The Batlle of Philippi

Day 2,470, 23:28 • Published in Greece USA • by Hipparch
Philippi, Battle of (42 B.C.E.)

Decisive battle in which Mark Antony and Octavian defeated the assassins of Julius Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. After the murder of Julius Caesar, the consul Mark Antony, along with the designated heir Octavian and proconsul Aemilius Lepidus, formed an alliance known as the “Second Triumvirate.” It was directed against Caesar’s leading assassins, Brutus and Cassius, known as the “Liberators.”

Leaving Lepidus to control Italy, Antony and Octavian moved to northern Greece. The army of the Liberators was positioned astride the Via Egnatia, to the west of Philippi, in a position partly protected by a marsh. Both armies contained 19 legions, but the army of the Liberators was superior in cavalry. Both sides entrenched, building stone dikes, palisades, and towers. Antony attempted an outflanking movement by cutting through the marsh. After a 10-day effort, Antony’s troops finally attacked Cassius’s camp and crushed its army. Cassius, not knowing that Brutus’s forces had successfully assaulted Octavian’s camp, committed suicide.

During the next three weeks, Antony and Octavian continued to alter their angles of attack in an attempt to outflank Brutus’s remaining forces, as Brutus extended his lines eastward in response. In the end, Brutus, against his better judgment, agreed to a battle in which his army was routed. Desperate, he too took his own life.


See also:

Cassius

References and further reading:

Gabba, Emilio. Republican Rome: The Army and the Allies. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1976.

Keppie, Lawrence. “The Roman Army of the Later Republic.” In Warfare in the Ancient World, ed. John Hackett, 169–191. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989.

*This essay has appeared (under my real name) in Sandler, S., (ed.), Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, 2002, ABC-CLIO.