Zhou Dynasty › The Battle of Philippi 42 BCE » Origins and History
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- The Battle of Philippi 42 BCE › Antique Origins
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Zhou Dynasty › Ancient History
Definition and Origins
The Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) was the longest-lasting of ancient China ’s dynasties. It followed the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) and it finished when the army of the state of Qin captured the city of Chengzhou in 256 BCE. The long history of the Zhou Dynasty is normally divided in two different periods: Western Zhou (1046-771 BCE) and Eastern Zhou (770-256 BCE), so-called following the move of the Zhou capital eastwards where it was safer from invasion.
The most influential minds in the Chinese intellectual tradition flourished under the Zhou, particularly towards the last period of the Zhou Dynasty, considered a time of intellectual and artistic awakening. Many of the ideas developed by figures like Laozi, Confucius, Mencius and Mozi, who all lived during the Eastern Zhou period, would shape the character of Chinese civilization up to the present day.
THE ORIGINS OF THE ZHOU DYNASTY
The Zhou people were not invaders; they were Chinese-speaking people descendant from the Longshan Neolithic culture.During the course of several centuries, the Zhou moved away from barbarian pressures, migrating towards the westernmost agricultural basin of North China, the lower Wei River valley, present-day Shaanxi province. Here they began to develop Shang-style agriculture, and they also built a city in an area named Plain of Zhou, which gave its name to the state and the dynasty. The Shang ruling class considered the Zhou “semibarbarious country cousins”. For many years the Zhou and the Shang coexisted alternating peace and war.
KING WEN (1152-1056 BCE) OF THE ZHOU IS DESCRIBED AS A LIVING STANDARD OF BENEVOLENCE & WISDOM.
The first important historical figure of the Zhou is King Wen (1152-1056 BCE), who is described as a living standard of benevolence and wisdom. He became king of Zhou in 1099 BCE during the last days of the Shang Dynasty. King Wen is credited with conceiving the ambitious plan of undermining the authority of the Shang by making alliances with neighbouring chiefs that gave the Zhou the military power to make conquest possible. Wen's growing power disturbed the Shang court to the point that they imprisoned him in the city of Youli. However, Wen's supporters ransomed him by giving the Shang a large number of gifts. The second son of King Wen was King Wu, who built a new capital and named it Haojing. In 1046 BCE, Wu led an army of 50,000 troops against a Shang army of 700,000 in a battle known as the Battle of Muye. The Shang people were so unhappy under the rule of the Shang king that the Shang soldiers offered little resistance and many of them joined King Wu's side. The Shang king retreated to his palace and committed suicide: He locked himself up in the building and set it on fire.
The Zhou justified the change of dynasty and their own authority by claiming that the dispossessed Shang had forfeited the " Mandate of Heaven " by their misrule. It was customary in ancient China to identify the supreme authority of rulers with a higher power. All subsequent dynasty changes in China would be justified with arguments along these same lines.
King Wen of Zhou
King Wu did not exterminate the Shang entirely: He left the Shang heir as nominal ruler of the city of Youli, but he assigned some of his own brothers to keep Youli under tight control. Wu returned to Haojing where he died still relatively young and his son, King Cheng, became the new Zhou ruler while he was still a child.
The Zhou were not able to fully control the eastern plain that the Shang had controlled, and King Wu did not elaborate a plan in order to accomplish such a goal. It was King Wu's brother, known as the Duke of Zhou, who performed the necessary steps for laying the basis upon which the Zhou Dynasty would consolidate its power throughout North China.
THE DUKE OF ZHOU CONDUCTED A NUMBER OF EXPEDITIONS EASTWARD TO BRING THE ENTIRE YELLOW RIVER PLAIN UNDER ZHOU CONTROL.
The Duke of Zhou was the chief and overseer of the newly conquered eastern plain and he was appointed as regent over the young King Cheng, who was his own nephew. The counterpart of the Duke of Zhou was his own brother, the Duke of Shao, chief overseer of the Zhou homeland in Shaanxi. As soon as the Duke of Zhou assumed his role as regent over King Cheng, his brothers in the city of Youli joined the Shang heir in a rebellion to take over power and restore the old Shang order: It seems that there was a widespread fear that the Duke of Zhou would usurp the throne form his young nephew. The Duke of Zhou reacted quickly by organizing his military strength and crushing the rebellion. He then conducted a number of expeditions eastward to bring the entire Yellow River plain under Zhou control. During this process he destroyed many small states and created new administrative units in their place. He also built a new capital in modern Luoyang, in the central Yellow River plains (modern Henan province) to serve as an auxiliary Zhou capital to administer the eastern territories. After accomplishing all of this in a timeframe of seven years, the powers that the Duke of Zhou had were extraordinary. This was not an obstacle for him to willingly give up his powers after he persistently lectured his nephew on the duties of a responsible ruler: King Cheng finally assumed his role and he ruled effectively until 1021 BCE.
