The Battle of Actium (31 B.C.E.)

0:07 In 31 B.C.E, Octavian began his third year as consul.

0:12 Octavian and Antony had intended to share power

0:15 for this year as a public display of unity, but instead, the two were at war.

0:26 To their credit, Antony and Cleopatra possessed

0:28 the foresight to see that a war was coming,

0:31 and had spent much of the previous year moving armies into Greece.

0:36 This was where Antony intended to make a stand.

0:40 Critics of Antony had long said… Pompey made his stand in Greece, and failed.

0:45 Brutus and Cassius made their stand in Greece, and also failed.

0:50 Why on Earth would Antony try the same

0:52 failed strategy for the third time in a row?

0:55 Antony’s reasoning, and I actually agree with him here,

0:58 was that if he marched into Italy

1:01 with a significant number of Egyptians and other eastern allies,

1:04 it would be construed by the Romans as a foreign army.

1:08 When faced with what they would perceive to be a foreign invasion,

1:12 all of Italy would unite behind Octavian.

1:15 Antony’s analysis was that he had to defeat Octavian abroad,

1:19 so that he could leave the foreigners behind

1:22 and walk into Italy with a 100% Roman army.

1:27 So, Antony now had to decide where to fight.

1:31 In the east, Greece was probably the best when it came to military recruitment.

1:36 It also didn’t hurt that Antony was quite personally popular in the region.

1:40 All things considered,

1:41 fighting in Greece for the third time in a row actually made a lot of sense.

1:46 As Antony slowly moved his armies over to Greece,

1:48 he set up a bunch of outposts and spent the better

1:53 part of a year recruiting locally as fast as he could.

2:01 One issue complicating things was supplies.

2:04 Antony was supplying his armies all the way from Egypt,

2:08 meaning that he had a constant flow of ships criss-crossing the Mediterranean.

2:13 If he ever wanted to cross to Italy, he would have to use these ships to do so,

2:17 meaning that he would have to stop the grain transport for potentially months.

2:22 If he made the crossing without any food,

2:24 he would be forced into the position of plundering

2:27 Roman cities at the head of a foreign army.

2:30 Not a good look!

2:33 With all of this in mind, Antony set up on the western coast of Greece.

2:37 He had naval superiority over Octavian,

2:39 so his plan for the near term was to sit back

2:43 and force Octavian to make the extremely risky crossing into Greece.

2:53 Back in Italy, Octavian’s right hand man Agrippa was devising his own strategy.

2:58 He gathered some of Octavian’s best ships

3:00 into a small fleet on the southern coast of Italy,

3:03 and hand-picked sailors to crew them who had experience in both

3:07 the Illyricum campaign and the campaign against the Boat King Sextus.

3:11 When they were ready, they sailed off blindly into the open water,

3:14 with nothing to guide them but the Sun and the stars.

3:28 After 3 or 4 days of sailing, they caught sight of land.

3:31 It was the naval base of Methone, currently under Antony’s control.

3:36 After days in the open sea,

3:38 with no navigational tools beyond their own eyeballs,

3:40 they hit their target exactly.

3:44 The Romans were poor sailors,

3:46 and preferred to follow the coastline whenever possible.

3:49 They were capable of sailing in the open water,

3:51 but they always had to be prepared to arrive hundreds of kilometers off course.

3:57 This is why the Lighthouse of Alexandria existed,

3:59 incoming ships were often coming in after several days

4:02 in the open water with no Earthly idea where they were.

4:07 Agrippa was one of the few Roman generals with actual naval experience,

4:11 and with the help of the best and brightest in the Roman navy,

4:15 he was able to execute this maneuver with pinpoint precision.

4:20 Agrippa quickly besieged and then captured the base at Methone.

4:30 What was the point of all this?

4:38 Remember what I said about Antony supplying himself all the way from Egypt?

4:43 Think about it… [slowly]

4:45 Thiiiiiiiink aboooooooooooout iiiiitttttttttttttt… A-ha!

