sentences:  With the establishment of the Second Triumvirate and the launching of the civil war against the Liberatores, in 42 BC Norbanus and another general, Decidius Saxa, were sent by Marcus Antonius and Octavianus with eight legions into Macedonia against the assassins of Julius Caesar.Ordered to march quickly to Thrace and hold the mountain passes, thus cutting off the Via Egnatia, Norbanus and Saxa met the combined advancing troops of Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus in the neighborhood of Philippi.As they were outnumbered, Norbanus and Saxa occupied a position near Philippi which prevented the republicans advancing any further.