WESTERN ZHOU (1046-771 BCE)
The Zhou Dynasty was never a wholly unified realm. The Zhou court extended its power over the eastern plain by granting authority to members of the royal family and in some cases to favoured adherents, who established walled forts supported by garrison troops among the original habitants of the east. In some cases, local chiefs were accepted as Zhou supporters.Hence, there came into existence a network of city-states on the plain, from which military and political control spread over the surrounding farming villages. Any local leader who challenged the Zhou order was quickly punished by the army and the regional delegates were closely watched.
Map of Western Zhou
There are many resemblances between the Zhou system and some of the forms of feudalism in medieval Europe, which is why the Zhou age is sometimes referred to as a feudal age. Even though the Zhou system was indeed feudal, it had many differences from medieval Europe. The most important difference was that the rulling class was mainly unified by kinship ties.Family relations were arranged by marriage where no kinship links existed. In this way, the local lords were expected to accept the authority of the king as the head of a large family. For three centuries after the Zhou conquered the Shang, Zhou rulers maintained order in North China and expanded their territories.
As time went on, the kinship ties loosened and the local rulers became less identified with the Zhou king and more with their allocated territories. This tendency was very strong in larger peripheral states. By the 9th century BCE, regional leaders started to ignore their duties to the Zhou court and also fought among themselves. The declining order in the realm encouraged non-Chinese on all sides to penetrate the borders. King Li (r. 877-841 BCE) led 14 armies against non-Chinese forces to the south and southeast with no positive results.
Finally, King Xuan (r. 827-782 BCE) fought many defensive wars against non-Chinese in the north during most of his reign. In 771 BCE, his son, King You, was killed during a barbarian invasion in Haojing, the capital city, which was overrun and sacked by a group of northeners. The royal heir and some of the court members who managed to survive the disaster decided that Haojing was too vulnerable to assaults from the frontier, so they abandoned the city and the eastern auxiliary capital at Luoyang became the new royal capital. This was the major turning point in the Zhou Dynasty, which marks the end of the Western Zhou period.
BATTLES BETWEEN REGIONAL LEADERS WERE RELATIVELY SHORT &, FOR THE NOBLES, RESTRAINED BY A CODE OF CHIVALRY.
During the Western Zhou period, goods circulated mostly through tribute and gift rather than trade, cities were noble fortresses, artisans were a hereditary caste of serfs attached to states or courts, and ministers and court members were chosen based on birth rather than talent. Battles between regional leaders were relatively short and, for the nobles, restrained by a code of chivalry.
EASTERN ZHOU (770-256 BCE)
After the barbarian invasion drove the Zhou rulers eastwards, the state of Qin became responsible for guarding the western frontier and they gradually moved eastward and eventually occupied the original Zhou domains. Thus the Qin became a close ally to the Zhou and they also had marriage relations with the Zhou ruling class. The city states slowly emerged as powerful independent fiefs and the real Zhou power disintegrated. The states located on the peripheries grew into major territorial powers, and its rulers normally had greater military and economic strength than the king, who was now dependent on a small royal domain around Luoyang. By 700 BCE, the state of Qin in the west, Jin in the north, Qi in the east and Chu in the south were the main centres of power in China. The royal Zhou domain on the central Yellow River plain was powerless in comparison to the peripheric realms.
The period from 772 to 476 BCE is known in Chinese history as the Spring and Autumn Period, so called after the name of the preserved official chronicle of the small state of Lu, in which the events throughout China between these dates are recorded.During this period, the military conflict gradually escalated. War after war, the different states started to annex each other and form the roughly 100 states that were in China in about 770 BCE - there were just 40 towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. This was a time of violence and social conflict: battles, civil wars, assassinations of rulers, and intrigues among aristocratic families. Battles slowly shifted from being relatively short and restrained by a code of chivalry to large-scale slaughters.
