Battle of Philippi

Battle of Philippi

Acropolis and plain of Philippi

Conflict Civil War between the Second Triumvirate and the Republicans

Date September-October, 42 BC. AD

Location Philippi

Issue Victory of the triumvirs Marc Antoine and Octave

Fighters

Command

Republicans

Brutus and Cassius

Triumvirs

Antoine and Octave

Forces present

Republicans
80,000 men,
including 18 legions, 20,000 cavalry

Triumvirs

100,000 men, including 20 legions, 13,000 cavalry

Losses (1st battle)
>8000>16000

The Battle of Philippi (September-October 42 BC) saw, during two successive confrontations, the triumvirs Octavian and Antony defeat the Republicans Brutus and Cassius in the plain west of Philippi. This defeat sounded the death knell for the Senate's hopes of preserving the Republican regime.

The civil war between the Second Triumvirate and the Republicans

After the coup d'etat of Octave who was elected consul by the comitia on August 19, 43 BC. AD, and the conclusion of the second triumvirate on November 27, 43 BC. J.-C. with Lépide and Marc Antoine, the hopes of the Senate to maintain the Republic rest on the assassins of César, Brutus and Cassius, who fled in the East in 44 av. In autumn 43, Cassius, who had taken the lead of the legions of Syria and Egypt, and defeated the Caesarian Dolabella at Laodicea, joined Brutus at Smyrna. Both then decide the total war against the triumvirs.

Movements of the armies before the battle

* Brutus and Cassius cross the straits with an imposing army of 19 legions accompanied by a large cavalry.
* Antony and Octavian cross the Adriatic then Greece with 28 of their 43 legions. They detach an army of 8 legions which they send under the command of L. Decidius Saxa and C. Norbanus Flaccus to meet the Republicans. This army crossed all of Macedonia to block access to two defiles in Thrace:Decidius occupied that of the Korpiles and Norbanus that of the Sapeans (fig. 1).
* Brutus and Cassius were warned of the presence of Norbanus at the parades of the Sapeans by the Thracian prince Rhaskuporis, their ally. They bypass the obstacle thanks to a stratagem:they send their fleet, led by Tillius Cimber, with a legion, around Cape Serrheion and along the coast to pretend that they do not need the land route. Sure enough, Norbanus, impressed by the show of force, orders Decidius to retreat, which clears the parade of Korpiles for the Republicans.

* The 8 legions of Norbanus and Decidius jointly occupy the parade of the Sapeans, in the region of Abdera. The Thracian prince Rhaskuporis then shows the Republicans how to circumvent the position from the North, at the cost of four days of marching in difficult mountain paths of the Symbolon. Brutus and Cassius thus reach the plain of Philippi. Warned by Rhaskos that their position has been turned again, Decidius and Norbanus fall back by the coast road to Amphipolis.
* Brutus and Cassius each establish their camp on the plain to the west of Philippi, the first on the slopes to the northwest of the city, the second on a small hill to the southwest.

The opposing forces [edit]
The plain of Philippi, where the first battle took place, seen from the acropolis from where Cassius witnessed the rout of his forces and where he committed suicide
The plain of Philippi, where the first battle took place, seen from the acropolis from where Cassius witnessed the rout of his forces and where he committed suicide

* In the republican camp, according to Appien (Bellum Civile, IV, 88 Brutus has 8 legions and 6,000 cavalry; Cassius also has 11 legions and 6,000 cavalry. Brutus thus had 4,000 cavalry from Gaul and Lusitania, 3 2,000 from Thrace and Illyria and 2,000 Parthians and Thessalians. Cassius's cavalry on his side is broken down into 2,000 Spaniards and Gauls, 4,000 mounted archers Arabs, Medes and Parthians. Galatian and Asian allied princes bring them reinforcements infantry and above all 8,000 additional cavalry, of which 3,000 came from the Thracian prince Rhaskuporis.The total of the republican forces was established at around 80,000 men:certain legions were understrength.
* In the camp of the triumvirs, 28 of the 43 legions they have in all are engaged in this campaign, but 8 have been detached, so that Octavian and Antony only have 20 in front of Philippi. , they are a u maximum of their workforce. Rhaskos, Thracian prince brother of Rhaskuporis had also contributed 5,000 cavalry to the triumvirs.

