Dan Snow's History Hit - The Battle of Philippi: Death of the Roman Republic

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

In October 42 BC the Roman Republic committed suicide. Near the town of Philippi in northern Greece the forces of Brutus and Cassius, the famous assassins of Julius Caesar and the last surviving cheerleaders of the Roman Republic, faced off against the armies of Marc Antony and young Octavian. Two separate battles were fought, the results of which decided the future direction of Rome. In this Ancients podcast, Tristan was joined by Steele Brand (@steele_brand) to talk through these all-important battles. From the background to Brutus’ pitiful demise Steele explains the final Roman attempts to restore the Republic and how they were ultimately squashed by a combination of political brilliance, suicidal blunders and outrageous luck. Steele is the author of ‘Killing for the Republic: Citizen Soldiers and the Roman Way of War’. Quick note: Lycia is a region in southwest Anatolia, on the Mediterranean coast.

Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit, still on the half-term road trip. As you heard from yesterday's podcast, we were on the Jurassic Coast. The fossil hunting was reasonably successful. No ichthyosaurs, you'll be very surprised to learn. But the odd bit of ammonite. We also did see some Second World War beach defences, so on the whole, it was mission successful. This episode of History Hit is in fact a glimpse at our new podcast, The Ancients. It's storming the charts here in the UK.

It's doing well elsewhere in the world as well. It's Tristan Hughes looking at ancient history, not just the Mediterranean basin, but ancient civilizations all over the world. Tristan is talking to Dr. Steele Brand. He's an expert in Republican Rome. So what else to talk about really? brand. He's an expert in Republican Rome. So what else to talk about, really, than the place where the Roman Republic went to die, went to kill itself, commit suicide, the Battle of Philippi. If you want to watch a documentary about ancient history or listen to other episodes of this

podcast on the ancients, you can do so. History Hit TV. It's like my new digital history channel featuring documentaries from some of the world's best historians, new historians, breakout talents, all very exciting. You just go over there, it's Trafalgar Week, a never-ending Trafalgar Week. So we're running a special Trafalgar Week deal. The code TRAFALGA gets you a month for free, and in three months, just one dollar, one pound, one euro for each of those three months. Crazy. Here is our crossover episode of the Ancients. Of course, you can get that wherever you get your pods. So go and subscribe, rate it, etc. Enjoy. Steel, it is great to have you back on the show. How have you been? I have been doing okay, given the circumstances, and it's fantastic to be back.

Another great topic we're talking about today, we are talking about the battles of Philippi. I guess it's right to say battles, right? Correct, yes. And this is a defining moment in Roman history. This is when the Roman Republic, can we say it dies? I think we have to be a little more dramatic in our phraseology there. It commits suicide. Ironically, we can use that term, as we'll see, probably near the end of the podcast. But this is a mass suicide on the part of the Roman Republic itself, and particularly its citizen soldiers. So let's start with the background, first of all, and one of the most significant or one of the biggest events in ancient history,

the assassination of Julius Caesar. Is this the spark for civil war to erupt once more? Right. So we've had a century of troubles. Appian starts off this with thinking of the Gracchi that we have a number of problems that pop up between Marius and Sulla. We've got another generation. And then you've got a climbing set of issues that seem like they're going to culminate in civil war, which does break out between Caesar and Pompey. Well, Caesar really against all the odds. The guy just does not seem to understand the possibility of defeat. Caesar ends up beating Pompey. And this is remarkable. And so now he's a tyrant in Rome. He's a really interesting tyrant

because he's clearly overthrowing the constitution. He's a really interesting tyrant because he's clearly overthrowing the Constitution. He's passing laws basically himself, and he's behaving in such a way that he's acting like a king. However, and what gets the sense he's surprised at the event, there are still enough Republicans, especially the younger group of Republicans who are inspired by people such as Cato and to a certain extent by Pompey. But this idea of standing up to a tyrant, this group of people gather together and they assassinate Caesar. It's a really, really well hidden conspiracy, despite the fact that Plutarch plays up their lost importance. But I do think Caesar has this sense that he's almost kind of invincible or he's so confident in himself that this couldn't happen. And of course it does.

And then the question is, well, what comes next? And at the moment, chaos breaks out and people aren't really sure exactly after the, you know, as he's breathing his last, what's going to happen. And who are these young men who have been inspired by these earlier Republican figures?

Who are these men who assassinate Caesar? So we've got three factions that emerge with the death or the assassination of Caesar. And the two leading figures are Brutus and Cassius. And when I teach my class on the Roman Republic, I actually have them, I assign them a statesman. I give them personality tests. They are assigned a statesman that they have to live with and die with because they all die in the end. And it's interesting how people really get into the personalities of Brutus and Cassius. And what's pretty great is the sources. We've got three main sources for the

