Battle of Actium

The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought on 2 September 31 BCE off the promontory of Actium, on the Ionian coast of north-western Greece. The fleet of Octavian, commanded by his general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, defeated the combined fleets of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. The victory left Octavian master of the Roman world and opened the way to his rule as the first emperor, Augustus.

After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, his adopted son Octavian and his former lieutenant Mark Antony at first shared power, together with Marcus Lepidus, in the Second Triumvirate. Octavian controlled Italy and the west, while Antony took charge of the eastern provinces. There he formed a political and personal alliance with Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and they had three children together. Antony's grants of eastern territories to Cleopatra and her children, and his abandonment of his Roman wife Octavia, Octavian's sister, gave Octavian powerful propaganda. In 32 BCE Octavian published what he said was Antony's will, and Rome declared war, formally on Cleopatra alone.

Antony and Cleopatra gathered a large army and fleet in western Greece, intending to meet any invasion there. Ancient figures for the forces vary, and modern historians treat them with caution, but both sides probably had well over 50,000 soldiers on land and several hundred warships. In early 31 BCE Agrippa seized key bases on the Greek coast and cut Antony's supply lines by sea, while Octavian landed his army in the north and camped near Actium. Through the summer Antony's forces, hemmed in on the Gulf of Ambracia, suffered from hunger, disease and desertions, including several prominent Roman supporters who went over to Octavian.

Antony decided to break out by sea. Many historians believe his main aim was to escape with as much of the fleet and treasure as possible rather than to win a complete victory. On 2 September his ships rowed out of the gulf and engaged Agrippa's fleet. Antony's ships were generally larger, while Agrippa's were lighter and more manoeuvrable. After hours of fighting, Cleopatra's squadron, held in reserve, sailed through a gap in the line and headed south for Egypt. Antony followed her with a small number of ships. Much of the remaining fleet was burned, sunk or surrendered, and Antony's land army, left behind, went over to Octavian within about a week.

Octavian took his time, reorganising the eastern provinces before advancing on Egypt in 30 BCE. As his forces approached Alexandria in August, Antony's remaining troops deserted, and Antony took his own life. Cleopatra, captured but unwilling to be paraded in a Roman triumph, also died by suicide, traditionally by the bite of an asp. Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar, was put to death, and Egypt was annexed as a Roman province under the emperor's personal control.

With his rivals gone, Octavian controlled the armies and resources of the whole Mediterranean. In 27 BCE the Senate granted him the name Augustus, and he presented his position as a restoration of the Republic while holding supreme power. Historians conventionally date the beginning of the Roman Empire from this settlement. Octavian later founded a victory city, Nicopolis, near the site of the battle.

Our 100 BCE map shows the Roman Republic alongside an independent Ptolemaic Egypt, and the 1 BCE map shows Egypt absorbed into the empire of Augustus.