[5] He succeeded Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, who had governed the province as Pompey's proquaestor pro praetore; Phillipus served there two years, from 61 through 60 BC.
[9] When Crassus and Pompey decided to stand for the consulship of 55 BC, Philippus and Marcellinus opposed them; "only by desperate postponement of the elections into the following year", coupled with strong-arm intimidation tactics and Caesar's sending of his men on leave to vote in Rome, were Crassus and Pompey able to overcome the considerable opposition to them and win election as consuls in late January 55 BC.
[10] The next year, 54 BC, Philippus joined Clodius, Cicero, Milo, Pompey, and a number of other senior statesmen (including nine former consuls) in defending Marcus Aemilius Scaurus on charges of repetundae.
Scaurus, calling on connections across the aristocracy – "no other trial in the republic evoked the participation of so many distinguished and diverse individuals"[11] – was overwhelmingly acquitted.
[13] This marriage made him step-father to Octavia Minor and Gaius Octavius Thurinus (future Roman emperor Augustus).
[19] Cicero criticised the dithering of the ultimatum in his Seventh Philippic and Antony's counter-demands were rejected, precipitating passage of a senatus consultum ultimum and declaration of a state of emergency.