The Rubicon is a shallow river in northeastern Italy.
Background[]
With the Gallic Wars concluded, the Roman Senate ordered Gaius Julius Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Around January 49 BC, in response to the Roman Senate's "final decree," Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, the dividing line between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italia, with a single legion, Legio XIII Gemina, and ignited civil war.[Non-game 1]
This specific history would later be emulated by Edward Sallow, now styling himself "Caesar." Emulating both the former Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar and his Legio XIII Gemina, Caesar took his legion across the Colorado River into the Mojave Wasteland, seeking to conquer greater territories to achieve his ambition. Under this analogy, Caesar considers the New California Republic as the Roman Republic, and New Vegas as his empire. However, he sees himself as closer to a barbaric King of the Gauls than to a Roman general,[1][Non-game 2] a fact not lost on those educated in ancient Roman history.[2]
Appearances[]
The Rubicon is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and the Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition.
References[]
- ↑ The Courier: "Surely, the NCR is a powerful foe?"
Caesar: "Of course. The most powerful my Legion has faced. Also the first to which I am ideologically opposed. Until now, every tribe I've conquered has been so backwards and stunted, enslavement has been a gift bestowed upon them. My conquest of the Mojave will be a glorious triumph, marking the transition of the Legion from a basically nomadic tribe to a genuine empire. Just as my namesake campaigned in Gaul before he crossed the Rubicon, so have I campaigned, and will cross the Colorado."
(Caesar's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "He seemed pretty smart to me."
Arcade Gannon: "Being 'smart' doesn't matter if you're insane. Everything makes sense to Caesar because he's twisted everything to his world view. He's Caesar reincarnated, the NCR is the corrupt Roman senate. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought the Colorado River were the new Rubicon. He abdicates responsibility to a myth of historical inevitability. But he's not Caesar. This isn't Rome. And he isn't going to get away with this."
(Arcade Gannon's dialogue)
Non-game
- ↑ Gaul on Wikipedia
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.460-461: "True to Caesar
Many years have passed, and by post-apocalyptic standards, Caesar's accomplishments have been prodigious. But the man's hunger for greatness has never been sated. Having assembled a loose nation of slavers and slaves, having won countless 'wars' against inferior peoples, secretly he still feels like an upstart, an amateur-a barbaric King of the Gauls, instead of a lofty emperor of Rome.
To advance, he needs two things: a Carthage and a Rome. In the NCR he has at last found a great adversary, against which he can wage a military campaign worthy of history books. (Indeed, worth teaching his subordinates how to read and write, so that future generations can read his own Commentarii.) And in Vegas, powered and watered by its great dam, he has found a capital worthy of, well, a Caesar. Contrary to the old saw, Rome will be built in a day. With that out of the way, the next step will be to proclaim his apotheosis. All good Roman emperors became gods, although that was usually done posthumously..."
(Behind the Bright Lights & Big City)