4:47 Methone was the perfect base from which to intercept those ships!

4:52 The attack on Methone was a high risk,

4:55 high reward operation, but it came off perfectly,

4:58 and now Agrippa and a tiny fleet were

5:01 behind Antony’s lines wreaking havoc on his supply ships.

5:05 Pretty soon, Agrippa began to escalate his attacks by storming

5:08 a bunch of lightly defended bases along the coast.

5:24 Just as Antony was beginning to realize what was happening in the south,

5:28 Octavian launched his own surprise attack in the north.

5:31 He crossed into Greece quite a bit earlier

5:33 in the year than Antony had been expecting.

5:36 Quite a bit further north than Antony had been expecting as well.

5:40 This whole strategy was the brainchild of Agrippa,

5:43 and it was another combined land-sea assault.

5:47 Let me reiterate that Romans did not think like this!

5:50 Agrippa had a particular talent for these kinds of combined attacks,

5:55 and he had Antony’s head spinning.

5:57 He was now backed into a position where

6:00 he had to either march south or march north,

6:03 and with either choice he would be making a major concession to the enemy.

6:10 He chose to march north to face Octavian.

6:14 As a consequence of this choice, Agrippa’s fleet picked up the pace,

6:18 intercepting and capturing more and more of Antony’s ships coming from Egypt.

6:25 Octavian marched south until he reached the town of Actium,

6:28 at which time he occupied a hill

6:31 on the northern side of the straight, and waited.

6:40 By the spring, Antony had gathered his army and initiated a bunch

6:44 of minor attacks that were intended to push Octavian off that hill,

6:48 but none of them worked.

6:50 Around this time, Octavian and Agrippa met up to revise their strategy.

6:55 And by their strategy, I mean Agrippa’s strategy.

6:57 The naval operation to the south was going a lot better than expected.

7:03 They were capturing a crazy number of Egyptian grain ships,

7:06 and it seemed that Antony was more or less powerless to do anything about it.

7:11 Their fleet was slowly growing while Antony’s was slowly shrinking.

7:15 The two agreed that they were so well positioned

7:18 that they could afford to play the waiting game.

7:21 If Antony wanted to attack their defensive hilltop position, let him.

7:26 Otherwise, do nothing.

7:33 Over the summer, Antony tried to cut off Octavian’s access to fresh water,

7:36 but he failed every time.

7:39 Later in the summer,

7:40 Agrippa’s supply disruptions to the south started to have their intended effect.

7:45 Antony was forced to cut rations.

7:48 Some of Antony’s eastern allies were growing

7:51 increasingly alarmed at his conduct of the war,

7:54 and took this opportunity to slip away with their armies.

7:58 Antony was livid, but he wasn’t in a position to stop them.

8:07 By August, Agrippa’s fleet had so many extra ships that he was able to just

8:12 openly sit off shore and intercept any

8:15 Egyptian grain ships that escaped his patrols elsewhere.

8:19 Antony’s fleet was reduced to hiding in the straight.

8:24 Antony decided that he needed at least a couple of supply

8:27 ships to get through if he was to continue the fight.

8:30 He decided to break the blockade.

8:34 He waited for a foggy morning, and launched a surprise attack.

8:38 As Antony’s ships left the straight,

8:40 they encountered some small ships, which immediately turned and fled.

8:46 Antony was encouraged by this, and gave chase through the fog.

8:50 Minutes later, he stumbled across the bulk of Agrippa’s blockade fleet,

8:55 much larger ships, who immediately turned and attacked.

8:59 Antony’s fleet was forced to turn and flee back to the straight,

9:04 and we’re told that casualties were quite heavy.

9:09 Either Agrippa was able to successfully bait Antony out into the open water,

9:14 or it was just a happy accident.

9:17 Either way, it was impressive seamanship,

9:19 converging on Antony in the fog like that.

9:22 No other living Roman would have had the skill

9:26 or the foresight to manage a fleet like this.

9:29 After this defeat, the Senators in Antony’s camp began

9:32 to lose their nerve and make their way back to Octavian.