As a result of this growing conflict, rulers could no longer afford to hire their ministers on the basis of birth as talent become far more important. Trade expanded, money and goods circulated mostly through commerce, and rich merchants sometimes won high office. Thinkers competed for the ruler's patronage, moving from one court to the other explaining their social, economic, military and political views in search for employment. The main intellectual focus was practical political and social concerns while metaphysical speculations remained secondary. Arts and philosophy flourished in China like never before: Thinkers belonging to the diverse Hundred Schools of thought developed many different ideological traditions. This is the time when some of the most important Chinese schools of thought such as Daoism, Confucianism and Legalism were born.
Western Zhou Ritual Vessel
This situation led to the Warring States Period (476-221 BCE), where seven states were the chief contenders that fought for the control and unification of China. For many centuries China lived immersed in a situation of war, a disorder in which none of the competing states was strong enough to conquer all of the others, but many of them were strong enough to break that order.
THE FALL OF THE ZHOU DYNASTY
The Zhou Dynasty came to an end during the Warring States period in 256 BCE, when the army of the state of Qin captured the city of Chengzhou and the last Zhou ruler, King Nan, was killed. The real power of Zhou was so small, that the end of the dynasty was hardly noted. The Zhou state was thus absorbed by the state of Qin. The supremacy of the states of Qin, Qi and Chu was so great that it seemed for a time that China would be divided in three, one section for each state. However, chaos and war prevailed and the battles continued until eventually the state of Qin conquered the other states and unified China once more in 221 BCE, the beginning of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE).
The Battle of Philippi 42 BCE › Antique Origins
Ancient Civilizations
The Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE was an all- Roman affair fought between the young Octavian, chosen heir of Julius Caesar, and the mercurial Mark Antony, widely regarded as the greatest living Roman general on the one side against Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Caesar and champions of the Republican cause on the other. The battle, on an inland plain in eastern Macedonia near the city of Philippi, would involve the largest Roman armies to ever take the field and, as 36 legions clashed, the bloody outcome would decide the future of the Roman Empire and finally bring to an end the 500-year old Roman Republic.
PROLOGUE
Events took a twist when Antony went to meet his legions at Brundisium in October 44 BCE. Angry at Antony's lack of decisive action against Caesar's killers, the troops had switched loyalties to Octavian who had offered them greater financial rewards. The old distinction between these two ambitious men that one had political power and the other military was now no longer the case. Further, other legions began to throw their allegiance at Octavian's feet. Antony responded by fixing that the Senate redistributed important provinces to his own loyal supporters. The consequence of this was the conciliation with Caesar's assassins was reversed. Decimus Brutus, another of the conspirators who had killed Caesar, ignored the re-division and, raising two legions, held station at Mutina (Modena). Antony, still with three legions at his disposal, lay siege to the fortified city. Meanwhile, and now supported by the Senate, Octavian took command of four legions and declared Antony guilty of tumultus, or civil disorder, one step short of a declaration of war against his great rival for control of the Roman Empire.
Bust of Marcus Antonius
The battles around Mutina in April 43 BCE were as confused as the various conflicting accounts by ancient historians but the end result was Antony was first victorious but then partially defeated, the Republicans won but lost both consuls, and Octavian was upset not to be given a triumph by the Senate and was alienated by their decision to give Sextus Pompey command of the navy. While Octavian manipulated politics in Rome, Antony strengthened his own position and now controlled Gaul and Spain. Octavian also made his decisive move in August 43 BCE and marched his eight legions to Rome where the three Republican legions promptly switched sides and Octavian became consul at the unprecedented young age of 20. His position was further strengthened when he was joined by six more ex-Republican legions. Octavian, now with 17 legions at his disposal, turned his full attention to Antony, who had 20 legions and 10,000 cavalry under his command. Even now though, diplomacy prevailed and the three leading Romans - Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus - met in November 43 BCE to discuss terms and form the Second Triumvirate where each member was given carte blanche power for five years in their respective zones of the empire. The legions were re-shuffled so that Lepidus had three legions in Rome and Octavian and Antony each had 20. Vicious revenge was then taken on Republican supporters in Rome and such notable figures as Cicero were executed.
Meanwhile, Brutus collected his army in upper Macedonia whilst Cassius amassed 12 legions in Judea. In 43 BCE the two joined forces at Smyrna. Then, after successful campaigns against Rhodes and Xanthus, the two took position at Philippi on the Hellespont in September 42 BCE. The third threat to Octavian and Antony was Sextus Pompey whose large naval fleet had helped him take control of Sicily in December 43 BCE. Octavian, unable to overwhelm Sextus, instead heeded Antony's request to fight together against the larger threat of Brutus and Cassius. From Brundisium the two armies crossed the Adriatic.For the first time, the opposing legions were in close proximity and ready for battle.
