River
Rubico Flumen
(where road crosses R. Pisciatello) (Barrington) · Fl. Rubico (Miller)
Listen to the story
Rubico Flumen is the Rubicon, a river whose name comes from its reddish colour. It once marked the boundary between Italy and the province of Cisalpine Gaul, and when Caesar led his army across it in 49 BC, he started a civil war and gave the world a proverb. The map draws no picture, only the name, which probably stands for the bridge or the road station beside it. The river's identity is still debated: the name seems to survive in the Urgone, a tributary of the Pisciatello, which is again called Rubicone today. A bridge from the time of Augustus still spans it at Savignano.