Original subtitles

(intense music)

44BC, the vast Roman Empire stretched

around the entire Mediterranean.

Julius Caesar proclaimed dictator in perpetuity

assumed full powers and governed like a king.

The new regime was despised by the majority of senators

who remained faithful to the Republic.

Cassius and Brutus, leaders of the

discontented, prepared to repost.

On the Ides of March, the 15th,

Caesar's right-hand man Mark Antony accompanied

the dictator to a meeting at the Senate.

(intense music)

In an attempt to save the threatened

Republic Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar.

Antony, the second most powerful man in

the empire, had good reason to fear for his life.

(intense music)

(shouts)

Meanwhile Rome was plunged into panic, the city divided

between Republicans and supporters of Caesar.

According to the Plebs a god had been

murdered and Rome was doomed, people feared a bloodbath.

Cleopatra, renowned mistress

of Caesar and pregnant with his son,

discovered the terrible news and like

Antony saw her world crumble.

A few hours after the assassination Antony learned that

Caesar's murderers had foreseen no replacement system of

governance, the Senators plan stopped at killing the tyrant.

Rome's seat of power was vacant,

an opportunity Antony had to seize.

(tense music)

The city slept beneath a blanket of fear, of civil war.

(unintelligible shouts)

Antony we managed to call a

meeting at a very agitated Senate.

Tension was palpable between

the assassins and supporters of Caesar.

(crowd applauds)

Antony had avoided a civil war, making him in

the eyes of many the man who reestablished public peace.

Filled with great confidence he

demanded the reading of Caesar's will.

Antony had lived and fought alongside Caesar.

He was a military genius who Caesar had left to govern

Italy in his absence, he therefore had good reason to

hope to be strongly favored in Caesar's will.

Caesar's funeral would serve as the ideal

occasion for Antony to convince Rome

that he was the rightful guardian of Caesar's heritage.

(dramatic music)

At the end of his speech Antony

approached the improvised funeral pyre.

Swept up in a fervor the crowd set fire

to the pyre and threw on arms, clothes

and jewelry setting the premises of Caesar worship.

Faced with a vindictiveness of the

people Brutus and Cassius were forced to

flee Rome leaving the path clear for Antony.

(dramatic music)

But they weren't the only ones to depart,

someone else had already gone before them.

Cleopatra returned to Egypt.

The kingdom of Egypt was the most

important country in the east,

the granary of the Mediterranean.

Alexandria was rivaled by Rome alone

and was proud of its port, the biggest in the world.

Cleopatra was free thinking and

intelligent, she knew she was under threat.

At the same time Caesar's heir arrived in Rome.

Octavian was ambitious.

He launched propaganda against Antony, flattered

senators, bought off veterans and sat to

the morale of the legions.

He handed out donations financed by his father's

inheritance to form his own party and army,

asserting his qualities as an adopted son.

Octavian was just 19 years old.

For a year and a half Brutus and Cassius,

still wary of Rome, rallied their legions in the east.

Brutus took control in Greece and Macedonia,

Cassius in Syria.

They hired all the old soldiers they met,

raised heavy tributes and established a

domain which would enable them to see

off their enemies in case of conflict.

Faced with a growing Republican threat

Antony joined forces with Octavian,

despite their marked differences.

They formed a triumvirate with

Marcusemelius Lepidus, Caesar's main lieutenant.

This the so-called second triumvirate was a

legally established authority with power to be shared

between the three men for a period of five years.

Avenging Caesar was the surest

way of maintaining this power.

Many of the proscribed were stripped of their assets

and new taxes were levied, which provided

the money needed to confront the Republicans.

Panic swept through the aristocracy

causing many of them to flee Rome.

The alliance between Antony and

Octavian unleashed a reign of terror.

From then on they would be known as the Caesarians.

They went in search of Brutus and

Cassius across the Adriatic from

Brundisium to Dyrrachium, then onwards to

the plain west of Philippi in Greece.

Antony and his legions were first to

seek out the Republicans quick marching

his men over 500 kilometers in 10 days,

to the great surprise of their enemies.

