Philippi

Brutus and Cassius marched through Thrace and Macedonia to Philippi, where they met the army of the Triumvirs. The Republican leaders took up their positions on two heights distant a mile from each other, Brutus pitching his camp on the northern, and Cassius on the southern, near the sea. The camps, though separate, were enclosed with a common entrenchment, and midway between them was the pass which led like a gate from Europe to Asia. The Triumvirs were on the lower ground, in a less favourable position - Octavian opposite Brutus, and Antony opposite Cassius. Their troops began to suffer from want of provisions, and they endeavoured to force the Republican leaders to an engagement. Cassius was unwilling to quit his strong position, and recommended that they should wait for their fleet; but Brutus was anxious to put an end to this state of suspense, and persuaded the council to risk an immediate battle. Brutus himself defeated the army opposite to him, and penetrated into the camp of Octavian, who was lying ill, unable to take part in the battle. His litter was seized, and brought forth covered with blood, and a report spread that he had been killed. Meantime, on the other side of the field, Antony had driven back Cassius, and taken his camp. Cassius had retired to a neighbouring hill with some of his men, when he saw a large body of cavalry approaching. Thinking that they belonged to the enemy and that every thing was lost, he ordered one of his freedmen to put an end to his life. But the cavalry had been sent by Brutus to obtain news of Cassius; and when he heard of the death of his colleague, he wept over him as “the last of the Romans,” a eulogy which Cassius had done nothing to deserve.

Twenty days after the first battle Brutus again led out his forces; but this time he was completely defeated, and with difficulty escaped

From the field. He withdrew into a wood, and in the night-time fell upon his sword, which Strato, who had been his teacher in rhetoric, held for him. His wife Porcia, the daughter of Cato, resolved not to survive her husband; and, being closely watched by her relations, she put an end to her life by thrusting burning charcoal into her mouth. Brutus was doubtless a sincere Republican, but he was a man of weak judgment, deficient in knowledge of mankind, and more fitted for a life of study than the command of armies and the government of men.

Coin of Antony and Cleopatra

M. Agrippa