Battle of Philippi. We've got Cassius Dio, we've got Appian, and then we've got Plutarch. They paint a pretty similar picture of all of them. And Brutus, he's mild. He's mild-tempered. He is very philosophically minded. He seems to get along with people, but he more importantly inspires people because he has an upright character. There's maybe only one or two people with a more famous upright character, Cato being one of them, possibly Cicero, although Cicero knows how to do politics and knows how to do it in a dirty fashion in a way that Brutus doesn't seem to be able to do. And he is possibly, this is what some people think, he's possibly the illegitimate son of Caesar. Probably not, almost certainly not. But Pl mentions this and he is he's a foil to his friend who's the instigator

for brutus and that's cassius and cassius poor cassius uh and this is what i'm always telling my students don't get cassius from shakespeare because cassius is he's a lot more than that and shakespeare kind of playing off plutarch but fully, wants to set these two up as two very different people. Temperamentally, they are different. Cassius has a remarkable background. He is the guy who's constantly rescuing the Republic from defeat. So when the disastrous Battle of Karai happens and Crassus gets himself isolated and then murdered with most of his army destroyed by the Parthians, isolated and then murdered with most of his army destroyed by the Parthians, you've got Cassius saving the day, keeping disaster from occurring back in Syria and basically holding the line

against repeated offensives of the Parthians. And then in the phases of the civil war, he is successful at sea against the forces of Caesar, whereas Pompey is unsuccessful. So he's the stellar subordinate, but he's always fighting for lost causes. And there's even a story that. And he beats the boy and he even offers to do it twice when he almost gets in trouble with Sulla. So you've got these two really different personalities. One who is fiery. He knows how to lead men. He's pretty good in a crisis. The other who's softer, but he's inspiring because of a sense of virtue. And these two men get together and get a cabal, pretty substantial cabal of others to lead this first faction. They're the liberators, if you are a Republican, or they're conspirators,

if you like Julius Caesar. They're the ones who end up affecting the assassination. And these liberators, Cassius, Brutus, and the rest who are in their circle, as it were, do they stay in Rome long following the assassination? Or is it very quickly that they decide to up sticks and move, as it were? All right. Well, Cicero makes the point that you guys planned the assassination really well, but you didn't plan what was going to happen next. I think they just thought the Republic was spontaneously going to resurrect itself. That isn't what happened. The senators in the Senate, they're actually in the theater of Pompeii, or they're in a building attached to it. They are panic when they see Caesar being assassinated. The mob dearly loves

Caesar for a whole host of reasons. They're a little uncomfortable, a little uncertain about what Caesar had intended for himself. Nobody knows what Caesar had intended for himself. So the people are confused. The senators are scared. The conspirators actually have to go run up and hide out on the Capitol line. The Capitol is basically almost in a state of siege. There are people who want to even burn down the conspirators or the assassins' houses, and you don't have the reemergence of the Republic. what's really interesting he's got two other factions so we've got the liberators you've got mark anthony he's the highest legitimate authority in the roman republic of the time and you've got the master of horse of caesar marcus lepidus the guys who have the most legitimate power they basically affect a truce you even have brutus and cassius dining with lepidus and anthony right after the assassination and it looks like maybe the heirs of Caesar, the ones closest to him, the Caesareans, are going to affect a peace.

You've got this group of fence-sitters who've done well under Caesar. They have positions that they're going to inherit from Caesar, and they're the moderate Caesareans. So it looks like at the end of March, you may actually have a peace breakout between these various factions. And then of course, the whole thing is upset by the entrance of the nephew of Caesar. And then this, or the grand nephew, I should say, of Caesar. And this is going to cause all of this to start breaking down very fast. And who is this grand nephew of Caesar? Oh, well, we Republicans are, we have to stick with calling him Octavian. Of course, you could call him Augustus, but probably the most accurate

term for the day would be the young Caesar. If I have a slip of the tongue and call him Octavian, that's simply because I'm looking at the fact that, you know, as this background, that is, it's relatively obscure. It's a well-to-do family, but not one of the most famous. He's the, like I said, the, I think it's his, the son of his niece and Atia and he's adopted by Caesar. And he's a bit of a sickly child. He's always going to be plagued with a kind of weak constitution, but he plays the man. His mother says, play the man.

And as an upper teenager, he's 19 at the time, he comes into Italy and assumes the mantle of his adopted father, Caesar. And adoption in Rome is a very serious matter. If you're adopted, you become a member of that family. You inherit that legitimacy. And Octavian does an amazing job. And he steps into that role. He even begins raising legions from his father's old veterans. he steps into that role. He even begins raising legions from his father's old veterans. So you can see there are people who are dedicated to Caesar's legacy, and they do not want to see Caesar's legacy to disappear. And they want to see the liberators punished. And they are attracted to Octavian. And Octavian can use that against Antony, who has seized Caesar's papers, a lot of the wealth of Caesar, and is starting to do some dodgy things with them. It looks like the war that's going to break out is going to be between these two

presumptive heirs of the legacy of Caesar, his legal heir, and then his lieutenant, Mark Antony. But that's not what ends up happening. So Octavian is this wrecking ball that just goes smashing in between these two factions in the aftermath of Caesar's death, which ultimately leads to Brutus and Cassius and Mark Antony, well, their relations falling apart. That's right. And one has to wonder how long could that peace have held between Antony and Brutus and Cassius? It's one of these questions we'll never have answered, but Octavian ensures this does not occur. What is happening is cassius and brutus have got to get out of rome and then eventually out of italy which is an embarrassment because brutus is the urban pride tour he's supposed to

be there in the city he's not allowed to leave so they sort of had to make special exceptions for this and then they're given small appointments out in the east. And that means that the most important figures of the republican cause have now left with a republic that isn't actually restored. Not yet. And so when Brutus and Cassius, they head east, what do they start doing? What is their aim? Well, initially, they seem to be waiting. But Cassius, of course, moves a lot faster. He will start gaining control of the forces out in the east.

