Battle of Naulochus

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Battle of Naulochus

The naval Battle of Naulochus was fought on 3 September 36 BC between the fleets of Sextus PompeiusSextus Pompeius

Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius, in English Sextus Pompey, was a Roman general from the late Republic....
and Marcus Vipsanius AgrippaMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman statesman and general....
, off NaulochusNaulochus

Naulochus, Naulochos, or Naulocha , was an ancient city on the north coast of Sicily, between Mylae and Cape Pe...
, SicilySicily

Sicily is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 km and 5 mi...
. The victory of Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, marked the end of the Pompeian resistance to the Second TriumvirateSecond Triumvirate

The Second Triumvirate is the name historians give to the official political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus , Ma...
.
BackgroundAfter the strengthening of the bond between Octavian and Mark AnthonyMark Anthony

People known as Mark Anthony include:...
, with the pact of Brundisium, the two triumvirs were to manage the menace of Sextus Pompey, son of PompeyPompey

Pompey, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a distinguished military and political leader of the l...
. Sextus had occupied the province of Sicily, which provided much of Rome's grain supplyGrain supply to the city of Rome

The megalopolis of ancient Rome could never be fed entirely from its own surrounding countryside....
. When Sextus had managed to bring Rome to famine, in 39 BC, Octavian and Anthony sought an alliance with Sextus, appointing him governor of Sicily, Sardinia, and Peloponnesus for five years (treaty of MisenumMisenum

Misenum is the site of an ancient port in Campania, in southern Italy....
). The alliance was short lived, and Sextus cut the grain supply to Rome.

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Timeline

36 BC Battle of Naulochus: Octavian's fleet, under the command of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa defeats the forces of the rebel Sextus Pompeius, Lepidus, who faint heartedly came to support Octavian, lost his army to Octavian when his men mutinied, and was then kept in luxurious captivity in Rome until his death.

Encyclopedia

Background

After the strengthening of the bond between Octavian and Mark AnthonyMark Anthony

People known as Mark Anthony include:...
, with the pact of Brundisium, the two triumvirs were to manage the menace of Sextus Pompey, son of PompeyPompey

Pompey, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a distinguished military and political leader of the l...
. Sextus had occupied the province of Sicily, which provided much of Rome's grain supplyGrain supply to the city of Rome

The megalopolis of ancient Rome could never be fed entirely from its own surrounding countryside....
. When Sextus had managed to bring Rome to famine, in 39 BC, Octavian and Anthony sought an alliance with Sextus, appointing him governor of Sicily, Sardinia, and Peloponnesus for five years (treaty of MisenumMisenum

Misenum is the site of an ancient port in Campania, in southern Italy....
). The alliance was short lived, and Sextus cut the grain supply to Rome. Octavian tried to invade Sicily in 38 BC, but the ships were forced to go back because of bad weather.

Agrippa cut part of Via Ercolana and dug a channel to connect Lucrinus Lake to the sea, in order to change it into an harbour, called Iulius. The new harbour was used to train the ships for naval battles. A new fleet was built, with 20,000 oarsmen gathered by freeing slaves. The new ships were built much larger, in order to carry many more navy infantry units, which were being trained at the same time. Furthermore, Anthony exchanged 20,000 infantry for his Parthian campaign with 120 ships, under the command of Titus Statilius Taurus. In July 36 BC the two fleets sailed from Italy, and another fleet, provided by the third triumvir Marcus Aemilius LepidusMarcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, d.13 BC, was a patrician Roman politician of the 1st century BC who rose to become a member of the ...
, sailed from Africa, to attack Sextus' stronghold in Sicily.

In August Agrippa was able to finally defeat Sextus in a naval battle near Mile (modern MilazzoMilazzo

Milazzo is a town of on the north coast of Sicily, Italy....
); the same month Octavian was defeated and seriously wounded in a battle near TaorminaTaormina

Taormina is a town on the island of Sicily in Italy, and in ancient times was a Greek colony, dating from about 400 BC, whic...
.

The battle

In front of Naulochus promontory, Agrippa met Sextus' fleet. Both fleets were composed by 300 ships, all with artilliery, but Agrippa commanded heavier units, armed with arpax, an evolution of corvusCorvus (weapon)

A corvus was a Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage....
. Agrippa used well his new weapon, succeeding in blocking the more maneouvrable ships of Sextus and, after a long and bloody fight, to defeat his enemy.

Agrippa lost three ships, while 28 ships of Sextus were sunk, 17 fled, and the others burnt or captured.

Aftermath

After seven years Sicily was finally wrestled from the control of the surprisingly resourceful Sextus, whose large navy had created many problems for the second triumvirateSecond Triumvirate Overview

The Second Triumvirate is the name historians give to the official political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus , Ma...
.

Sextus reached Messana, then, with 7 ships, moved to Mitilene and from there to the East, where he was defeated in 35 BC by Anthony.

Octavian and Lepidus defeated the last Pompeian resistance in Sicily. Later after a good amount of intrigue Octavian was able to shrewdly strip Lepidus of his political and military power and become the sole ruler of the west.

Battle of Naulochus

Background

The battle

Aftermath

Further Reading