Battle of Forum Gallorum
date | April 14 or 15, 43 BC Chr. |
---|---|
place | Forum Gallorum (near Mutina , Northern Italy) |
output | Success of the Senate Party |
Parties to the conflict | |
---|---|
Caesarians |
Senate Party |
Commander | |
Troop strength | |
two legions, two Praetorian cohorts, horsemen, lightly armed men | seven legions, two Praetorian cohorts, lightly armed |
losses | |
supposedly half |
reportedly half of Pansa's troops, a Praetorian cohort |
The battle of Forum Gallorum took place on April 14 or 15, 43 BC. During the Mutinensian War , a phase of the Roman Civil Wars after the assassination of the dictator Gaius Iulius Caesar .
In the spring of 43 BC In front of the northern Italian Mutina (today Modena ), in which the Caesar murderer Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was staying, the troops of the Caesar supporter Marcus Antonius and the Roman Senate faced each other. The commanders of the Senate armed forces were Caesar's adopted son Octavian (later Augustus ) and the consul Aulus Hirtius . To strengthen them, the second consul, Gaius Vibius Panza Caetronianus, advanced with four newly excavated legions on the Via Aemilia . Antonius intercepted it on April 14 or 15 with two experienced legions ( Legio II and XXXV), two Praetorian cohorts , cavalry and lightly armed men at Forum Gallorum, a village in the swampy terrain about eleven kilometers southeast of Mutina.
Hirtius had sent the Mars Legion under their commandant Servius Sulpicius Galba and two Praetorian cohorts to reinforce his colleague Pansa . These battle-tested troops, according to Galba's own initiative, initially faced the two legions of Antony alone, but had to retreat after violent fighting; Panza himself was wounded by a spear. Antony's troops then inflicted heavy losses on the legions of recruits in their rapidly pitched camp.
When Hirtius heard of this battle, he advanced with two legions, IV and VII , for relief, was able to surprise the troops of Antony, careless due to their supposed victory, and inflict heavy losses on them. Antonius, who like Pansa had lost about half of his men, had to retreat to the village of Forum Gallorum. The Senate troops captured two legionary eagles and sixty other standards. Octavian, who remained in front of Mutina, fended off an attack by the rest of Antony's troops on the same day, led by his brother Lucius .
When news of the outcome of the battle was received in Rome a few days later, the Senate, at the suggestion of Marcus Tullius Cicero , confirmed the proclamation of the three generals as emperors on April 21 and decided to celebrate.
Hirtius fell on April 21 at the Battle of Mutina , and Panza died just two days after him from the effects of his wound. Octavian, who remained as the only general of the Senate (besides Decimus Brutus), from then on only represented his own interests.
swell
- Appian , Civil Wars 3, 66–70 ( English translation by LacusCurtius ).
- Cassius Dio 46, 37-38.2 ( English translation ).
- Cicero, Philippica 14, especially 26-28 .
- Servius Sulpicius Galba, in Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30 .
literature
- Jochen Bleicken : Augustus . Fest, Berlin 1998, pp. 112-114, 117.
- Ronald Syme : The Roman revolution . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1939, pp. 173-174.
Remarks
- ^ April 15, according to Servius Sulpicius Galba , in Cicero , ad familiares 10, 30, 1 : A. d. XVII cal. May. The letter is dated the following day (A.D. XVI Cal. May.) A date to April 14 is based on the simultaneity of the battle of Forum Gallorum and Octavian's battle in front of Mutina (Cicero, Philippica 14, 28: uno the locis pluribus ), which, according to Ovid , Fasti 4, 627–628 , took place on the day after the Ides, ie on April 14th.
- ^ So Galba, in Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30, 1; on the other hand, Cicero, Philippica 14, 27, speaks of three legions of Antony.
- ↑ Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30, 2.
- ^ So Appian, civil wars 3, 69. According to Galba, in Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30, 4, Antony's attack on the troops of Pansas was unsuccessful (complures ibi amisit nec egit quicquam) .
- ↑ So Galba, in Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30, 4 (cum cohortibus XX veteranis) , and Cicero, Philippica 14, 27 (duas legiones eduxit ..., quartam ... et septimam) . Appian, Civil Wars 3, 70, speaks only of one legion.
- ↑ So Appian, civil wars 3, 70. According to Galba, at Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30, 4, he returned to his camp in front of Mutina that night.
- ↑ Galba, in Cicero, ad familiares 10, 30, 5.
- ↑ Cicero, Philippica 14, 28. The battle is also mentioned in Suetonius , Augustus 10, 3–4 .
- ^ Cicero, Philippica 14.