This happens over late 44 into early 43. He's going to, they're given, like I said, small assignments, but they basically forget what these small assignments are. And they begin taking over the control of the resources. What do they need? They need men and they need money. control of the resources. What do they need? They need men and they need money. And there are some allies who had been at least a part of the cause and not the friends of Caesar. At least they've been part of the conspiracy. And they will join with Cassius, who's operating in Asia. Brutus comes into Athens and he starts teaching philosophy. This is what he does. Cassius arrives

and he gets to the middle of a crisis. There are a number of legions trying to gain control of Syria and he swoops in and everyone rallies to his cause. It's stirring. Whereas back in Athens, Brutus is teaching philosophy. But what Plutarch says that what Brutus is also doing is he's taking the lay of the land and he's seeing where can he get support. And he starts gathering forces to his side. And as soon as he can declare himself, he gathers a number of young men to him. They join the army, including the poet Horace, who maybe we'll have cause to mention him in the end. But Marcus Cicero, the son of the elder Cicero, will also join Brutus cause. And then he will end up in 43 defeating the brother of Mark Antony.

he will end up in 43, defeating the brother of Mark Antony. Mark Antony, by this point in time, back in Italy, looks like he's making himself out to be kind of like another Caesar. And Brutus is going to have a pretty good campaign where he defeats Antony's brother, he captures him, and you've got the liberators out of Italy, but basically in control of all the resources of the East, which is what Sulla had done. And this is what Pompey had done before them. Absolutely. When you think of that time period, these Eastern provinces, the Roman Empire, this is where the wealth is. This is where all the money is. And Brutus in Athens in Greece, Cassius in Asia, where he's been before, he knows the place very well. And he's this charismatic leader too. It sounds very good at this point for them. It does.

When you get to 43, and we haven't mentioned what's going on in the West, you have the forces of Mark Antony defeated. You have legitimate commands now bestowed on Cassius and Brutus up to this point. Are they warlords? Do they actually deserve to have these positions? But no, legitimacy is conferred on them. It looks like as spring 43 is moving into summer, the Republicans have absolutely won this whole thing. And certainly Brutus and Cassius are in

a really, really good position in control of so much money and so many troops with the virtue of Brutus on the one hand, the generalship of Cassius on the other hand. You mentioned the events in the West that are happening at this time. Let's go on to that now, because as these things have been happening in the East, we see this other hero of the Republic back in Rome making his own progress. Yeah. And I mean, the story of Cicero is, I mean, it's fascinating up to 44, 43, but it's even more fascinating, the decisions that the old man makes in 43. So Cicero had always been on the fence about what to do throughout the phases of the civil war, but Pompey or Caesar, he's often seen as a vacillator. I don't think that's actually the

case. I think Cicero has a really high ideal of what the ideal statesman should be. And so he's not included in the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. One source, Nicolaus, has the Brutus hailing Cicero for Cicero and the Republic, the moment after they've killed Caesar. And Cicero is sort of thinking, am I supposed to stand up? Like, what do I do? Should I have applause? Am I a part of this? But no one includes him in it because they thought, oh, he's an old man. And that's a good critique because unlike so many other old men like Quintus Fabius Maximus or Aemilius Paulus, men in their 60s, 70s, even 80s of the Republic who can fight, Cicero has always been very timid. He's a little more like Brutus in this way, physically timid. And what he does

is he starts writing letters to them. And throughout 44, he sees in the West the breakdown of order. And he sees Mark Antony start forging papers. He witnesses a number of like what Caesar had done. Would this have happened without Octavian? We don't know. But he sees Octavian out there wandering on the loose and he thinks he can mold Octavian. He always wonders, is this the right thing to do? He doesn't trust him. He writes this to his friends in his letters, but he's trying to pull Octavian away from Mark Antony. And how does he do this? He does it through the old Republican way by writing letters and by giving speeches and here's what's great about cicero we have all these speeches he's giving a really really great speeches to the senate but also to the people and this is they usually alternate if you read the philippics and he doesn't actually open the big verbal tirade between antony and

cicero it's actually opened by Antony. So Antony wants support from Cicero. Cicero is not willing to do it as Antony looks like he's grasping at power. And so when Antony kind of throws down the gauntlet, Cicero says, okay, I'll pick it up. And this is a really big moment for Cicero. He actually had thought about leaving, get away from the whole thing. I think a huge part of this is his wife for most of his life, he had divorced her. A lot of reasons why, but he'd also lost his daughter in 45. And I think what Cicero is realizing is, what else do I have to live for if not for doing something truly noble?

