THE RUBICON IDENTIFIED.

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE RUBICON IDENTIFIED.

CAESAR'S FATEFITL BITTER. THE FIUMICINO. Mussolini recently assumed a new role—that of geographer—when he turned his attention to the question of determining where the Rubicon River is. For hundreds of years that question has been undecided, or rather decided first in favour of one stream or river in Romao-na, then of another, each community in the district vying with the others for the honour. A short time a~o Mussolini ordered an investigation, .rTado and apparently took keen interest in the researches himself. Aβ a result the Fiumicino River has been established ae the stream which - the ancients called the Rubicon, and. its historic name has been restored. In the time of Julius Caesar . the Rubicon was part of the boundary between Gaul and Italy. By crossing it under arms in 49 B.C. Caesar irrevocably committed himself to civil war with Pompey's party, which then controlled the Government at Rome. It proved an epochal day, too, for the entire Roman Empire. It was important even in the history of the world. But it was most important to the Rubicon itself. The others would have got along somehow without Caesar. The Rubicon would have been forgotten long ago if Caesar's declaration of war on Pompey had not been symbolised by his crossing it.

Mona Lisa, better known as La Gioconda, was painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the year 1500. The wonderful portrait is that of the third wife of an obscure official of Florence, and it is said that Leonardo engaged musicians to play and sing while she sat to him so as to keep her enigmatic smile. Francis I. of France acquired the picture from the painter. More than a hundred years later the Duke of Buckingham, who was sent over to negotiate tho marriage of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria, wished to take it to England. In 1911 Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, but was returned two years later. 1