Battle of Philippi — Death of the Republic
Antony and Octavian destroyed the last republican army at Philippi in October 42 BC in two battles three weeks apart. Brutus and Cassius had left Italy after Caesar's murder and spent two years assembling the eastern provinces — some nineteen legions, the fleets, and the accumulated taxation of Asia and Syria, extracted with a brutality that Cassius in particular was remembered for. They took a strong position astride the Via Egnatia in Macedonia with the sea behind them and marshes on their flank, and their plan was to sit there and let the enemy starve, since their supply came by sea and their opponents' came overland. The first battle on 3 October was fought because the triumvirs forced it. Antony attacked across the marsh against Cassius and took his camp; Brutus's wing simultaneously broke Octavian's and took his, with Octavian himself absent and, by his own account, ill. Cassius, unable to see what had happened on the other wing through the dust, believed the day lost and had a freedman kill him. That was the decisive event, since Brutus had won his half of the field. He was then pressed by his own officers to fight again rather than wait, and did so on 23 October, and lost. He killed himself the next day. The republican cause ended with them, and what remained was a competition between Caesar's heirs. Antony took the east, Octavian Italy and the unpopular business of settling veterans on confiscated land, which nearly destroyed him and eventually made him.
- Year: 42 BCE
- Category: Military