And he's writing lots and lots of philosophy. And he writes to his friends and he says, how can I fight this battle with these young men? He says, words will be my weapons. That's what I'll use. And he's thinking philosophically, but he's also thinking of letters that he's writing to those who have the armies and speeches that he's giving to confer legitimacy. And so he engages in this rhetorical battle. And it's long. I mean, it lasts from really November, December for certain into April. And there are lots of opponents. They usually have the floor before he does. He's responding, but he convinces

people through his words to declare Antony illegitimate, to declare Antony's opponents legitimate. The next legitimate consuls, Hirtius and Panza, are convinced to take up arms and go take out Mark Antony up in the north. And this is the last great rhetorical gasp of the Republic. It's when you have words being used to persuade the Senate and the people to make decisions in terms of policy. Of course, lives are on the line, but lives are always on the line at war. And Cicero is successful, always on the line of war and cicero is successful and the consuls defeat mark anthony outside mutina and then a really strange ironic twist of fate both consuls die and the defeated anthony survives and you've got a power vacuum and this is the this is the opportunity for octavian who basically at this point in time had been subsumed under the

Republican cause, to break through of Cicero and the Senate. And eventually, over the summer and the fall, through negotiations, he's going to, in November, form a pact with the master of Horus Lepidus, with the ex-consul Mark Antony, and that's the formation of that triumvirate. You feel so sorry for Cicero hearing that because it sounds like he played every card right, but the fortunes of war, the misfortune of battle, that these two key allies, these two consuls, they both die and then his opponent

ultimately becomes the victor. Yes, it is absolutely ironic. A Polybius, perhaps even a Cicero would say, it's not mere fortune, because you can use fortune this way, but it also could be fortune in a sense of providence, a sort of moving things in a direction, but it unravels fast for Cicero. And what has he just done? Well, he's written all these speeches against Mark Antony and Mark Antony is furious with them because of course Mark Antony lost that rhetorical battle and they're going to issue another round of proscriptions. Proscription is, it's basically a list for people that are deemed enemies of the

state and who of course is at the top of Antony's list. Well, it is Cicero. Supposedly Octavian, the young Caesar argues for a couple of days saying, well, he doesn't want his old friend Cicero to suffer this fate. But in the end, Antony wins out. And so this is the start of the forming of the Second Triumvirate. That's right. And this one, at least in terms of law, is actually a triumvirate. And although they push through the triumvirate through dubious

means, Octavian gets the consulship by sending an embassy of centurions to demand the consulship in the summer of 43. But by November, we clearly have the triumvirs as the power, the warlords, if you will, in the West. I really think they have just a little bit less legitimacy than what you've got going on in the East between Brutus and Cassius. At this point in time, because a civil war is clearly going on, legitimacy is less the question. The ideas behind the forces are what's in question. And I think everyone understands that Lapidus, Antony, and Octavian, they are friends for the moment. They're allies for a kind of autocratic regime that it seems like Caesar was going to set up. Whereas out in the

East, Brutus and Cassius are holding onto this idea that we need the restoration of the Republic. And they're warlords. They're accumulating a lot of money, getting a lot of soldiers, but they have very different ideas of what the victors should do with their power. And that is going to have to be decided by some sort of battle. I mean, indeed, it sounds like with the removal of Cicero from Rome, of his death, there's this clear line in the sand that's been drawn between these two bodies, these powerful bodies, but also this line in the sand, this division between the two ideologies of them as well. That's right. And we see this as we approach Philippi. There are some really good speeches put in the mouths of particularly Cassius. And I think

to what extent can we believe that the speeches are word for word there? Well, this is a big topic that a lot of historians discuss. I think we can discount a lot of the particulars, but it's possible that some of what was recorded was actually spoken at the moment. It's possible we do have family records and things of that nature. But I think the sense that Appian provides us of what Cassius is telling the men, and also this is verified by their coins. We have coins by the triumvirs. Now, this is hard physical evidence. And the coins of the triumvirs, they are of themselves. And what's really interesting is the coins that are minted by Brutus and Cassius. Cassius does something very traditional. He's got a symbol of liberty and Brutus puts his own head on it, which is really ironic because that's not traditional.

But the other side of Brutus is the freedman's cap and daggers that, hey, what we're fighting for here is the Republic and liberty. And what Cassius is saying in the most conservative and traditional way is what we're fighting for here is what Rome has always been. That's in the coins. And the speeches make this even clearer. And this is where this famous line is from Cassius before they march over back into the depths of Europe. Cassius tells his men, the best cause in war is the justice of your cause. And he believes that they are more just. He believes that they're fighting for the Republic, for liberty. He believes the autocrats are not fighting for that. And the autocrat speeches leading up to the battle throughout 43 and 42 are, we'll give you plunder. We'll give you

power. You will legitimate us. We will reward you with colonies. It's a very different set of values. So on one side, it's you're fighting for me and I can give you rich rewards. On the other side, you're fighting for this really just and noble cause. That's the idea. Yes, that's the idea. Now, did Brutus and Cassius embody that? Well, I mean, the Republic's been in a mess for decades. But essentially, yes, I think you do have two very different ideas of over the dunes of ancient egypt and avoid the poisoner's cup in renaissance florence each week on echoes of history we uncover the epic stories that inspire assassin's creed we're stepping into feudal japan in our special series chasing shadows where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's

Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. And so war is coming. They've got these armies emerging in the East and the West. And what is the road to Philippi, as it were? How do these two armies end up fighting at this place in the central Mediterranean? So what you've got is in some ways a parallel again with Pompey. Plutarch plays this up a lot between Pompey and Caesar, and you can't push that too far. But the Republicans for the most part control the seas. And some of the forces that Cassius had defeated in Asia, particularly the commander Mercus. He had put in charge of the Navy. They're trying to block the maneuvers of Antony and Octavian to get out of Italy and basically

attack them out in the East. What's been going on in the East? Well, both Brutus and Cassius have been remarkably successful. They meet a couple of times, once at Smyrna and then at Sardis once in 43, and then again before the last campaign in 42. And Cassius has consolidated all of Asia. And he's actually about to go settle affairs with Cleopatra, not the kind of affair that Mark Antony and Caesar had had. He's thinking in terms of military matters, although you never know with Cleopatra. She has talents. But he's not able to do this because Brutus says, no, no, we need to get back together.

