Octavian Triumphs at Actium: Empire is Born

Cleopatra's gilded warship turned and fled through the battle line at Actium on September 2, 31 BC, and Mark Antony abandoned his fleet to chase after her, handing Octavian control of the Roman world. The naval engagement off the western coast of Greece lasted only a few hours, but it ended a civil war that had consumed the Roman Republic for over a decade and cleared the path for Octavian to become Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Three hundred of Antony's ships were captured or sunk, and his 19 legions of land troops surrendered without a fight when they saw their commander sail away. The conflict between Octavian and Antony had been building since the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Antony controlled the wealthy eastern provinces and had formed a political and romantic alliance with Cleopatra VII of Egypt, whose treasury financed his military campaigns. Octavian, Caesar's adopted heir, commanded the west and wielded a devastating propaganda campaign portraying Antony as a traitor who had abandoned Roman values for an Egyptian queen. The Senate declared war on Cleopatra specifically, allowing Octavian to frame the fight as Rome defending itself against a foreign threat. Antony positioned his fleet in the narrow strait between the promontory of Actium and the island of Leucas, but disease and desertion ravaged his forces during a prolonged standoff through the summer. His admiral, Gaius Sosius, managed the initial engagement, but Octavian's fleet, commanded by the brilliant Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, used smaller, more maneuverable ships to outflank the heavier vessels. When Cleopatra broke through the center with her 60 ships and their war chest of Egyptian gold, Antony transferred to a faster vessel and followed her to Egypt. Both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide the following year as Octavian's forces closed in on Alexandria. Egypt was annexed as a Roman province, and Octavian returned to Rome where he systematically dismantled the Republic's remaining institutions while preserving their appearance. The Battle of Actium ended five centuries of republican government and inaugurated the Roman Empire, a political system that would endure for another five hundred years in the west and nearly fifteen hundred in the east.