The Battle of Actium and the fall of the Roman Republic

I remembered being mesmerized by the Movie "Cleopatra", the sheer pageantry was really unmatched.  Back then Movie houses made elaborate sets rather then CGI and it really seemed "More real" than the later movies.    This scene from the movie "Cleopatra" showed what I am referring to..

I will be showing more clips from the movie "Cleopatra" throughout this blog post.
The battle of Actium, which took place off of the west coast of Greece on September 2, 31 BC, is widely regarded as the decisive moment at which the Roman Republic fell and the Roman Empire rose in its place following the assassination of Julius Caesar.

The Assassination of Julius Caesar

Octavian, the adopted son and great-nephew of Caesar, faced off against the combined forces of Egypt, led by Cleopatra and Mark Antony who had been a close friend of the late Caesar.
Antony had once been second in command to the emperor. When he discovered a plot against his friend, he was unable to warn Caesar in time and had no choice but to flee Rome. He returned after the coup to try and preserve his friend’s legacy from posthumous attacks by the very men who had conspired to end his life.

A baroque painting of the battle of Actium by Laureys Castro, 1672.National Maritime Museum, UK

Upon learning that Caesar had bequeathed the throne to Octavian, however, Antony contested the younger man’s inheritance. What followed was a decade of ill-fated military campaigns designed to unseat the rightful heir of the deceased dictator.
The forces of Antony and Octavian first clashed the year after Caesar’s passing. Although Antony was soundly beaten, Octavian nevertheless included him and another rival in a power-sharing agreement that divided the Roman empire among them.

Antony and Cleopatra (1883) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema depicting Antony’s meeting with Cleopatra in 41 BC.

In the years that followed, Antony was busy. He defeated the assassins who had dispatched Caesar and later struck up a romance with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, who had also been Caesar’s lover.

Neroccio De’ Landi and Workshop, The Battle of Actium (circa 1475–1480)

Despite unease among the Romans about Antony and Cleopatra provocatively flaunting their children as royal heirs, the triumvirate ruled steadily for a decade before a series of events led Antony and Octavian to war once again.

A Roman bust of the consul and triumvir Mark Antony, Vatican Museums

Owing to a failed rebellion some time earlier, Antony had been forced to marry Octavian’s sister. When he divorced her in 32 BC, Octavian declared war on Cleopatra – a wise political move which allowed him to cast his war as one fought against foreigners, rather than his fellow Romans.

A year later, having driven Antony’s forces from the Greek mainland, Octavian’s fleet of 500 ships and 70,000 infantry faced off against Antony and Cleopatra’s combined 400 ships and 80,000 infantry.

Battle of Actium

At first, the battle was uncertain, but upon Cleopatra’s unexpected retreat, Octavian captured much of the opposing fleet and pursued his enemy through the gates of Alexandria.

 Battle of Actium(Cleopatra 1963)

Naval historians have studied the battle extensively, curious about the effect that Octavian’s smaller ships might have played in ensuring their decisive victory over the comparatively larger ships which made up Antony and Cleopatra’s fleet.
Now, a recent archaeological discovery has helped to shed light on exactly how much of an advantage this gave the Roman commander.

Battle of Actium

Upon the excavation of Octavian’s monument to the Roman victory (built alongside an entire city devoted to Rome’s success), it was discovered that Octavian took a large number of trophies from the enemy fleet.
The assertion of historians that the larger, less maneuverable fleet was at a significant disadvantage gained some credibility with the discovery that Octavian took as trophies 35 bronze rams from the captured fleet of 350 ships.

The Battle of Actium from a set of The Story of Antony and Cleopatra

The underwater battering rams, designed to break down harbor defenses, were considerably larger than any that had been previously found.

Peeter Sion – Defeat of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium

Although only remnants of the rams themselves were discovered in the excavated ruin (it is assumed that later generations or invading forces stole them and melted them down for bronze), the size of the niches they were placed in led historians to estimate that Antony and Cleopatra sailed in ships as large as 40 meters long.

The ending was that Anthony fled to join with Cleopatra with Octavian in hot pursuit.

 Anthony took his own life  via sword rather than be paraded through Rome in chains...
  Cleopatra took her own life via adder rather than be paraded through Rome as a trophy