What has Brutus been doing? Well, he's defeated Mark Antony's brother. Eventually, when they hear that Cicero has been assassinated, when they hear that people have been prescribed by the Triumvirs, he ends up allowing his men to dispatch Antony's brother. So by killing the hostages, they're saying there will be no mercy, certainly for the leaders. And Brutus has to subdue Lycia. And he has a pretty decent campaign in Lycia. And he has to use brutality, but he also tries as much as possible to use clemency, whereas Cassius seems a little more no-nonsense. able to amass a substantial force of troops. We're talking maybe around 90,000 or so for the liberators and the triumvirates are going to have around 110,000. And that, I mean, we're talking enormous forces, but I think something else that you see by the time the forces finally meet is

the commanders are absolutely reconciled for the liberators. Several times Cassius and Brutus had heard rumors about the other. And there were accusations. There'd been atrocities, as always happens in war. Brutus had been more strict. Cassius had been more lenient. And there's one moment where they actually lock themselves into a room. And they're arguing. They're shouting at each other. The subordinates on the outside are frustrated. It says they're even brought to the point of tears. But in the end, they make amends with each other and they make peace with each other. And they remind themselves that what we're doing here is for a higher cause.

And Cassius, against the opposition of his subordinates, gives a lot of his war chest, about a third of it, over to Brutus to be able to use so they can pool their resources together. Whereas Antony and Octavian, Antony is like this little kid. He always underestimates Octavian, which is not a good thing to do, but he's thinking, I'm going to strike out ahead. He actually is able to cross the Adriatic through some good luck. They're able to evade the Republican Navy. They make their way across into Europe, across the Adriatic into Macedonia,

and Octavian will then eventually follow. They're able to get most of their forces across, and they can start making their way up to Philippi. Cassius has reduced Rhodes. Brutus has reduced Lycia. They will meet the first advance guard of the Triumvirs and through a bit of good maneuvering on the part of both Brutus and Cassius. And Brutus is, through parts of this campaign, is ill. And yet they're able to make their way to a really, really advantageous position outside the town of Philippi. They have access to the sea. They have a really well fortified position, a little smaller numbers than the Triumvirs,

but the resupply is going to be endless because they have access to the sea down to the south, just south of Philippi. The Triumvirs, on the other hand, have to occupy a space of ground across from the Liberators, and they do not have as much provisions. The Triumvirs are having to constantly say, we're going to give you money, we're going to give you money. Brutus and Cassius are constantly giving money and giving money. So that tells the troops they're honoring their word, whereas the forces of Octavian and Antony, not so much. But Antony is fast. He gets there fast and everyone's surprised. They entrench their positions. Octavian follows after. He's ill, of course, as always. But Antony is going,

he's already shown before either of the battles is But Antony is going, he's already shown before either of the battles is fought that he is going to be the most active. He's going to be the one that's going to take the offensive. And for the liberators, the question is, can we hold them at bay? I mean, it does sound from what you've said there that I know there's Brutus and there's Octavian as well, but for the Bast of the Philippi, does it really feel like that this is going to be a clash between the skill of Mark Antony and the skill of Cassius? One certainly gets the sense. The sources are confused about Octavian, which is no surprise. In the Mutina campaign, that campaign in 43, it's quite likely he's sort of hiding out for part of it. Although Suetonius is a sort of like a it's like a court biographer.

He says, oh, no, he carries the standard. We don't really know, but he seems to survive when everyone else dies. So he has this ability to do that, which is a skill. But Octavian, he's constantly sick. He has no battlefield experience. If he does, it certainly isn't impressive. Whereas Antony, I mean, he has been fighting with Caesar all the way back to 54 in Gaul.

He distinguished himself during the civil wars. He has no administrative talents whatsoever, but in a crisis, Antony's the man you want even better than Cassius. And Cassius, he's always been a great subordinate, but the question is, can he be a great overall commander? And I think that only time will tell. And the month of October would determine that for the rest of history. Well, let's get onto it. The month of October,

the lines are drawn near Philippi, over 100,000 men possibly on the field there. What happens? The first battle, what happens? So what we have in this position is we've got the city of Philippi behind Brutus and Cassius' line. They have a really, really long line and they've got two separate camps. This is going to be a problem

because it's going to work against command and control. This is the principle of warfare. You've got to have commanders who can have command and control of their forces. The Triumvirs have one giant camp together. And Anthony realizes if they don't engage in battle, they're going to suffer because they're not going to be able to get enough supplies.

