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Battle of Actium
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The Battle of Actium was the final engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The battle took place on September 2, 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea, near the Roman colony of Actium in Greece. Octavian's fleet was commanded by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, while Antony's fleet was supported by the ships of his lover, Cleopatra VII, queen of Ptolemaic Egypt.
Octavian's victory enabled him to consolidate his power over Rome and its domains.
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The Battle of Actium was the final engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The battle took place on September 2, 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea, near the Roman colony of Actium in Greece. Octavian's fleet was commanded by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, while Antony's fleet was supported by the ships of his lover, Cleopatra VII, queen of Ptolemaic Egypt.
Octavian's victory enabled him to consolidate his power over Rome and its domains. As a result he adopted the title of Princeps ("first citizen") and he was given the title of Augustus by the Senate. As Caesar Augustus he would retain the trappings of a restored Republican leader, however, historians generally view this consolidation of power and the adoption of these honorifics, as the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
Prelude
The alliance commonly known as the Second Triumvirate ended when Octavian came to perceive Caesarion, the natural son of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, as a threat. Octavian's authority and the loyalty of the legions that supported him, was principally founded on Caesar's 44 BC bequest, which established Octavian as the unique, legitimate heir of the great Roman general. This was threatened when Antony, Octavian's principal partner in the Triumvirate, divorced Octavian's sister Octavia Minor and moved to Egypt to become Cleopatra's partner. Subsequently, Antony tried to have Caesarion accepted as the true heir of Julius Caesar.
Caesarion, then thirteen years of age, was formally elevated to power by Antony and Cleopatra in 34 BC, and given the vague title of "King of the Kings". Octavian reacted by starting a propaganda war, denouncing Antony as an enemy of Rome. Octavian claimed that Antony sought to establish a personal monarchy over the entire Roman Empire in the name of Caesarion, completely circumventing the Roman Senate. As the "Second Triumvirate" agreement formally expired on the last day of 33 BC, the Roman Senate issued a declaration of war against Cleopatra and deprived Antony of any legal authority. During 32 BC, a third of the Senate and both consuls allied with Antony. Military operations commenced in 31 BC, when Octavian's general Agrippa captured Methone, a Greek town allied to Antony.
Order of battle
The two fleets met outside the Gulf of Actium, on the morning of September 2, 31 BC, when Mark Antony lead 230 warships through the straits toward the open sea. Octavian's fleet was waiting beyond the straits, led by the experienced admiral Agrippa, commanding from the left wing of the fleet, Lucius Arruntius commanding the centre and Marcus Lurius commanding from the right. Octavian's armies observed the battle from shore to the north of the straits, and were under the command of Statilius Taurus.
Mark Antony and Gellius Publicola commanded the right wing of the Antonian fleet, while Marcus Octavius and Marcus Insteius commanded the centre, with Cleopatra's squadron positioned behind them. Gaius Sosius launched the initial attack of the battle from the left wing of the fleet, while Antony's chief lieutenant Publius Canidius was in charge of the triumvir's land forces.
The battle
The majority of Mark Antony's warships were quinqueremes, huge galleys with massive rams, that could weigh up to three hundred tons. The bows of the galleys were armored with bronze plates and square-cut timbers, making a successful ramming attack with similar equipment difficult. Unfortunately for Antony, many of his ships were undermanned; a severe malaria outbreak had taken place when they were waiting for Octavian's fleet to arrive and he had burned the ships he could no longer man, while clustering the remainder tightly together. With many oarsmen dead, the powerful, head-on ramming tactic for which the quinqueremes had been designed was rendered impossible. The morale of his troops had also suffered after supply lines had been cut.
Octavian's fleet was largely made up of smaller, fully-manned Liburnian vessels, armed with better-trained, fresher crews. His ships were lighter and could out-maneuver the quinqueremes, where one objective was to ram the enemy ship and at the same time kill the above deck crew with a shower of arrows and catapult-launched stones, which were large enough to decapitate a man. Prior to the battle, one of Mark Antony's generals, known as Quintus Dellius, had defected to Octavian, bringing with him Mark Antony’s battle plans. Antony had hoped to use his biggest ships to drive back Agrippa's wing on the north end of his line, but Octavian's entire fleet, aware of this strategy, stayed out of range. Shortly after mid-day, Antony was forced to extend his line from the protection of the shore, and finally engage the enemy.
Seeing that the battle was going against Antony, Cleopatra's fleet retreated to open sea without engaging. Mark Antony relocated to a smaller vessel with his flag and managed to escape, taking a few ships with him as an escort to help break through Octavian's lines. Those that remained left behind, however, were all captured or sunk by Octavian's forces.
Another theory suggests that Antony knew he was surrounded and had nowhere to run. Antony gathered his ships around him in a quasi-horseshoe formation, staying close to the shore for safety. If Octavian's ships tried to approach Antony's, the sea would push them into the shore. Antony may have known that he would not be able to defeat Octavian's forces, so he and Cleopatra stayed in the rear of the formation. Eventually, Antony sent the ships on the northern part of the formation to attack. He had them move out to the north, spreading out Octavian's ships which up until now were tightly arranged. He sent Gaius Sosius down to the south to spread the remaining ships out to the south. This left a hole in the middle of Octavian's formation. Antony seized the opportunity and with Cleopatra on her ship and him on a different ship, sped through the gap and escaped, abandoning his entire force.
Aftermath
The political consequences of this battle were far-reaching. After Mark Antony lost his fleet, his army, which had been equal to that of Octavian, deserted in large numbers. Under cover of darkness some 19 infantry legions and 12,000 cavalry fled before Antony was able to engage Octavian in a land battle. Despite a victory at Alexandria on July 31, 30 BC, more of Mark Antony's armies deserted, leaving him with insufficient forces to fight Octavian. Mark Antony then tried to flee from the battle, and as a result of a communication breakdown, came to believe that Cleopatra had been captured, and hence committed suicide.
When Cleopatra heard the news about Mark Antony's death, rather than risk being captured by Octavian, she also committed suicide, on August 12, 30 BC. She allowed herself to be bitten by a poisonous asp, reportedly hidden for her in a basket of figs. Octavian had Caesarion killed later that year, finally securing his legacy as Julius Caesar's only 'son'.
Thus, Octavian's victory at the Battle of Actium gave him sole and uncontested control of the Roman Mediterranean and he became "Augustus Caesar" and the "first citizen" of Rome. This victory, consolidating his power over every Roman institution, marked the transition of Rome from Republic to Empire and the final surrender of Egypt following Cleopatra's death also marks, for many historians, the final demise of both the Hellenistic Age and the Ptolemaic Kingdom.
To commemorate his victory over Antony, Augustus established the Roman festival Actia. Augustus also erected a monument overlooking the site, which incorporated the bronze rams taken from the defeated ships. The surviving sockets in the stonework are evidence of the considerable size of these rams.
Sources
- Military Heritage published a feature about the Battle of Actium, involving Mark Antony, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus aka. Octavian (Julius Caesar's 18-year old adopted son and heir), and Cleopatra of Egypt (Joseph M. Horodyski, Military Heritage, August 2005, Volume 7, No. 1, pp 58 to 63, and p. 78), ISSN 1524-8666.
- Everitt, Anthony. Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor. New York, Random House. 2006.
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