The Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE was an all-Roman affair fought between the young Octavian, chosen heir of Julius Caesar, and the mercurial Mark Antony, widely regarded as the greatest living Roman general on the one side against Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Caesar and champions of the Republican cause on the other. The battle, on an inland plain in eastern Macedonia near the city of Philippi, would involve the largest Roman armies to ever take the field and, as 36 legions clashed, the bloody outcome would decide the future of the Roman Empire and finally bring to an end the 500-year old Roman Republic.
Prologue
In 44 BCE Mark Antony and Gaius Octavian, Caesar's most accomplished general and his chosen heir respectively, formed an uneasy alliance to take revenge on the dictator's assassins and restore order to the Republic. After an initial reconciliation with the conspirators Antony tried to marginalise Brutus and Cassius by appointing them supervisors of Rome's grain supply from Asia and Sicily.