And the men are getting antsy on really on both sides, but particularly on the side of the Triumvirs because they want to receive the spoils that they've been told that they will. So he's got to bring a battle about. And Cassius, what he does, he and Brutus are holding the line. They'll bring out their men, but they'll never bring out a general engagement. And so what Antony starts doing is what you've got is these two very long lines to basically the north of Philippi. And Antony starts cutting a perpendicular line through a swamp. And he does this behind a group of reeds. And this is really,

it's a marble. It's an engineering marble, which shouldn't surprise us. These are Romans. They're able to do this, but he cuts this, it's called a causeway, so that he can get around Cassius. What's his plan here? His plan is to cut off their supply and to force them to either act or to isolate them. It's a really, really smart move. And the problem is that Cassius discovers it. And you've got this game of chess going on basically here at Cassius' counters. So he's going to build a wall to cut off the line to Antony is stretching out. And when Antony discovers this, he basically says, oh, we're not playing chess. We're going to play a different game. And this is where you really see Antony rising to a challenge as he's always done in his life. The forces of Cassius out there with their digging, their entrenching tools.

And then Antony readies all of his army and he tells them digging, their entrenching tools. And then Antony readies all of his army. And he tells them, bring your entrenching tools with him. And they go and they just start attacking directly in the center of Cassius' line. And Cassius is flabbergasted. This happens. The men who are building the line out to cut off Antony rush back. But they've got like entrenching tools. And Antony's men cut them down. They repulse them

back into the swamp, and then they break through. He sort of starts moving his entire army obliquely toward Cassius' line. They break through Cassius' line. They start tearing down the palisade. They fill in the ditch, and they even hit Cassius' camp. Cassius

tries to stop this. It's astounding what has just happened. It's basically sheer willpower that has pushed and taken the offensive, which is another principle of war that Antony's using here, and surprise, and they've crushed through into Cassius' camp. He tries to hold a standard up to prevent his men from fleeing, but it looks like all's going to be lost. Well, by this point in time octavian who's facing brutus on this so you've got the triumvirate the line of the triumvirates on the left and the the right line of the liberators brutus men see what's going on and without brutus giving them

a command they just rush in to attack octavian's part of the line on the Triumvirate's left. Well, here the exact opposite occurs. Again, the initiative, the offensive is rewarded. And Brutus' forces totally overwhelm Octavian and Octavian's put to flight. Octavian, they even break into Octavian's tent. They gash holes in his litter and people are thinking, oh, they've killed him. No one knows what everyone looks like. It's before TV. So it's like maybe they killed a young man they're not entirely certain but no true to his behavior octavian has managed to get himself taken away from the battle before it's gotten to its intense parts and he's out hiding in the swamps and you've got this really weird thing that happens as night begins to settle you've got the liberators in possession of the triumvirate camp and you've got the triumvirate in possession of cash's camp and the men lose all discipline

all discipline and they just start looting the camps and they start bleeding back across enemy lines carrying all this stuff and there's the remark i think it's by appian or plutarch that they look more like porters than soldiers they're just like carrying all these supplies the worst event of the entire day because at this point it's a stalemate brutus has won cassius has lost octavian has lost antony has won the worst event that occurs and i think this is the decisive moment in all of october is when cassius retreats up to philippi uh it's the heights above philippi and he's looking out to try and figure out what has happened. So he'd been put to flight after he tries to raise the standard. He sees his men are in flight, but then dust comes up everywhere. He can't see. And so he sends a soldier out to go find Brutus. So what's happened on that side? Well, he sees a force of cavalry.

He can't see who it is. Approach. I think the guy's name is Titanius, they approach Cassius Legate and he can't really see what happens. He says his eyesight is poor and Cassius thinks, oh my goodness, they've actually captured my Legate and Brutus has been defeated. I have been defeated. And he makes this momentously horrific decision to have his slave kill him. Okay, well, probably. And this is where the sources disagree with us. Some say Pandarus, his freedman, murdered him. Some say, no, no, Cassius ends up taking his own life or he has Pandarus do it. I think it's almost certain that Cassius commits suicide. It was his birthday. He's an Epicurean. He has an Epicurean view on suicide and he will take his own life. And in doing this, he takes the best hope away from the Republican cause.

This seems like a massive mistake, one of those big mistakes in history. You see this leading commander who's still got a chance of his side winning this clash against Octavian and Mark Antony, but because of false intelligence, because he believes the wrong thing, he's taken his own life. And as you say, this seems to be a huge, a hammer blow for the chances of the Republic. It is. And everyone's devastated. In fact, his legate says when he comes back and sees what's happened, he feels responsible. I stayed out too long. He commits suicide. So, and you've got this idea that all these people are just ready to throw away their life. And if Cassius had not done that, who knows what would have happened? You know, one can only guess. Okay. So that's the end of the first battle.

