Battle of Philippi - Aftermath

Aftermath

Plutarch reports that Antony covered Brutus's body with a purple garment as a sign of respect; they had been friends. He remembered that Brutus had stipulated, as a condition for his joining the plot to assassinate Caesar, that the life of Antony be spared.

Many other young Roman aristocrats lost their lives in the battle or committed suicide after the defeat, including the son of great orator Hortensius, and Marcus Porcius Cato (the son of Cato the younger), and Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus (the father of Livia, who became Octavian’s wife). Some of the nobles who were able to escape negotiated their surrender to Antony and entered his service (among them Lucius Calpurnius Bibulus and Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus). Apparently, the nobles did not want to deal with the young and merciless Octavian.

The remains of the Liberators’ army were rounded up and roughly 14,000 men were enrolled into the triumvirs' army. Old veterans were discharged back to Italy, but some of the veterans remained in the town of Philippi, which became a Roman colony (Colonia Victrix Philippensium).

Antony remained in the East, while Octavian returned to Italy, with the difficult task of finding sufficient land on which to settle a large number of veterans. Despite the fact that Sextus Pompeius was controlling Sicily and Domitius Ahenobarbus still commanded the republican fleet, the republican resistance had been definitively crushed at Philippi.

The Battle of Philippi marked the highest point of Antony's career: at that time he was the most famous Roman general and the senior partner of the Second Triumvirate.