24 Jan JULIUS CAESAR: “The die is cast” (PHILIP BARLAG)
Caesar’s biggest bet-on-yourself moment, and one of the most audacious leadership moments of all time, came in 49 BC, when he was faced with a decision that could bring civil war to his beloved Rome.
How could it have come to this? After he had achieved greater military success than any Roman had ever known and become the most beloved person in his country, Caesar’s path took a dark turn. To the overwhelming majority of his fellow Romans, he was a hero. To a tiny fraction, he was a villain. In his every action, these people saw their worst fears realized. Thoroughly convinced that Caesar’s power was an existential threat, the anti-Caesarians maneuvered the political situation in Rome to bring about his demise. In private discussions and public debates, they worked to undermine and denounce Caesar to all who would listen. The Senate finally passed a decree known as the senatus consultum ultimum, or final act of the Senate. It empowered the consuls and other magistrates to do whatever they deemed necessary to defend the republic. In practical terms, the act achieved two things: it suspended the right of tribunes to veto senatorial decrees, and it declared Caesar an enemy of the state.
For good reason, Caesar’s allies feared for their safety. Those that were tribunes knew that their office no longer held any political advantage—without the power of the veto, they had no way to check senatorial aggression. They decided to flee to Caesar, smuggling themselves out of Rome in a rented cart, and making straight for their comrade. The use of force to assert political will, the old senatorial way of leading, loomed in the air.
In the preceding hours, Caesar had made a show of going about his business in the usual way, bathing and dining casually, and conspicuously. As evening became night, Caesar rode off, parting ways with his closest companions. Nothing seemed amiss, and no one noticed as Caesar doubled back and regrouped with his comrades in the dark of night, meeting up at the river Rubicon.
The small river was raging with waters from heavy rains, perhaps a harbinger of what was to come. While there was little about the river itself that was noteworthy, it had the important distinction of being the boundary between the provinces on one side and the Italian mainland, the home turf of the Romans, on the other. One side was foreign territory, the other home.
Caesar stared into space and considered his choices: invade Roman territory and plunge the known world into civil war; or give up his command, return to Rome, and allow his enemies to pursue their vendetta in the courts. In his lifetime, Caesar had seen the devastating effects of civil war: bloodshed, terror, and families being torn apart. He himself had spent terror-filled months as a youth, fleeing from bounty hunters seeking to collect the prize on his head set for defying an order to divorce his young wife. Eventually, he was removed from the list of state-sponsored targets, but the memory of being young and on the run stuck with him.
Accustomed to leading armies of tens of thousands, Caesar had but one legion at his side now, a few thousand foot soldiers and a couple of hundred cavalry waiting for his orders. One can only imagine the many dark thoughts swirling around in Caesar’s head as he stared blankly across the swift-moving river, his comrades waiting for his decision. At last, he said, “The die is cast.” He had made his choice, and by morning the rest of the Roman world would know which path he had followed.
“The die is cast,” Caesar said as he made his decision. He crossed the Rubicon and invaded his home territory.
Caesar had spent his entire career defying tradition and eschewing force. Caesar didn’t seek civil war; in many ways, civil war came to him. He desperately sought to broker compromises in the lead-up to the invasion. He sought peace and practically begged those back in Rome to find a better way forward. They ignored him over and over, either failing to respond or doing so with outlandish and completely untenable demands. And even now, if force was the only course of action he could take, he was going to do it his own way—out and in front of the situation.
Caesar had a style all his own, and nothing about the war at hand was going to change things. His conflict was with Cato, Pompey, and the Senate, not the Roman people. Amazingly, he made his invasion with one legion, only about 10 percent of his fighting strength. If ever there was a bet-on-yourself moment for Caesar, this was it.
The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar
Phillip Barlag
