Philippi << FIHL uh `py` or fih LIHP eye >> , Battles of, were fought in October of 42 B.C. between two Roman armies in what is now northern Greece. At that time, the area was part of ancient Macedonia . The battles were part of the Roman civil wars that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar , who had taken control of the Roman Republic. One army was commanded by Caesar’s leading assassins, Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus , who claimed to have “liberated” the Roman Republic from Caesar’s “tyranny.” The other was led by Caesar’s avengers, Mark Antony and Octavian (later called Augustus ). Octavian was Caesar’s great-nephew and adopted son. Antony and Octavian ultimately were victorious, and the battles often are regarded as marking the end of the Roman Republic.
Shortly after Caesar’s assassination in March of 44 B.C., Cassius and Brutus left Rome because of popular outrage over the killing. They withdrew to Rome’s eastern provinces to strengthen their military position. Eventually, they took control of all the major military forces east of Italy. They began moving from Asia Minor (now part of Turkey) along the Aegean coast of Thrace, then Macedonia, toward Italy. Antony and Octavian crossed the Adriatic Sea from Italy to the Balkan Peninsula and marched east along the Via Egnatia, a major Roman road . Just west of Philippi (near present-day Kavalla, Greece), Cassius and Brutus took up a strong defensive position blocking the road. They were well supplied from a nearby seaport. This was extremely important because their army of about 90,000 men was too large to live off the land. Antony and Octavian, who was ill and played a secondary role throughout the operations, arrived with a larger army of about 95,000 men. However, they were short of supplies. Their best hope was to force a battle quickly or push around their enemies’ position and cut off their supplies.
Cassius commanded the left (south) end of his army’s battle line, which was shielded by a swamp. Brutus commanded the right (north) end, which was protected by high hills. Antony began building a fortified causeway (raised road) into the swamp. He intended to work his way around Cassius’s position. Cassius extended his own fortifications to prevent Antony from encircling his forces. But a sudden assault by Antony’s men broke through Cassius’s fortifications and captured his camp. At the same time, at the north end of the battle line, Brutus’s men charged and overwhelmed Octavian’s legions. Cassius, unaware of Brutus’s victory, thought the battle was lost and killed himself. This first engagement between armies was indecisive.
Over the next 20 days, Antony pushed forward through the swamp and threatened to cut Brutus’s supply line. Brutus was forced to commit his army to battle on October 23. Antony and Octavian broke Brutus’s battle line and defeated his soldiers. Brutus escaped with some of his men, but later killed himself.
The battles at Philippi were the largest military engagements of the Roman civil wars. The bloodshed was immense. Historians estimate that 40,000 soldiers died. Although civil war would continue on-and-off for 11 more years, the battles at Philippi marked a critical stage in Octavian’s rise to power as Rome’s first emperor.