Cassius is dead. Mark Antony and Octavian are both still alive and Brutus is still alive. We're still a significant portion of the army. So it's not over yet. Is there now a brief interlude? There is. You've got about three weeks and these three weeks. So the first battles on the third, the second battles on the 23rd, these three weeks are devastating for the dithering Brutus. And it's easy to play up too much the portrait that we're given in Plutarch. But I think when you corroborate that with what we know of Brutus, what we have in the other sources, what we've read about him,

I think the picture's probably pretty accurate. Brutus, I think he does a couple of good things. He promises to pay the men and then he pays them. He takes Cassius' body. He's devastated when he hears about what's happened. He takes Cassius' body and he sends it to Thassos, the island of Thassos, and they bury it there. They don't want a big public funeral. But after these immediate actions, the forces draw up against one another. It's very clear Brutus is not going to take the initiative. And this is where I think the ancient sources are perhaps doing too much character study and actually not doing the right battle analysis. Because what you have happen is, remember that that antony had been cutting to cut off brutus and cassius

supply route to the sea one now that's been achieved and there's a danger are the triumvirs actually going to be able to cut us off are they going to be the ones who can gain access to supplies and us not i still think there's a really good argument to be made for Brutus fighting a battle of attrition or a war of attrition and holding out and dragging it out because the triumvirs are in a terrible position. There are even these heavy rains that fall. And that's when you've got these situation where malaria can creep in, sickness, pestilence, and it spreads. That could have done off the triumvirs, but the main problem is Brutus himself. And he gives a speech and it's a lame speech. It's like the lamest speech one can imagine. And to his

troops, it's nothing like what Cassius had given. And he watches his troops slowly become more frustrated at the same time that he's observing Antony's forces become more inspired. And Cassius' suicide was discovered pretty early by Antony and he is he sends men out to taunt Brutus's uh forces he's saying you know they're cowards they're not coming out behind their lines why are you hiding from us and this is a really big deal in the Roman world of honor the Greek and Roman worlds of honor and Brutus a good commander would have said absolutely not hold the line do what you're supposed to do you obey me remember the cause the cause we're fighting for. This is not about our own honor. This is about the honor of the Republic. He could have given a speech. Cassius had done this sort of thing, but he doesn't. Instead, he's swayed and he's moved. And his men slowly start to wear him down. And three weeks is an eternity when you're waiting and when you're not used to being in command of such an enormous amount of forces and the stakes are so high. You're not used to being in command of such an enormous amount of forces, and the stakes are so high.

This is playing into Antony's hand, despite the fact that he's losing resources. And the event that actually prompts the second battle of Philippi is so telling. You've got a seasoned veteran who had fought in the civil wars, who's fighting for Brutus, had fought in the first battle of Philippi. He rides past Brutus when Brutus is, you know, he's sort of talking to his men. He goes out into the battlefield and he publicly defects in front of everyone to the side of Antony. And it's embarrassing. And Brutus, this is when Brutus, either out of anger, out of a very legitimate fear that there are going to be more defections, that the morale is going to crumble, he launches a general engagement. On the 23rd of October, we've got basically the battle that's going to decide the fate of the Roman Republic. And it looks in some ways kind of like the first one.

land a viking longship on island shores scramble over the dunes of ancient egypt and avoid the poisoner's cup in renaissance florence each week on echoes of history we uncover the epic stories that inspire assassin's creed we're stepping into feudal japan in our special series, Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. So what happens? So what we've got is you've got Brutus. He's taken a position on the right arm of his army, and he's had to extend his line out a little thinner. Remember, the numbers are still a little less for the part of the Liberators.

And Brutus is successful on the right part of his line, and he's going to be facing Octavian. And Octavian is actually in the battle. I think Octavian gets the sense. I've got to be present for at least a part of this because I cannot let Antony take all the glory. antony is hanging over on the right side of the triumvirate line brutus forces they managed to outflank part of octavians and that army pushes through and it looks like they may be able to envelop that part of the line but in doing so brutus separated from his center and the lines already too thin there and the triumvirate forces are able to exploit that gap, break through the center and then circle around and instead envelop Brutus. And it unravels very, very quickly. Brutus, the men rallied to him. The fighting is already really,

really close. And so you've got this panic that can ensue by men who don't have enough space to be able to will the Gladius. It's said that the forces don't even hurl their javelins like they typically would they just get there and they fight each other face to face as quickly as they can this is not uh covid approved the way that they're fighting and so what ends up happening is they get boxed in you've got the triumvirate forces totally envelop brutus and brutus is forced to watch all of his closest friends who rallied to his banner get killed one by one defending him and the last thing he sees because he flees the battlefield the last thing he sees are all of his closest friends running away from the battlefield as he escapes up the hill and Antony again taking the initiative Antony knows this has to be an

annihilation he actually is roving throughout the battlefield, looking for all the enemy commanders, the junior officers, and he's massacring as many of them as possible. They actually block the gates to the camp. And when Brutus finally recovers again to the heights of Philippi, the mountains behind Philippi,

he's got less than four legions left. It's a total victory for the triumvirs. And then he's got to make his own decision about what to do. And does it feel like as these soldiers are falling left, right and center in Brutus's army, and especially those ones higher up who have the idea, very much the idea of restoring the Republic, as they fall, the idea of restoring the Republic, that is also starting to wither away. It is. And there's this sort of cult of suicide that has developed, especially among the Republicans who are saying stoicism, skepticism, and Epicureanism. They all had these different ideas and notions of what is the ethical way to

die. And you've got a number of the Republican elite who just flee into the battle. I think Cato's son goes into the battle. He only has a sword. He doesn't have armor. He rushes into the battle. I think Cato's son goes into the battle. He only has a sword. He doesn't have armor. He rushes into the battle. He dies in a heap. Several other Roman junior officers will do the same. A number of them had died next to Brutus. One gentleman makes it back to his tent after the battle has ended. This Republican settles all his affairs, frees some of his slaves, and then has one slave that's with him kill him right there on the spot. I mean, it's creepy how they just sort of accept this idea that I must kill myself after I have been defeated. It's this