COMMANDERS
Marcus Junius Brutus, although previously successful in smaller conflicts in Thrace and Lycia, has been judged by history as a little too soft and lacking in authority when it came to the serious generalship of commanding large armies in set-piece battles and, consequently, he has been described as more of a statesman than a military commander by many historians. The other Republican leader Gaius Cassius Longinus, on the other hand, had gained a reputation as an astute general and tough disciplinarian - defeating the Parthians in 51 BCE and half of Julius Caesar's fleet during the Civil War, when he sided with Pompey. This pair, then, were an odd but formidable commanding team but it was their bad luck that they now happened to face two of Rome's greatest ever leaders.
Augustus
Marcus Antonius, better known as Mark Antony, had already enjoyed a glittering military career by the time of Philippi with a long series of successes as Caesar's right-hand man and Master of the Horse. Antony was notoriously bad at leadership in peace time and all too easily neglected politics for wild parties but in the chaos and horror of battle he was second-to-none. His ally, albeit one of pure convenience to defeat a common enemy, was Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Technically, Octavian, chosen heir of the now deified Julius Caesar, was the son of a god but this disguised his relatively modest background.Octavian would go on to become the first, and arguably greatest ever, Roman emperor but at Philippi he was still a young and inexperienced commander, even worse, he was beset with health problems during the battle and so it was Antony who would, as so many times before, steal the military lime-light. Daring and incautious but so often lucky, Antony would once more excel in the role he was seemingly born for.
ARMIES & WEAPONS
The two Roman armies which clashed at Philippi were composed of the now well-established military units, the legions. A legion was composed of 4,800 men broken down into 10 cohorts and 60 centuries. Each legion was commanded by a legate ( legati ) who was aided by military tribunes ( tribunimilitum ). Each century was led from the front by a centurion and a sergeant ( tesserarius ) whilst an optio ( deputy ) marshalled the rear. An ordinary legionary was armed with a gladius short sword (double-edged and around 60 cm long), a pilum spear or javelin, a pugio dagger, and he had a scutum shield (around a metre tall, made of wood and edged with iron), mail armour, and helmet for protection. Supplementing each legion were a force of 300 cavalry, and slingers, archers and other light-armed auxiliaries.
OPENING POSITIONS
The battle would involve the largest number of troops in Roman warfare up to that point. 19 legions of 110,000 men on the Triumvirate side faced 17 Republican legions of 90,000 men. The Triumvirs had a force of 13,000 cavalry and one extra legion stationed at nearby Amphipolis whilst the Republicans had two legions guarding the fleet and a cavalry force of 17,000 on the plain. The Republican army was then, not only smaller but it also consisted of a much more varied mix of troops taken from across the empire. On top of that, many of the veterans and all-important centurions had fought many times for Julius Caesar, and so to now face his heir and best general must have severely tested the troops' resolve and loyalty.
In the field Cassius took advantage of two mounds located above the plain of Philippi to make two fortified camps for his nine legions. Brutus and his eight legions camped at the foot of the mountains and a palisaded corridor was built to connect the two Republican armies. Both camps received additional protection from the Gangites River. The two camps were a significant 2.7 km apart though, which meant the two armies could not easily offer mutual support. Antony, therefore, concentrated on Cassius' camp and, with typical bravado, established his army of ten legions in a well-fortified camp a mere 1.5 km from the enemy. Ten days later, Octavian's army of nine legions arrived. Nevertheless, the Republicans had all the advantages of a better supply line and an elevated position so that time was on their side. The Triumvirs would have to take the initiative.
1st Battle of Philippi 42 BCE
FIRST BATTLE OF PHILIPPI
Several early attempts by Antony and Octavian to draw the enemy down to the plain failed completely. As a consequence, Antony, while still making a show of troop manoeuvres on the plain, attempted to cross the reed marshes undetected by building a causeway and, when behind the Republican camps, try to cut their supply lines. Cassius soon got wind of the strategy and responded by trying to cut off Antony's advance forces by himself building a transverse wall from his camp to the marshes. Seeing his plan had been discovered, on October 3rd, Antony led a direct assault on Cassius' wall overwhelming the stunned left flank of the enemy and destroying their fortifications. Then, while the bulk of Cassius' army was engaged on the plain, Antony went straight for Cassius's largely undefended camp. As things swung against Cassius' legions on the plain and when they saw their camp routed a chaotic retreat followed.
