Note 519 — LIFE OF C. CÆSAR.
George Long translation
Cæsar says nothing of the passage of the Rubico, but his silence does not disprove the truth of the story as told by Plutarch. The passage of the Rubico was a common topic (locus communis) for rhetoricians. Lucanus (Pharsalia, i. 213) has embellished it:—
"Fonte cadit modico parvisque impellitur undis Puniceus Rubicon, cum fervida canduit æstas— Tunc vires præbebat hiems."
This small stream does not appear to be identified with certainty. Some writers make it the Fiumicino.
Ariminum was not in Cæsar's province, and Plutarch must have known that, as appears from his narrative. Kaltwasser thinks that he may mean that it was originally a Gallic town, which was true.