Actium
About
Octavian's admiral Agrippa outmaneuvered the combined fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra off the Ambracian Gulf, and Cleopatra's squadron broke and fled mid-battle with Antony following. The naval defeat ended their bid for power and left Octavian sole master of Rome. Within a year both Antony and Cleopatra were dead by suicide in Egypt. Octavian founded the victory city of Nicopolis on the spot and became Augustus four years later.
What happened here
A Roman army fights the way it camps: in lines, by drill, on ground chosen if possible. The legions form up in cohorts with gaps that let ranks rotate, throw a volley of heavy javelins at close range, and then close with the short sword, pushing behind the shield. Auxiliaries hold the flanks and do most of the cavalry work and most of the skirmishing. Battles are short and decided by whether one line breaks, and the killing happens in the pursuit rather than the fighting. The camp is dug and palisaded every night regardless. Afterwards the dead are stripped and the field is looted for days; the ground is remembered locally long after the campaign is a paragraph in someone's history.
In ancient writing
- Plutarch, Antony 62–68
The fleet undermanned and burning its surplus ships, and the moment Cleopatra's squadron turns for open water with Antony following.
- Cassius Dio, Roman History 50.31–35
The line of battle off the promontory and the fighting at close quarters between heavy ships and light.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →