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Commemorates the battle of
Philippi, 42 B.C., in which Octavian and Antony defeated the Republican
tyrannicides Brutus and Cassius, who subsequently committed suicide. Augustus later settled the veterans of a Praetorian Cohort at
Philippi, and he conferred upon them the right to mint coins, of which this is
an example. The images on this coin presumably refer to the Emperor's above
described victory in 42 BC. The winged victory standing on a globe representing
the cosmos. Such a coin is delivering, without words but in clear images that
everyone would have understood, the message that Augustus now rules the world.
All the old political institutions were reestablished and the "dignity" of the
Senate was restored, but actual power was now in the hands of one man alone.
More on the history of Philippi:
Ruins of the centre of the city: the forum in the
foreground, the market and the basilica in the background.
The city reappears in the
sources during the Roman civil war that followed the assassination of Julius
Caesar. His heirs Mark Antony and Octavian confronted the assassins of Caesar,
Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius, at the Battle of Philippi in the plain to the
west of the city in October, 42 BC. Antony and Octavian were victorious in this
final battle against the partisans of the Republic. They released some of their
veteran soldiers, probably from legion XXVIII, and colonized them in the city,
which was refounded as Colonia Victrix Philippensium. In 30 BC, Octavian became
Roman emperor, reorganized the colony, and established more settlers there,
veterans possibly from the Praetorian Guard and other Italians. The city was
renamed Colonia Iulia Philippensis, and then Colonia Augusta Iulia Philippensis
after January, 27 BC, when Octavian received the title Augustus from the Roman
Senate.
Following this second renaming, and perhaps after the first, the territory of
Philippi was centuriated (divided into squares of land) and distributed to the
colonists. The city kept its Macedonian walls, and its general plan was modified
only partially by the construction of a forum, a little to the east of the site
of Greek agora. It was a "miniature Rome," under the municipal law of Rome and
governed by two military officers, the duumviri, who were appointed directly
from Rome.
The colony recognized its dependence on the mines that brought it its privileged
position on the Via Egnatia. This wealth was shown by the many monuments that
were particularly imposing considering the relatively small size of the urban
area: the forum, laid out in two terraces on both sides of the main road, was
constructed in several phases between the reigns of Claudius and Antoninus Pius,
and the theatre was enlarged and expanded in order to hold Roman games. There is
an abundance of Latin inscriptions testifying the prosperity of the city.
In AD 49 or 50, the city was visited by the apostle Paul who was guided there by
a vision (Acts 16:9-10). Accompanied by Silas, Timothy and possibly Luke, the
author of the Acts of the Apostles, he preached for the first time on European
soil in Philippi (Acts 16:12-40) and baptized Lydia, a purple dye merchant, in a
river to the west of the city. While in Philippi, his exorcism of a demon from a
slave girl caused a great uproar in the city which led to their (Paul and Silas)
public beating and arrest (Acts 16:16-24). An earthquake caused their prison to
be opened. When the jailer awoke, he prepared to kill himself thinking all the
prisoners had escaped knowing that he would be severely punished. Paul stopped
him indicating that all the prisoners where in fact still there. The jailer then
became one of the first Christians in Europe (Acts 16:25-40). At this time,
there was barely a Jewish community and no synagogue (Acts 16:13). Those Jews
present did not seem to include any men and met by the river, a common meeting
place in the absence of a synagogue.
Paul visited the city on two other occasions, in 56 and 57. The Epistle to the
Philippians dates from around 54-55 and shows the immediate impact of Paul's
instruction. The subsequent development of Christianity in Philippi is
well-attested notably by a letter from Polycarp of Smyrna addressed to the
community in Philippi around 160 and by funerary inscriptions. |
Originally called Octavian, his name is
today known simply as Augustus which was the title given him by the Senate in
the year 27 B.C. He was the grandnephew of Julius Caesar and was following an
illustrious military career when Caesar was murdered. On hearing of this he set
in motion a series of alliances meant to avenge his great-uncle's assassins. He
recruited Lepidus and Marc Antony for the task, defeated Brutus and his
co-conspirators and then carved up the Roman world among the three. Lepidus was
thus left in control of the African provinces, Marc Antony with Egypt and the
eastern provinces and Octavian the rest including Rome itself.