Treated as brothers in arms, his troops

pushed on, surpassing their limits.

Antony, Rome's greatest warrior, was

therefore ready to cross swords with a

powerful legions of Caesar's assassins

and to deliver a merciless battle on the plain of Philippi.

Urged on by their leader, a model of high esteem and

worthiness, Antony's legions eagerly embraced the cause

in spite of facing fellow Romans.

Brutus and Cassius took up position on

high ground close to the town of Philippi.

Brutus's camp was protected by

dense forests and steep embankments.

While that of Cassius was bordered by a

seemingly impassable marsh.

Antony set up camp two kilometers away

making do with a desolation of a plain.

The two Republican camps sat either side of the

Viaanyatta the only road that crossed

the eastern Roman Empire.

From one camp to the other Brutus and Cassius blocked

the road with a rampart and ditch.

About 10 kilometers away was the port of Neapolis,

facilitating communications and refitting.

The well supplied and well protected Republicans would be

capable of waging a drawn-out war, while the

Caesarians had no water and no nearby towns

Antony asked Cleopatra for help.

She was to send a hundred ships to

Neapolis with reinforcements.

Antony couldn't establish access to the

sea which was indispensable for resupplying his troops.

(dramatic music)

Cassius built a huge palisade ahead of

his camp to protect his forces.

He believed the natural lie of the

marshland offered further protection to the south.

Antony knew he had to breach Cassius's palisade.

In under 10 days he secretly

built a causeway across the supposedly

impassable marshes, which would enable

him to go round the palisade and attack

Cassius on several fronts.

But Antony wasn't alone, he had been

joined by the young Octavian and his legions.

His mission was to lead a charge on Brutus's camp.

If only he hadn't felt so weak.

Octavian had arrived on a stretcher two days earlier.

Antony gave out battle orders, Octavian was to attack

Brutus but Octavian showed no signs of

recovering from the illness he was

stricken with since leaving Rome.

His physician reminded him of a

nightmare he'd had, a bad omen.

If he went into combat the outcome would be fatal.

(unintelligible shouts)

Antony managed to breach the palisade

and could engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

At the same time Brutus attacked the Caesarian camp,

Octavian was nowhere to be seen.

Given the little resistance offered

Brutus easily took the camp.

(intense music)

Antony decided to split his cavalry

into two groups, the first was to cut off

his enemy's infantry while the second,

led by Antony, led a charge on Cassius's camp.

(dramatic music)

Antony won an astounding victory,

fulfilling all his aims.

Draw Cassius into combat,

breached the palisade and capture the camp.

Brutus too was victorious, he had taken the Caesarian camp.

But Cassius had been mistaken,

worse he had believed Brutus captured.

12 kilometers away in Neapolis a sea

battle was taking place at the same time as that on land.

Antony and Octavian's fleet

were suffering a shattering defeat.

Brutus and Cassius's fleet closed off the

sea to Antony for good, thus dispelling any

hope of supplies and reinforcements.

If the ships promise by Cleopatra had

arrived the outcome may possibly have been different.

(dramatic music)

Cleopatra herself had in fact sailed

from Alexandria at the head of a huge

armada to bring help to Antony and Octavian.

Would this about turn imposed by tempestuous

of the Mediterranean be understood by the Caesarians?

(dramatic music)

This great military feat established

Antony as the true heir of Caesar.

To worsen the situation everyday

Antony's legions took up position at sword's lengths

to defy Brutus's troops with insults and provocations.

Brutus felt alone, alone and deprived of Cassius,

and yet confident of his position he delayed the final

battle which the Caesarians continuously provoked.

(tense music)

On Antony and Octavian's camp the

situation had turned critical.

Famine claimed victim after victim,

morale was at a low, stomachs knotted.

The troops had had enough of tramping

through mud and in the morning they

frequently had to break off the thin

layer of ice that had formed on their

fingers during the freezing night.

Since losing access to the sea

supplies were few and far between.

In Brutus's camp resources were inexhaustible,

but although the situation appeared comfortable his

soldiers, desperate for revenge,

were gradually drained by the constant waiting.

