Anachronistic baroque painting of the Battle of Actium by Laureys a Castro, 1672
Date
March 32 – August 30 BC
Location
Greece and Egypt
Result
Octavian victory
Territorial changes
Rome annexes Egypt and control over eastern provinces reasserted
Belligerents
Western Roman provinces
Eastern Roman provinces Ptolemaic Egypt
Commanders and leaders
Octavian
Marcus Agrippa
Titus Statilius Taurus
Lucius Pinarius Scarpus
Mark Antony
Cleopatra
Gaius Sosius (POW)
P. Canidius Crassus
Strength
200,000 Roman legionaries[citation needed] 450 Roman warships and transports[citation needed]
173,700 Roman legionaries[citation needed] 18,000 Ptolemaic soldiers[citation needed] 5,000 Median reinforcements[citation needed] 154 Roman and Ptolemaic warships and transports[citation needed]
Casualties and losses
50,000[a][citation needed]
75,000[b][citation needed]
v
t
e
Roman Republican civil wars
1st Servile
2nd Servile
Social
Bellum Octavianum
Sulla's
Sertorian
3rd Servile
Caesar's
Mutina
Liberators'
Bellum Siculum
Perusine
Pompeian–Parthian invasion
Actium
Octavian
Mark Antony
The War of Actium[1][2][3][4][5] (32–30 BC) was the last civil war of the Roman Republic, fought between Mark Antony (assisted by Cleopatra and by extension Ptolemaic Egypt) and Octavian. In 32 BC, Octavian convinced the Roman Senate to declare war on the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Her lover and ally Mark Antony, who was Octavian's rival, gave his support for her cause. Forty percent of the Roman Senate, together with both consuls, left Rome to join the war on Antony's side. After a decisive victory for Octavian at the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra and Antony withdrew to Alexandria, where Octavian besieged the city until both Antony and Cleopatra were forced to commit suicide.
The war involved some of the largest Roman armies ever seen. Both Antony and Octavian's legions were experienced veterans of previous civil wars who had fought together, many also having once served under Caesar. The two did however raise their own legions separately.
Following the end of the war, Octavian brought peace to the Roman state that had been plagued by a century of civil wars, marking the beginning of the Pax Romana, a period of relative internal peace and stability. Octavian became the most powerful man in the Roman world and the Senate bestowed upon him the honorific of Augustus in 27 BC. Octavian, now Augustus, became the first Roman emperor and transformed the Republic into the Roman Empire.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Ronald Syme, "Biographers of the Caesars", Museum Helveticum, vol. 37, No. 2 (1980), p. 104
^Fergus Millar (1973), "Triumvirate and Principate", Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 63, p. 58.
^John Robert Johnson, "The Authenticity and Validity of Antony's will", L'Antiquité Classique vol. 47, no. 2 (1978), p. 499
^T.J. Luce, "The Dating of Livy's First Decade", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association vol. 96 (1965), p. 209
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