Battle of Philippi
Brutus is defeated in the second Battle of Philippi
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗As the cavalry closed in afterwards, Lucilius claimed to be Brutus and asked to be taken to Antony — drawing the pursuit onto himself while the real Brutus got clear.
23 October 42 BCE: Brutus comes out
On 23 October 42 BCE, Brutus brought his army out from its fortified position west of Philippi for the second of the two engagements collectively called the Battle of Philippi. Appian reports that 19 legions were drawn up on each side.
He had preferred to wait. His supply position was the stronger one, and it was Antony and Octavian who were short of food. Pressure from his soldiers and officers, together with fear that former Caesarian troops might desert, pushed him into a decisive engagement.
The line breaks
After close combat the triumviral forces broke part of Brutus's line, enveloped him, seized the approaches to his camp and pursued the fugitives toward the sea and the mountains.
Brutus escaped the field with a small group. Unable to reassemble an effective force, he had a companion hold a sword while he ran upon it that night.
The army changes sides
Cassius was already dead. He had killed himself after the first battle roughly three weeks earlier, when dust, poor eyesight and a misread cavalry movement convinced him that a largely drawn fight had been a catastrophe.
Once Brutus's death was known, the surviving army sought pardon from Antony and Octavian and was absorbed into their forces — about 14,000 men, besides those in the forts. Antony reportedly wrapped Brutus's body in his finest purple cloth and sent the ashes to Brutus's mother, Servilia.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open Date corrected
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →
Date corrected. The research places this at -0042-10-23.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The date 23 October is supported by the Fasti Praenestini and accepted in modern scholarship. Ancient narrative accounts nevertheless differ over tactical details and individual commanders' actions.
- Ancient troop and casualty totals are estimates rather than modern audited counts.