To pacify them Brutus fed them well, paid them double

and even offered armor in solid silver to his officers.

(intense music)

For three weeks the Caesarian legions

stood in formation, for three weeks the Republicans

refused battle but finally they decided to accept.

(eagles caw)

(shouts in foreign language)

The eagle from Antony's camp was the victor.

Antony urged his troops into battle in customary fashion.

According to the historian Appian he said

"Soldiers of Rome the enemy is before us,

"those whom we have tried to draw out

"from behind their fortifications.

"Let none of you prefer untreatable and

"murderous hunger to enemy ramparts and

"bodies attainable through courage, the sword and despair.

"Our situation is so bad that nothing can be postponed

"until tomorrow, it is today that will be decided

"either complete victory or death with honor."

Thus Philippi became a battlefield of ideas.

On one side Brutus and Cassius

fighting for freedom and the Republic.

And on the other Antony and Octavian, to

uphold the work of Caesar and the might of Rome.

A struggle between republicanism and monarchism.

One of Brutus's top officers from Gaul

surrendered to the enemy, forcing him to accept battle.

(intense music)

(intense music)

With the experience of many military

campaigns behind him Antony had a plan.

Firstly he would stretch out his right

wing forcing his adversary to do the same and

thus weakening the center of his battle formation.

Secondly Antony would take advantage of the gap to send

his cavalry in to attack Brutus's center.

Finally all that would remain to be done

was to surround Brutus's infantry with a

pincer movement that would prove fatal to the enemy.

(dramatic music)

Brutus made reasonable headway into the

Caesarian ranks but his weakened center

would not hold out much longer, it was time to remind his

legionaries of the righteousness of their cause,

the defense of the Republic.

(intense music)

As the plain reddened with spilled blood

the hope of victory increased tenfold,

the strength and fervor of the Caesarian troops.

(intense music)

The close-combat was of an extreme violence,

each man fighting toe-to-toe with the same weapons.

Apeon tells us one side fought for survival rather than

victory the other for victory and to please a general

who would force them to fight against his will.

The carnage and the howls of the dying were atrocious.

Antony dispersed the Republicans

preventing them from regrouping.

Brutus's troops capitulated under Antony's pressure.

At the end of the second battle Brutus just managed to

flee into the hills, the result of being unable to

impose himself on his legionaries.

Antony's brilliant military strategy had

brought about success, by striking at Cassius

he unmasked the weaknesses of Brutus deprived

of his precious ally's council.

30,000 men died in this civil war,

the bloodiest in all antiquity.

Armed with the same weapons, speaking the same language,

they fought against countrymen, friends and even brothers.

(fires roar and crackle)

In despair Brutus took his own life

preferring death as a freeman to the ignobility of capture.

According to Plutarch his dying words were,

"Oh wretched virtue thou wert but a name and

"yet I worship thee has real indeed,

"but now it seems thou wert but fortune's slave."

With Brutus the last flames of the

Senators Republic died out, his body was

carried before the true architect of the victory.

(intense music)

Antony and Octavian had too many other

concerns to allow themselves to bask in glory.

Caesar was finally avenged and

their own power consolidated.

The destiny of Rome had swept aside the Senators Republic,

weary after five centuries of existence,

but peace had finally been restored.

The people of Rome applauded this peace

they had longed for.

Crowned with glory Octavian and Antony reaffirmed their

power and divided the influential zones

of the Empire between them.

The more unassuming Octavian took the west,

while Antony, the true architect of victory, the east.

The richest part of the Empire,

the capital of which was Alexandria.

Cleopatra had no doubt that she would be

taken to task by Antony over her absence from Philippi.

Once again she would worry about her son and her kingdom.

Antony was well aware that Alexandria

meant control over trade in the east and

a crucial strategic base for any plans for expansion.

Dominion over Egypt was a major concern for the Romans.

Antony and Octavian had become the masters of

the Mediterranean, the Roman Empire now had two heads.

Would peace remain one of their ambitions?

(dramatic music)