Travelling by sea from Troas the apostolic band made its way to the island of Samothrace. From there they sailed to Neapolis (modern Cavalla), the port of Philippi in Macedonia, a journey of125 miles. Philippi was10 miles northwest inland. This town, previously called Crenides (lit. Fountains), also received its newer name of Philippi from Philip of Macedon. It stood at the eastern end of another major Roman highway that connected the Adriatic and Aegean Seas, the Via Egnatia (Egnatian Road). Macedonia consisted of four parts or districts, and Philippi was the chief city of one of these four districts. [source][source][source]
"After Mark Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar, near Philippi in42 A.D, the city was made into a Roman colony. This gave it special privileges (e.g, [1] fewer taxes) but more importantly it became like a "transplanted" Rome... The primary purpose of colonies was military, for the Roman leaders felt it wise to have Roman citizens and sympathizers settled in strategic locations. So Octavian (who became Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor, in27 B.C.) settled more colonists (primarily former soldiers) at Philippi after his defeat of Antony at Actium, on Greece"s west coast, in31 B.C." [2][source]
"Augustus" means "the august one" or "the revered one." The best modern equivalent might be "his majesty."[source]
"Philippi"s importance during the NT period ... resulted from its agriculture, its strategic commercial location on both sea and land routes, its still functioning gold mines, and its status as a Roman colony. In addition, it had a famous school of medicine with graduates throughout the then-known world." [3][source]
Luke"s mention of Philippi"s status as a Roman colony is unusual; he did not identify Roman colonies as such elsewhere. Other Roman colonies that feature in Acts , which Luke did not identify as colonies, were Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, Troas, Corinth, and Ptolemais. Probably he identified Philippi here as one because of the events that followed in Philippi that we can understand more easily with this status in mind. Another possibility is that he did so because of his personal interest in this town. He spent considerable time there. Some scholars conjecture that Philippi was Luke"s hometown or the town in which he lived before joining Paul"s party. This seems unlikely to me since Paul and his party stayed with Lydia when they were in Philippi ( Acts 16:15). If Luke had a home there, they probably would have stayed with him. A Roman colony was a city that the imperial government had granted special privileges for having rendered some special service to the empire. All its free citizens enjoyed the rights of Roman citizens. Living in such a colony was similar to being in Rome away from Rome (cf. Philippians 3:20). [source][source][source]