Quote Originally Posted by Elphir
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