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The Roman Republic was crumbling slowly but surely for a century. However, it was a final conflict called the final war, the Republic that eventually brought it to its knees. This war would see the largest of the Roman armies engage in horrific bloodbath and contain one of the grandest and most crucial naval battles in history, the Battle of Actium. The fate of the known world was decided here. Welcome to another episode of the Kings and Generals documentary series.
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Thank you for watching our documentaries. We are always grateful for your likes, shares, and subscriptions. Please consider supporting us on Patreon, as every dollar counts and would help us improve our content. And with that, let us begin this video.
In 44 BC, a group of aristocrats led by Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius assassinated Julius Caesar in the Senate. They expected universal praise for getting rid of the dictator, but Caesar was popular amongst the people in the Eternal City. His murderers were driven out of the city to the eastern provinces. Back in Rome, Caesar's heir, Gaius Octavian, and his generals, Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, managed to form a new alliance called the Second Triumvirate. Their professed goal was to uphold the Republic, but in truth, they were hoping to avenge Caesar and gain more power.
In 42 BC, Octavian and Antony led their nineteen legions against seventeen legions of Brutus and Cassius. The two armies met in Macedonia at Philippi, with the new triumvirate achieving a decisive victory. After this, both Brutus and Cassius committed suicide. With the death of Brutus and Cassius, the triumvirate took over Rome and divided its provinces amongst themselves. At Brindisi in 40 BC, Octavian received the western part of the Republic, while Antony took the eastern provinces, and Lepidus received Africa. Italy was declared neutral ground, but in reality, Octavian controlled it.
To strengthen this alliance, Octavian arranged the marriage between Antony and his sister Octavia. But both of them had claims to the legacy of Caesar, so conflict was inevitable. Yet, they still had other enemies to fight. The son of Pompey, Sextus Pompey, used the war and took control of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. His powerful navy dominated the seas, which put Italy in imminent danger. Octavian needed to win time, so in 39 BC, the triumvirate and Sextus signed a pact of Misenum, which confirmed any current possessions of Sextus and granted him the control of the Peloponnese. Still, none of the signatories acted in good faith, and Sextus strayed in Italy with his ships, which damaged the crucial grain import to Rome and caused a food crisis.
Octavian had to counter-attack and get rid of Sextus. His first attempt to conquer Sicily failed in 37 BC, as his navy was defeated twice near Messina. It was clear that Octavian needed help, and he entered negotiations with Antony to secure more ships. The latter was planning the invasion of Parthia and hoped to get more recruits from Italy. Octavia mediated the talks. Her husband gave Octavian a hundred and twenty ships and was promised 20,000 legionaries in return. They also decided to renew their triumvirate for five more years.
In 36 BC, Octavian restarted his offensive against Sextus. His troops were led by his trusted commander Agrippa, who won decisively at Naulochus. Lepidus also took part in the campaign. He took a few important towns and eventually forced some legions of Sextus to join him. He demanded Sicily to become part of his domain, but as soon as Agrippa's army approached, the forces of Lepidus defected, and his territory was absorbed into the holdings of Octavian. The heir of Caesar now had an unprecedented forty-five legions under his command. Yet, all these soldiers demanded pay and land, and an impending crisis loomed over Octavian.
To the east, Antony was consolidating his holdings. He invited various client kings to join him, amongst them the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra of the Ptolemy dynasty. Roman sources claimed that Antony was infatuated with her, but it seems that initially, he only saw her as a powerful tool to achieve his goals. He hoped to conquer the Parthian kingdom and needed all the help he could get from those client states. It is possible that the marriage ceremony between them was purely political, as Antony knew it would be considered illegitimate. He also granted Cleopatra some of the old Ptolemaic lands. Modern historians think that it was not a gift from a lover but a political move. These areas were rich in timber, and Cleopatra was tasked with building a navy. Both the marriage and this grant were continuously used by Octavian's propaganda back in Rome.
The political situation in Parthia was complicated, as the heir to the throne, Phraates IV, killed his father and brothers to become the king. Antony started his campaign against Parthia in 36 BC by sending his general Statianus to invade the Caucasus. Antony had one of the largest Roman field armies in history under his command. Some reports claimed that after the Armenian cavalry joined his forces, Antony had over 100,000 men. Yet, his campaign would begin poorly, as Antony marched forward, he left behind his supply train. It was not long before it was attacked, and the two legions carrying it were crushed. Supplies and artillery in abundance were lost. To make matters worse, the Romans were abandoned by the Armenian king Artavasdes. Yet, Antony still moved ahead. The Parthians, not willing to fight a general battle, used their horse archers and mobility to weaken his army across a number of skirmishes. Eventually, the Roman leader had no choice but to retreat, and unfortunately for him, he lost two-fifths of his army in this single campaign.
