On this day…in 42BC

After his defeat at the second battle of Philippi, Marcus Junius Brutus, a prominent conspirator in Julius Caesar’s assassination, ends his own life.

Two years prior, Brutus had allied with Gaius Cassius Longinus in a conspiracy against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, convinced that he was championing the cause of restoring the Roman Republic. Contrary to their hopes, Caesar’s assassination led to a resurgence of civil wars in Rome, as Brutus and Cassius’s Republican forces clashed with Octavian and Mark Antony for dominance. Following a defeat by Antony during a battle in Philippi, Greece, in October 42 B.C., Cassius took his own life. On October 23, Brutus faced the crushing of his army by Octavian and Antony during a second confrontation at Philippi, leading him to end his life.

Soon, Antony and Octavian turned on one another, and by 27 B.C., the Roman Republic ceased to exist as Octavian ascended to become Augustus Caesar, Rome’s first emperor.