Philippi

Philippi (fĭlĭp`ī), ancient city, E Macedonia. Inhabited by Thracians and then Thasians, it was renamed (probably 356 B.C.) by Philip II of Macedon, who developed and fortified it. Near the city was fought the decisive battle in which Octavian (Augustus) and Antony defeated (42 B.C.) Brutus and Cassius.

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Philippi

Ruined hill town, northern central Macedonia, Greece. In c. 357 BC it was fortified by King Philip II to control nearby gold mines. In 42 BC it was the scene of the decisive Roman battle in which Mark Antony and Octavian (later Augustus) defeated Brutus and Cassius, the leading assassins of Julius Caesar. Many Christian ruins, especially of the 5th–6th century AD, are spread over the site. St. Paul preached the gospel to Christian converts there.

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Philippi

an ancient city in NE Macedonia: scene of the victory of Antony and Octavian over Brutus and Cassius (42 bc)

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Philippi 

(now Filippoi), an ancient city in Thrace, originally the Greek colony of Crenides. The city was conquered by Philip II of Macedón in the fourth century B.C. and renamed Philippi. In 42 B.C., crucial battles were fought near the city between the army of the Second Triumvirate, led by Mark Antony and Octavian, and the troops of the Roman republic, commanded by Brutus and Cassius. The battle ended in the crushing defeat of the republicans.

Philippi was destroyed in the Middle Ages. Excavations begun by French archaeologists in 1924 have uncovered city walls from the fourth century B.C, a forum dating from Roman times, thermae from the third century A.D., and three basilicas from the fourth through sixth centuries.

REFERENCES

Lemerle, P. Philippes et la Macédoine orientale. Paris, 1945.
Lazarides, D. J. Hoi Philippoi. Thessaloniki, 1956.