Antony wintered in Alexandria with Cleopatra. His alliance with Octavian was slowly degrading, as he did not receive the reinforcements that were promised to him. He insulted Octavian by sending his sister back to Rome, and as Octavian was fighting a war in Illyricum to gain more popularity with the people, Antony was losing his prestige. In 34 BC, he rectified some of it by annexing the Caucasus and concluding his campaign with a triumphal procession in Alexandria. Yet, this too would be used against him. Antony gifted Cleopatra and her heirs new lands in what was later called the Donations of Alexandria. Yet, the Senate rejected this gift, and now conflict was inevitable. Octavian declared war on Cleopatra to avoid it being considered a Roman civil war, yet he knew that Antony would side with the queen, and he was right.
Antony and Cleopatra started concentrating their troops in Actium in 32 BC. They had around 100,000 land troops and 500 combat ships under their command. Cleopatra also brought along a large war chest that would pay for the entirety of the campaign. Octavian had an equal number of forces and 300 ships led by his loyal general Agrippa. Agrippa then temporarily occupied Actium in the spring of 32 BC and distributed his troops and ships along the coastline as garrisons, with the majority of the battle vessels in the Gulf of Ambracia. He was not going to invade Italy just yet, as the people were against Cleopatra, so instead, he was hoping that Octavian would be brought down by an overwhelming inability to pay his own troops.
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Octavian was also not very fond of a general battle, as he considered Antony to be a superior general. He instead resorted to naval sorties, and Agrippa managed to take Methone at the southernmost part of Antony's defensive line. Agrippa continued to attack transports and detached garrisons in the Ionian Sea, and that allowed a large group of Octavian's troops to land and pen in his navy. Then, his navy positioned itself at the entry of Ambracia. Antony started moving towards Actium to lead his fleet, but he found it in a horrible shape. Malnutrition and sickness had spread amongst its crews. Fortunately for him, he had fortifications on both sides of the entry to the Gulf, thus Octavian could not attack without his navy suffering many losses to the towers. This standoff continued for months. Antony tried to besiege the enemy camp, but eventually had to abandon the northern side of the strait, while Octavian continued to receive reinforcements. Antony lost more sailors to defection and illness. Agrippa attacked his garrison at Leucas, and now Antony was surrounded. His client kings began to leave, and some of them even joined their foe. It became impossible for him to retain his position, and Antony needed to either abandon his fleet and retreat with his army by land or attempt to break the naval blockade.
We don't have all the details of what happened, but it seems that under the pressure of Cleopatra, Antony decided on the second option to save the war chest and safely retreat to Alexandria. At that point, Octavian had 400 vessels against 250 of his enemy, but his ships were much smaller on average. Antony's fleet was divided into four squadrons of 60 ships, with three in front and the fourth under Cleopatra's leadership in reserve. Octavian had all of his ships in three groups blocking the open sea. Antony led his ships out of the Gulf, his extreme flanks adjacent to the shore. He was waiting for Agrippa to attack to negate the numerical advantage, but Agrippa was patient and only divided his squadrons into two parts to have deeper lines. By midday, Antony finally engaged his enemy with his heaviest ships on the flanks, leaving his center somewhat weakened. He hoped to pressure the enemy with the vessels on the left wing, pushing them towards the coast and not allowing them to use their superiority of numbers. Agrippa's ships held the line for a few hours and were eventually winning the battle in the center. By midday, Cleopatra's squadrons, having been idle, sailed forward and crashed into the enemy's center. The debate still raged whether it was their plan all along or if she had lost heart, but as soon as the enemy's center was breached, the queen's squadron went to the open sea under all sails. Soon after that, Antony moved to a faster ship and also abandoned it. It is not clear if his ship captains did not know the plan or if they did not receive a signal in time, as they were eventually surrounded, failing to disengage. Ultimately, the majority of his navy and his men were gone. Soon after that, Antony's legions stopped their resistance and defected. The war was effectively over. As all over his domain, Mark Antony's troops were deserting, and although he won a small engagement near Alexandria in 30 BC, both he and Cleopatra were forced to commit suicide.
And so, the final war of the Roman Republic ended, and the Republic itself gave way to the Empire. And in 27 BC, Octavian became known as Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.
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Thanks for watching our documentary. It was our first attempt at a recreation of the naval battle, so hopefully you enjoyed it. We have bigger plans for our documentary series, so stay tuned. The narration was done by me, Commissar Bro. Don't forget to stop on my channel and say hi. This is Nurik and Phoenix's channel, and we'll catch you on the next one.
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