Answer to Question #195672 in English for Makaia Hill

Question

To cross the Rubicon means to make a decision or take a step that commits one to a specific course of action from which there is no turning back...a point of no return.  Write about an experience that you would deem “crossing your Rubicon” or reflect on a book or movie where a character "crossed their Rubicon."

Answer 1

This phrase alludes to Julius Caesar's crossing the Rubicon River (between Italy and Gaul) in 49 b.c., thereby starting a war against Pompey and the Roman Senate. Recounted in Plutarch's Lives: Julius Caesar, the crossing gave rise to figurative English usage by the early 1600s. when Julius Caesar crossed this river between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, thereby invading Italy and disobeying Pompey and the Roman Senate. The Senate, he had learned, intended to disband his army, whereupon Caesar joined his advance guard on the Rubicon’s banks and told them, “We may still draw back, but once across that little bridge we will have to fight it out.” The term has been a cliché since about 1700.

A good example is when an employee gives out a signed resignation letter to his/her boss and then later decides to come back which becomes impossible since he/she has already crossed the Rubicon.