Question about the Rule of the Rubicon

[Hax]

Hiya guys.

Whenever I play a Roman game, and build something like a large empire, I decide to move every single army out of every city south of Segesta. My question is:

How realistic is this, and when did the Republic adapt the rule of the Rubicon (by lack of a better word)?

I take it there is a word for this?

[Starforge]

Hiya guys.

Whenever I play a Roman game, and build something like a large empire, I decide to move every single army out of every city south of Segesta. My question is:

How realistic is this, and when did the Republic adapt the rule of the Rubicon (by lack of a better word)?

I take it there is a word for this?

Any actual Roman historians please correct me but if memory serves:

Pompey's army was camped in and around Rome. Caesar taking his army across the Rubicon (the northernmost "boundry" of Italy) meant that he was committing his army to the fight and plunging Rome into Civil War in defiance of the Senate who had ordered him to disband his army.

"Crossing the Rubicon" is usually used to denote a "point of no return." If there was an actual tradition / law / rule that stated that no army should be in Italy proper - it would seem that Pompey's troops being where they were would argue otherwise.

A longer description:

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/caesar.htm

[Zaknafien]

The actual boundary for a general under arms and in command of an army was at the Pommerium, the sacred boundary of Rome itself. Which is why the levy took place on the Campus Martius, for instance. In the late Republic armies were kept in camps outside of cities regularly, on the Campus Martius, and paticularly around Capua. No need to keep armies away from your cities, just keep them in forts built just outside the cities. Dont use them for garrisoning purposes, though, at least not in Rome itself.

[Cheexsta]

From memory, Caesar's crossing the rubicon was only really illegal not because armies weren't allowed further south, but because his imperium only existed in Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. By crossing his army over, he was in violation of the laws that prevented a general from raising an army outside of his alloted province. He could enter Italy himself if he wanted and still retain imperium in his assigned province, but once he entered Rome he was required to give up his command (hence why generals are known to have waited outside of Rome itself for months while waiting for the Senate to give them a Triumph).

[Danest]

Ah,that makes sense, I figured the rules concerning soldiers in Italy were more complex than "no", which was what I'd heard often in the past. I mean, clearly, soldiers were in Italy to deal with Hannibal and Spartacus. And in EB, there's clearly a very large, armed mercenary population in Italy.