Battle of Mutina

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Battle of Mutina
Date April 21, 43 BC Location Northern Italy Result Hirtius victory
Combatants
Roman Republic	Marc Antony's forces
Commanders
Aulus Hirtius† Octavian	Marc Antony

The Battle of Mutina was fought on April 21, 43 BC between the forces of Marc Antony and the forces of Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and Aulus Hirtius, who were providing aid to one of Caesar's assassins, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus.

Prelude

Around one year after Julius Caesar's murder, negotiations between the Roman Senate and Antony broke off. Antony gathered his legions and marched against one of the assassins Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, who was governor of Cisalpine Gaul.

Marc Antony had Decimus Brutus confined around Mutina (modern Modena), just south of the Padus (Po) River on the via Aemilia. Pansa was sent north from Rome to link with Hirtius and Octavian in order to provide Brutus with aid. On April 14, Antony's legions collided with those of Pansa, in the village of Forum Gallorum. Pansa's troops were routed and the general mortally wounded. In stead of gaining a decisive victory, Antony still lost the battle when reinforcements under Hirtius crashed into his own exhausted ranks.

The battle

Six days after the battle of Forum Gallorum, in which Pansa was mortally wounded, the two armies met again in the vicinity of Mutina. Octavian was present and fought on the side of the remaining consul Hirtius. Antony was defeated again, but Hirtius himself was killed, leaving the army and republic leaderless. Octavian, with a pro-praetorian imperium, gained the deceased consuls legions.

Consequences

Mutina is essentially where Octavian turns from an inferior young man to an equal of Antony. Soon after the battle, a truce was formed between Marc Antony and Octavian at Bologna leading eventually to the Second Triumvirate of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Octavian and Marc Antony. They would set aside their differences and turn on the Senators involved in Ceasar's assassination while assuming a 3-way dictatorship. Eventually in the ensuing power struggles many years later, Octavian would eventually defeat Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC and usher in the Roman Empire, but it is at Mutina that Octavian first established himself as a force to be reckoned with. Without this victory, Octavian may never have achieved the prestige necessary to be looked on as Ceasar's succesor and the stability of the Empire may never have been established in the lasting manner Octavian had decided for it.