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.These were the leaders’ reasons.But underneathwere public seeds of war, which always sinka powerful people.For when Fortune importedexcessive resources from a world brought low,and morals took a backseat to prosperous timesand enemy plunder made luxury persuasive,with no end to gold or houses, former foodsfamished the craving.Men stole and wore apparel 180barely fit for their sons’ young wives.The nurse of men,Poverty, fled.Summoned from round the worldcame each clan’s special plague.They bought up gianttracts of land—those once furrowed by Camillus’hardy plowshare, that felt old Curius’ shovel—for vast estates now worked by foreign tenants.This wasn’t a people who tranquil peace could please,who could let arms lie, let their liberty feed them;so anger flared up easily, and driven by indigence,crime came cheap.By steel one could gain great honor 190and overpower his fatherland.The measure of rightwas might.Laws won popular votes by coercion,just order was disturbed by consuls and tribunes.The rods of office were bought, and the peopleauctioned off their favor, and the fatal pollingaround the city brought back year after yearthe Campus Martius to the auction block.Usury ran rampant and interest, greedy for payments,rose, and trust shattered: many found profit in war.CAESAR CROSSES THE RUBICON RIVERNow the cold Alps were past on Caesar’s course, 200and in his mind the great revolts and coming warhad been conceived.At the waters of narrow Rubiconthe leader saw the mighty image of his fatherlandfull of sorrow, trembling clearly in night’s darkness,white hair disheveled on her head crowned with towers,locks shorn and arms laid bare she stood before them;choked by sobs she spoke: “How far will you go?Where do you bear my standards, men? If you comeas lawful citizens, you must stop here.” Cold dreadseized their leader’s limbs.His hair stood high on end, 210and faintness checked his footsteps at the river’s edge.Soon he spoke: “You who overlook the city’s wallsfrom Tarpeia’s rock, Thunderer, you Phrygian housegodsof Iulus’ clan, and secrets of Quirinus who disappeared,and residing on high Alba, Jupiter of Latium,and Vestal fires and you, O godly apparition,Rome—favor my endeavors.No furious armsattack you.See me, victor on land and sea,Caesar, always and even now your soldier.He will be guilty who made me your enemy.” 220So he broke all that held war back, and acrossthe swollen stream straightway he led the standards.As in the wild fields of heat-blistering Libyaa lion sees his foe close at hand and doubts,crouching down while he gathers up his rage;but then, once he’s lashed himself with his savage tail,bristled his mane and let forth a mighty roarfrom his massive jaws, then, should an agile Moortwist a lance that strikes, or a spear pierce his widechest, heedless of such wounds it runs him out and through.230From a modest spring, urged by scanty waves, fallsthe mud-red Rubicon when parched by summer heat;winding through low valleys it fixes the sure borderthat divides Gallic fields from Ausonia’s farmers.But winter gave it strength and swelled its waves:three times Cynthia’s horn had risen heavy with rain,and moist winds had also melted Alpine snows.The cavalry moved first, lining the stream’s courseto obstruct its flow.Then the whole throng forcesan easy ford across the now-broken river’s waves.240Caesar, once he has touched the opposite bankof the river he has subjected, speaks outwhere he stands in Hesperia’s forbidden fields:“Here, right here, I shed peace and our defiled laws.Fortune, I follow you.Faith can go to the winds—I’ve put my trust in the Fates
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