sort of sick, suicidal sense of honor. Yeah, it's as if they were so wedded to the idea that they couldn't manage it with the dream was dead, as it were. And that sounds horrible because there are parallels actually throughout history in some cases. Well, Brutus, he's got a pathetic end in a lot of ways. So he retreats up to the hills behind Philippi. He's sort of testing the men, can we rally the cause? And they basically abandoned him. And he's so frustrated because he says, you made me do what I didn't want to do, and now you're not with me anymore. And that's not the sign of a good commander. And they sort of recover from this. They realize that he's going to take matters into his own hands.

The last thing he does is he grasps them each by their hands. You know, he shakes their hands and he goes off into the woods. And it says that even up to that point in time, the memories of all the friends that had died at the end of the battle just sort of floated around him. It's almost like he's seen ghosts for the hours before his death. And then he goes out into the woods and with the help of his servant, he grasps a sword and he commits suicide. And that's the end of the Republic. It's fitting that both Cassius and Brutus committed suicide because this is basically what Rome's citizen soldiers have done. Is it quite interesting there, the fact that, of course, Mark Antony and Octavian, even Octavian, they've played key roles in this victory in achieving such a total victory. But this whole idea that this is the end of the

Republic, it doesn't sound like there's much for Mark Antony and Octavian to do in the aftermath to really affirm that the Republic is dead. It sounds like the actions of those on the losing side at the end of the battle, that really is actually the nail in the coffin for the Republic. It's not what the victors do in the aftermath. Absolutely. And to a certain extent, though, we can credit Octavian and Antony because they have appropriately struck fear into their opponents that either through prescriptions or being brought back in a triumph, which is a sort of military parade, then being paraded in front of others and then executed, that they're going to have a really, really public, awful end. Or even worse, in some minds, they're going to have to receive the mercy, the clemency of people that they believe to be

tyrants. And that had already been done during Caesar. So this idea of all or nothing has really taken everyone. And they get this sense that now it is all over. And if I cannot live in a world that's not Republican, then I cannot live at all. And so you've kind of mentioned it there, but just to wrap it all up, I mean, why is the Battle of Philippi, or the two battles, why are they so significant in Roman history? I think this is the moment when the Republic is certainly dead. I think you can make good arguments that Caesar's crossing the Rubicon, Caesar winning the Civil War, or Caesar's assassination and then the triumvirates taking over. These are

death nails of the Republic. But you have at the Battle of Philippi, tens of thousands of citizen soldiers that are conscripted to fight for the Republic. You have the triumvirates, they have armies that have fought under Caesar, but had they lost, these armies would have been, I think they could have been tamed. Had Brutus and Cassius won, we don't know what would have happened next, but I don't think they would have descended, at least not immediately, into an autocratic form of government. Even a soft autocracy like Caesar had been instilling, but that is not what happens. With Philippi, the last two possible people that could have led the Republican cause have died by their own hands. By dying in this way, they've shown that it's over. And more importantly, from just a logistical

standpoint, all the junior commanders, they're dead. You've got an entire generation of aristocrats and their sons who have been killed, they've committed suicide or they're mopped up by Antony on the battlefield at Philippi. Antony knows this, which is why he's so decisive in cutting them down. They'd already done this in the West with those prescriptions. And now it's been affected in a much more rapid fashion on the battlefield. There is no other force that can revive the Republic. It cannot come back into existence. It is dead on 23 October when the sun sets.

Wow, 23 October. There you go. Key date in Roman history for those very reasons. And still, just before we go, HBO Rome, we see the Battle of the Philippi. You mentioned earlier how Cato's son apparently walks into battle. He strips off his armor just with the sword, fights against the soldiers. We see that scene in the HBO Rome, but it's attributed to Brutus. You know, I always want to be as sympathetic as possible to historical movies and TV shows.

So you can conflate stories in that manner, and that's okay. However, that's not Brutus' temperament. And Brutus, the way that he died is so much more true to the story, to the spirit of the age, the cult of suicide. So that miniseries has a lot of good things about it. But I think you could have done something better with the Battle of Philippi. Brutus' moment of triumph is probably right before Philippi or after the assassination of Caesar. And I don't think they capture that as well, even though they capture a number of other things quite well indeed. But stick with Plutarch. Plutarch's got the best version of Brutus.

And I think he nails the temperament of him better than anyone else. Steele, just before we go, your book is called? Killing for the Republic, Citizen Soldiers and the Roman Way of War. Fantastic. It's a brilliant read. Steele, thank you so much for coming back on the show. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Just before you go, a bit of a favour to ask. I totally understand if you don't want to become a subscriber or pay me any cash money, makes sense. But if you could just do any of your favourites for free, go to iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. If you give it a five-star rating and give it an absolutely glowing review,

purge yourself, give it a glowing review, I'd really appreciate that. It's tough weather, the law of the jungle out there, and I need all the fire support I can get. So that will boost it up the charts. It's so tiresome, but if you could do it, I'd be very, very grateful. Thank you. you