Meanwhile Brutus was doing well against Octavian's legions who, caught by a surprise charge from Brutus' over-eager advance troops which had necessitated the whole Republican army mobilising in support, were routed in a chaotic battle during which Octavian's camp was captured. Fortunately, Octavian - ill again and missing the battle - had taken refuge in the marshes and avoided certain capture. Brutus, on discovering the loss of Cassius' camp, sent reinforcements but Cassius, holding out with a small force on the acropolis of Philippi, interpreted them as more of Antony's forces and so committed suicide - as it happened, on his birthday - rather than be captured. While all this was happening Antony and Octavian's reserve troops, arriving by sea, were destroyed crossing the Adriatic by the Republican fleet. Thus, the first battle of Philippi ended, more or less, in a 1:1 draw, with 9,000 losses on the Republican side and more than double that figure from Octavian's army.
SECOND BATTLE OF PHILIPPI
Following the first battle both sides returned to their original camps to re-group. Brutus, taking over Cassius' camp, sought to stick to his original plan of holding station until the enemy was forced to withdraw through lack of provisions. Brutus did harass the enemy via night attacks on their position and even diverting a river to wash away part of their camp. Lacking supplies and having lost their back-up in the Adriatic, Antony and Octavian had to make their move before winter really set in and forced them to leave the field. Initially, Brutus stoically resisted the repeated taunting by the enemy to come out and face them but eventually, at least according to the ancient Roman historians, ill-discipline got the upper hand and Brutus' army took their own initiative and descended to the plain.
Antony had, meanwhile, also made some daring and decisive moves. First, he took full advantage of a small mound south of Brutus' camp which the Republican leader had left unguarded (and this despite the fact that Cassius had previously stationed a garrison on it). Building a palisade of whicker, four legions were now dangerously close to Brutus' position. At the same time Antony moved ten legions into the central marsh area and two more a little further east. Brutus responded by building a fortified camp facing each of these two blocks of enemy troops but if the battle lines were extended any further then Brutus would be isolated from his supplies and backed up against the mountains -an impossible position to defend. The Republican army, then, had little choice but to engage the enemy with a full-scale assault. The time for dilly-dallying was over.
2nd Battle of Philippi 42 BCE
The use of artillery weapons in the confines of such a tightly-packed battlefield was considered impractical and the opposing armies immediately clashed in fearsome hand-to-hand fighting. Initially, the Republicans did well against the enemy's left wing but Brutus, with fewer troops at his disposal, had stretched his lines thin to ward of an out-flanking manoeuvre. The consequence was Antony relentlessly pushed forward and smashed the enemy centre and, moving left, attacked the rear of Brutus' lines. The order of the Republican troops now completely broke down and chaos ensued. Meanwhile, Octavian had attacked the Republican camp while Antony used his cavalry to chase down Brutus and prevent his escape. The Republican leader had found refuge in the nearby mountains but when his four remaining legions moved to plea for clemency from Antony, Brutus took his own life. In total 14,000 soldiers surrendered and while some others managed to flee by ship to Thasos, the Republican cause was at an end and Julius Caesar's murder had been avenged. In the words of Ovid, "all the daring criminals who in defiance of the gods, defiled the high priest's head [Caesar], have fallen in merited death. Philippi is witness, and those whose scattered bones whiten its earth".
AFTERMATH
Whilst Antony was hailed as imperator by the victors and losers alike, Octavian, who had dealt more harshly with the defeated, was not so highly esteemed. As Plutarch stated in no uncertain terms, "[Octavian] did nothing worth relating, and all the success and victory were Antony's". The legions were again re-distributed with Antony taking eight to campaign against Parthia whilst Octavian, with three, returned to Italy. The battle, with its 40,000 fatalities and subsequent retaliations against Republican sympathizers, robbed Rome of some of its finest citizens and soldiers, and still the question of just who would rule Rome was not settled. For, despite the obvious military skills of Antony, in the end, it would be Octavian's political skills and genius at inspiring loyalty from other, more talented commanders such as Marcus Agrippa, that ensured Antony was prevented from becoming Caesar. Following several more years of struggle and intrigue, it was Octavian who would be the real winner at Philippi and ultimately, following the defeat of Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, he would rule the Roman Empire as the first of a long line of Roman emperors.
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