Rubicon, a river of North Italy, now partly represented by the Rugone, and flowing into the Adriatic Sea N. of Arminium (Rimmi). Although of no great size, it was important as forming the South East boundary of Cisalpine Gaul.

Caesar crossed it in 49 B.C., and thereby trespassed upon his rival Pompey's jurisdiction, thus affording a deliberate casus belli; hence the phrase to "cross the Rubicon" as meaning an action which admits of no retreat. ...read more
                        

Agrippina the Younger
 
Her third marriage was to her uncle, the Emperor Claudius, whom she induced to set aside his own son, Britannicus, in favour of Nero. She then had Claudius poisoned, and Nero became emperor under her regency. Tiring of her ascendancy, Nero had her killed._ ...read more
                        

Caesar is the family name or adopted title of the early Roman emperors. 

Caesar was a title which came from the family name of Julius Caesar, who ruled Rome as a monarch without a crown from 49 to 44 B.C.

Octavian, Caesar's nephew and adopted son, took his uncle's name and also the title of Augustus. The next four Roman emperors all had some claim, by family or adoption, to the name of Caesar, which became so closely associated with the idea of the emperor that it was a kind of title.

In choo ...read more
                        

Friend of Caesar and of Cicero, Governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Marcus Junius Brutus was one of Caesar's assassins in 44 B.C. He fled with Cassius, was defeated by Antonius and Octavian, and committed suicide. ...read more
                        

For more than 200 years the Empire was governed monarchically, first by the Julio-Claudians, then, after a short interval of civil war, by the Flavians. Both these houses were determined to establish and maintain a hereditary dynasty, based on direct lineal descent. The only emperors who did not come to power in this way were Augustus, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, who acquired it by force of arms, and Galba, who was elected by the Senate. ...read more