9:45 Late in August, Antony met with his top advisors.

9:48 They were completely out of food.

9:51 He told them that they could not stay here any longer.

9:54 They had to withdraw from Actium.

9:58 Some advisors urged Antony to withdraw north into Macedonia.

10:01 They recommended regrouping, yielding the seas to Octavian,

10:05 and seeking a decisive battle on land.

10:09 Many of Antony’s grizzled Roman veterans were in this camp.

10:13 Others urged Antony to seek a decisive battle at sea.

10:17 Cleopatra and many of the remaining eastern allies were in this camp.

10:22 They argued that despite their earlier losses,

10:25 they still had a strong and experienced fleet.

10:29 If they yielded the sea, the whole fleet would be squandered.

10:33 Why not use it, and see if they could make something happen?

10:38 Antony decided to fight at sea.

10:41 Some have said that this decision was unduly swayed by Cleopatra,

10:45 but under the circumstances, and given the options,

10:47 I think it was the right call.

10:49 The plan to flee inland with no food…the plan sucked!

10:54 The only people calling for it were a few

10:56 Roman generals who thought that naval warfare was beneath them.

10:59 If Antony had yielded the seas to Octavian,

11:02 he would have been stuck in Greece with a dwindling

11:05 army and no further support from Egypt or the east.

11:09 It was not a serious plan.

11:11 If they fought at sea, there was at least a chance of victory,

11:15 and if not that, at least a chance to fight another day.

11:18 Maybe there is a hidden third option that they should have considered,

11:23 but I can’t think of it.

11:29 Let me just sidebar here for a second.

11:32 Antony had begun this campaign in an overwhelmingly strong position.

11:37 There had been basically no fighting over the summer.

11:40 Skirmishes, one minor battle at sea, but nothing serious.

11:44 Now, Antony was leaving Actium with his tail between his legs,

11:48 hoping that maybe the whole thing would come out as a draw.

11:53 This was all Agrippa’s doing.

11:55 He won the battle without firing a shot.

11:58 Not literally, but ‘ya know, metaphorically.

12:01 This was all positioning, and logistics,

12:04 and coordination between land and sea operations.

12:07 Things that Antony didn’t really pay attention to.

12:10 Things that most Roman generals didn’t really pay attention to.

12:14 But they’re the things that win wars.

12:16 Antony waited about a week for favourable winds.

12:22 During this time, he crewed up as many ships as he could,

12:24 and burned the ones that he could not use for battle.

12:29 We are told that during this week there

12:31 was some kind of covert attempt to kidnap Antony,

12:35 and that it was almost friggin’ successful!

12:38 Sadly, that’s all we know about this incident,

12:40 but if somebody wants to take that one sentence from Plutarch

12:45 and turn it into a dang movie, I would watch it!

12:54 On September 2nd of 31 B.C.E, Antony attempted to break Agrippa’s blockade.

13:00 It was a windless morning so he arrayed his ships

13:02 in a crescent formation near the shore, and waited.

13:05 He held many of the Egyptian ships, including Cleopatra’s flagship, in reserve.

13:10 By this time, Agrippa had captured so

13:13 many Egyptian ships that his fleet outnumbered Antony’s.

13:17 But many of these ships were big

13:19 bulky things that were designed as cargo transports, not ideal for battle.

13:23 Antony’s fleet, on the other hand,

13:26 mostly consisted of state of the art warships.

13:29 Agrippa had the quantity, Antony had the quality.

13:33 Accordingly, Agrippa’s strategy was to lure Antony out into the open

13:37 water so that he could overwhelm him with superior numbers.

13:42 Antony’s strategy was to lure Agrippa towards the mouth of the straight

13:46 so that his state of the art ships could dominate the space.

13:51 Antony commanded from his right flank,

13:53 because he knew that’s where most of the action would be.

13:57 Agrippa commanded opposite him.

13:59 Octavian watched from a distance.

