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This sheet comes from an exemplar of the "Histoire Ancienne jusqu'á César" and the "Faits des Romans", thirteenth-century historical compilations that were still highly popular in the fifteenth century. The miniature shows Caesar Crossing the Rubicon.
The river Rubicon is notable as Roman law prohibited the Rubicon from being crossed by any Roman Army legion. The river was considered to mark the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north and Italy proper to the south; the law thus protected the republic from internal military threat. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army in 49 BC, supposedly on January 10 of the Roman calendar, to make his way to Rome, he broke that law and made armed conflict inevitable. According to historian Suetonius, Caesar uttered the famous phrase "alea iacta est" (the die is cast).
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