The Second Triumvirate and Octavian’s Victory Over Antony
With Octavian’s first orders of business completed, but the Senate expected him to fight Antony, not Brutus and Cassius (conspirators). Brutus refused to give himself up at Mutina and Antony besieged Mutina with his army in order to conquer the city. Seeing Antony and his troops as a major threat, Octavian marched against Antony and, with the support of two consuls, ultimately defeated Antony’s army at Mutina. Shortly after, Octavian learned of the alliance between Mark Antony and Lepidus, and quickly deserted the aristocrat cause and joined them. The remaining troops of Brutus and his other co-conspirators were defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C, which Octavian commemorated in his Res Gestae, ‘deeds done’: I drove the men who slaughtered my father into exile with a legal order, punishing their crime, and afterwards, when they waged war on the state, I conquered them in two battles.”…