Qualla: Battle of Philippi https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Philippi https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi Battle of Philippi: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi/ Photo credit Macesito, CC BY-SA 4.0. Plutarch tells a strange story about the lead-up to Philippi. Some months before the battle, Marcus Junius Brutus was working late in his tent in Asia when he saw a shadow form at the edge of the lamplight. He asked it what it was. The shadow answered: 'Thy evil spirit, Brutus. I shall see thee at Philippi.' Whether the ghost was a portent, a fever dream, or a story Plutarch added afterwards, it captures something true about the campaign that ended the Roman Republic. By the time the armies finally met on the plain west of the city of Philippi in October 42 BC, both sides were already losing. They just did not know it yet.

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Image: Macesito | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/sx33-battle-of-philippi-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Philippi: Two years after the Ides https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi/ Photo credit Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W, Public domain. Two years after Brutus and Cassius and the other Liberators had killed Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate, the war they had hoped to avoid was on them. In Italy, three of Caesar's lieutenants had patched together the Second Triumvirate: Mark Antony, the consul who had given Caesar...

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Image: Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/sx33-battle-of-philippi-two-years-after-the-ides.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Philippi: First battle, 3 October https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi/ Photo credit Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W, Public domain. Antony tried for weeks to lure them down. They would not move. So Antony began secretly building a causeway through the marsh that anchored Cassius's southern flank. When Cassius noticed, he started his own counter-wall to cut off Antony's outstretched right wing. The maneuvers t...

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Image: Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/sx33-battle-of-philippi-first-battle-3-october.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Philippi: Three weeks of waiting https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi/ Photo credit Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W, Public domain. Both armies pulled back to lick their wounds. The casualties had been heavy on both sides — 8,000 for Cassius's wing, around 16,000 for Octavian's. The strategic position now favoured Brutus. His fleet had intercepted and destroyed two legions that the triumvirs had been ferrying...

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Image: Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/sx33-battle-of-philippi-three-weeks-of-waiting.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Philippi: Second battle, 23 October https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi/ Photo credit Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W, Public domain. There was almost no maneuver in the second battle of Philippi. The two armies, both Roman, both trained in the same way, marched toward each other and pushed. Cassius Dio wrote that they hardly bothered with arrows or javelins, that they crashed into close combat almost immediate...

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Image: Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/sx33-battle-of-philippi-second-battle-23-october.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Philippi: Antony's purple cloak https://qualla.com/battle-of-philippi/ Photo credit Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W, Public domain. Antony, finding Brutus's body, covered it with a purple military cloak — a senior commander's mark of honour. The two had not been close, but Brutus had insisted, when he joined the plot to kill Caesar, that Antony's life be spared. About 14,000 of the Liberators' surviving soldi...

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Image: Weston, W H; Plutarch; Rainey, W | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/3/3/battle-of-philippi-wp/sx33-battle-of-philippi-antonys-purple-cloak.mp3 0:06 6 full