Caesar Crossed the Rubicon

In Caesar crossed the Rubicon, it had been less than forty years since the end of the earlier civil wars between Marius and Sulla. The intervening years have been peaceful, but in the manner typical of terminally ill-Republican systems characterized by sclerosis and extreme division. As with every dying society, all efforts to bandage over ruptures in the societal framework by legal means were a waste of energy. Rome was merely marking time until the rupture and reconstruction of the polity.