The First Battle of Philippi (first week of October 42 BC)

* Antoine tries to return the protection offered by the marsh to the Republicans by taking advantage of the cover it offers to his troops:he discreetly builds a causeway which bypasses the positions of Cassius from the south, and after 10 days of this work sends some troops to establish redoubts to the south-east of these (fig. 2.1).
* Cassius surprises the operation and retaliates by having a dike built in the swamp perpendicular to that of Antoine, thus cutting him off from his outpost. (fig. 2.2)
* Antony then launches a general frontal attack on Cassius' positions:he seizes his camp and his soldiers begin to loot (fig. 2.3).
* Simultaneously, Brutus' legions attack to the north towards Octave's camp, jostle his legions, and in turn seize the enemy camp which they sack. Octave himself miraculously owes his salvation - this is what he reports in his memoirs - only to a premonitory dream which had made him leave the camp (fig. 2.4).
* Driven out of his fortifications, Cassius prefers to take refuge on the nearby acropolis of Philippi to benefit from an overview of the battlefield. But the dust hides from him Brutus' attack on Octave, and leaves him to see only the rout of his own troops. Judging the situation lost, and despite perhaps messengers announcing Brutus' victory, he asks his freedman Pindarus to kill him (fig. 2.5).
* The battle ends when each army withdraws to its original positions, taking the spoils made in the opposing camp. The losses are heavy on both sides:Cassius and Brutus would have lost 8,000 men and Octave and Antony 16,000 (according to Messala Corvinus, one of Brutus' commanders, quoted by Plutarch, Brutus, 45). These high figures (and doubtful like all the casualty figures of ancient battles) testify to the violence of the fighting in this first indecisive battle.
* Brutus had Cassius buried secretly at Thasos to try to limit the effects of this news on the Republican army.

The Second Battle of Philippi (October 23, 42 BC)

* The very day of the first battle of Philippi takes place a naval engagement in the Ionian Sea:the republican fleet of Murcus and Ahenobarbus destroys the reinforcements of 2 legions that Domitius Calvinus was to bring to Octave. This setback forced the triumvirs to keep the initiative and force the Republicans into battle, because their logistical situation remained very bad. Brutus for his part occupied the old positions of Cassius and wanted to temporize again to weaken his adversaries.
* Antoine tried again to bypass the Republicans on the southern flank, but by engaging of its forces (fig. 3.1). He had 4 legions occupy the secondary hill between Cassius' camp and the swamp, which Brutus had failed to reoccupy. Then from this position he sends 10 legions to establish another camp 5 furlongs east along the swamp, and again 2 more legions build a third camp, 4 furlongs east of the second.
* Brutus reacted by building a series of redoubts to cope with these new deployments (fig. 3.2). The front line thus completely changes direction to become West-East and no longer North-South. It stretches dangerously in the direction of Philippi and threatens to cut Brutus off from his line of communication with the sea. little possibility of retreat if they are defeated.
* The second battle of Philippi was finally engaged on October 23 around 3 p.m., three weeks after the first, when Brutus yielded to his officers who pressed him to start the fight. According to Appian, it was Octavian's soldiers who made the decision this time and seized the gates of Brutus' fortifications. Defeat quickly turned into a rout, with the Republicans fleeing to the sea and the mountains.
* Brutus retreated to the heights (fig. 2.3), from where he thought he could continue the fight take back his camp invested by Octave. But he must resign himself, abandoned by his men:he chooses to commit suicide in turn rather than be taken prisoner. Antoine has his corpse burned on a stake and his ashes sent to his mother, Servilia Caepio. According to Suetonius, on the contrary, Octavian cut off his head to have it thrown at the feet of the statue of Caesar in Rome. Among the fugitives, the Latin poet Horace is not the last, he who had tied his destiny to that of Brutus.
* The remaining Republican troops capitulate and place themselves under the orders of the triumvirs. There are no estimates on the losses suffered by the two sides in this second battle.

The consequences of the victory of the triumvirs

* Octave and Antoine dismiss part of their troops on the battlefield, and found a Roman colony on the site of the Greek city of Philippi, the colonia Iulia Victrix Philippensis, dedicated to the victory they have just won. They probably raise a monument on the battlefield, of which no trace has been found. But it is remarkable to note that at the place where the Via Egnatia passed Cassius's levee, a monumental arch is built which marks, according to the interpretations, either the pomerium of the colony, or the necropolises, and in particular that soldiers fallen in battle.
* The triumvirs divide up the Roman world:Antoine receives the East to pacify and Narbonnaise, Lépide Africa, and Octave the West to charge for him to eliminate Sextus Pompey. The Roman Republic is dead, but the form of the regime that will replace it remains to be determined:more than ten years of civil wars separate Philippi from Actium, the birth certificate of the Roman Empire.