a boundary.]

The Rubicon originally derived its importance from the fact that it was
the boundary between all that part of the north of Italy which is formed
by the valley of the Po, one of the richest and most magnificent
countries of the world, and the more southern Roman territories. This
country of the Po constituted what was in those days called the _hither_
Gaul, and was a Roman province. It belonged now to Caesar's
jurisdiction, as the commander in Gaul. All south of the Rubicon was
territory reserved for the immediate jurisdiction of the city. The