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Rubicon

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Idioms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.03 sec.
Rubicon (r`bĭkŏn), Lat. Rubico, small stream that flows into the Adriatic and in Roman times marked the boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and ancient Italy. In 49 B.C., after some hesitation, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon to march against Pompey in defiance of the senate's orders. He thus committed himself to conquer or to perish, and "to cross the Rubicon" now means to take an irrevocable step.

Rubicon

Small stream that separated Cisalpine Gaul from Italy in the era of the Roman republic. The movement of Julius Caesar's forces over the Rubicon into Italy in 49 BC violated the law that forbade a general to lead an army out of the province to which he was assigned. Caesar's act thus amounted to a declaration of war against the Roman Senate and resulted in the three-year civil war that left Caesar ruler of the Roman world. “Crossing the Rubicon” became a popular phrase describing a step that irrevocably commits a person to a given course of action.



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What a man is believing at a given moment is wholly determinate if we know the contents of his mind at that moment; but Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon was an historical physical event, which is distinct from the present contents of every present mind.
The Analysis of Mind by Russell, Bertrand View in context
The Rubicon, we know, was a very insignificant stream to look at; its significance lay entirely in certain invisible conditions.
Middlemarch by Eliot, George View in context
A pause--in which I began to steady the palsy of my nerves, and to feel that the Rubicon was passed; and that the trial, no longer to be shirked, must be firmly sustained.
Jane Eyre by Bronte, Charlotte View in context
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