The theatre
A large auditorium from Philip's day, still hosting summer performances.
**A complete Roman city where the first Christian sermon in Europe was preached, and where a battle that changed Rome was decided** โ a World Heritage site 15 km from Kavala. **Philip II of Macedon** โ Alexander's father โ founded it in **356 BC** and named it after himself, for its command of gold mines and of the pass between Europe and Asia. โ **On its plain in 42 BC** the **Battle of Philippi** was fought: **Antony and Octavian** defeated **Brutus and Cassius**, Julius Caesar's assassins โ **and the Roman Republic effectively ended** with that battle, beginning the road to empire. โ **And in AD 49 or 50** the **Apostle Paul** arrived โ **the first city in Europe where he preached**, and where the first European church was founded. โ What you see: a **large theatre**, immense **basilicas**, a **forum**, and the **Via Egnatia**.
A large auditorium from Philip's day, still hosting summer performances.
Immense early Byzantine churches with standing columns and arches.
Paving of the Roman road linking the Adriatic to the East.
Filippoi, 64003 Kavala, Greece
**The battle that ended the Roman Republic โ after it, no one was left to defend that option.** โ **The background**: **Julius Caesar** was assassinated in **44 BC** by a group of senators led by **Brutus and Cassius**, **claiming to save the Republic** from a man who had become sole ruler. โ **But the assassination did not restore the Republic**: civil war broke out, **and Antony allied with Octavian** (Caesar's adopted son, later Caesar Augustus) **and Lepidus** against the assassins. โ **The battle**: the armies met on **the plain of Philippi in 42 BC** in two successive engagements. **Cassius killed himself** after the first, believing it lost, **and Brutus** after the second. โ **The result**: **the republican political class was annihilated** โ most of those who might have led a return to it died in that war. โ **What followed**: the victors divided the Roman world, **then fought each other**, until Octavian settled it at **Actium in 31 BC** โ **and became Augustus, the first emperor**. โ **So Philippi is the hinge.**
**Christianity's first foothold in Europe โ and the Letter to the Philippians is part of the New Testament.** โ **The event**: the **Apostle Paul** reached Philippi around **AD 49 or 50**, arriving from Asia Minor by sea โ **the first city on European soil where he preached**. โ **The account**: that by the river outside the city he met a woman called **Lydia**, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira, **who believed and was baptised** โ **regarded as the first Christian in Europe**; โ **Lydia's baptistery** today is a nearby site with a modern church on the river. โ **Paul was imprisoned here** according to the narrative, **and ยซPaul's prisonยป** is pointed out within the archaeological site. โ **The literary legacy**: Paul later wrote the **Letter to the Philippians** โ one of his epistles and part of the New Testament, **and among the warmest in tone**. โ **What you see today**: **immense Byzantine basilicas** built here in the 5th and 6th centuries โ **their scale attesting to the city's standing** as an early Christian see.
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