14:03 Both sides loaded their ships with soldiers,

14:05 knowing full well that once the ships made contact with each other,

14:10 the whole thing would devolve into hand-to-hand combat.

14:13 Agrippa could fit 40,000 soldiers onto his big bulky transports,

14:17 while Antony could only fit 20,000 on his warships.

14:21 The remaining armies could do nothing but watch on helplessly from land.

14:27 Antony ordered his 50,000 remaining soldiers to escape east if possible,

14:31 no matter the result of the coming battle.

14:36 Each fleet wanted the other to attack first.

14:39 There was a standoff that dragged on all morning.

14:47 Antony was the one who actually needed this battle to happen,

14:50 and so it fell to him to initiate.

14:53 Around mid-day, Antony ordered the ships on his right forward.

14:58 Agrippa’s ships responded by rowing backward

15:00 to lure Antony’s ships into the open water.

15:04 Other ships saw this activity happening, and began to push forward.

15:08 Within minutes, there was activity all along the line,

15:12 and according to Plutarch,

15:13 it “took on the character of a land battle.” After 2 or 3 hours of fighting,

15:26 Antony’s overextended right began to run into trouble.

15:29 He diverted ships from the centre to reinforce.

15:32 Sensing Antony’s weakness, Agrippa did the same.

15:36 It was at this time when Cleopatra’s ships

15:39 that were standing in reserve sprang into action.

15:42 As one, all 70-80 ships belonging to Cleopatra raised sails,

15:46 and made a beeline for the weakened centre of the battle.

15:52 But they weren’t moving in to help.

15:54 They were making a run for it.

15:56 Most of the other ships had prepared

15:58 for battle by either taking their sails down,

16:01 or totally dismantling them and leaving them

16:03 on shore to make room for extra soldiers.

16:07 Once Cleopatra’s ships got moving and were

16:09 through the sporadic fighting in the centre, there was no stopping them.

16:15 Seeing what was happening,

16:17 Antony literally jumped ship and swam for a smaller, faster vessel.

16:22 He rallied about 40 ships of his own, and followed Cleopatra out of the battle.

16:31 Once they were in the clear, Antony transferred to Cleopatra’s flagship,

16:35 and we are told that he refused to speak to her for 3 days.

16:41 According to Plutarch,

16:42 he “went forward to the prow and sat down by himself in silence,

16:47 holding his head in his hands.” We are never told whether

16:58 this whole thing was a prearranged plan between Antony and Cleopatra,

17:03 or if Cleopatra’s flight had caught Antony by surprise.

17:08 The fact that the Egyptian fleet had been held in reserve the whole time

17:11 with their sails assembled and ready to go

17:14 suggests that this was a pre-arranged plan.

17:16 But at the same time, the fact that Antony had to swim to another ship

17:20 in order to make his escape suggests that it was not.

17:26 Why did Antony refuse to speak to Cleopatra for 3 days?

17:30 Was it from a sense of humiliation, or was it from a sense of betrayal?

17:35 I genuinely do not know, you’re free to make up your own mind.

17:46 But it wasn’t all bad.

17:47 Antony had gone into the Battle of Actium kinda hoping for a draw,

17:51 and in the immediate aftermath, that’s what it looked like.

17:55 Both sides had lost a bunch of ships,

17:57 but Antony had escaped with 1/3rd of his fleet and 100% of his treasure.

18:01 And by his treasure I mean Cleopatra’s treasure.

18:05 They had enough money to raise another army and continue the fight.

18:09 Plus, they still had those 50,000 soldiers back at Actium

18:12 who were in the process of escaping to the east.

18:15 From such a weak position going into Actium, this was basically a win.

18:21 Except…it wasn’t.

18:24 Back at Actium, when the rest of Antony’s

18:27 fleet figured out that Antony and Cleopatra were fleeing,

18:30 something like 130 ships surrendered to Agrippa on the spot.

18:35 On land, Antony’s army of 50,000 did not flee to the east as instructed.

18:40 They sent a message to Octavian.

18:42 They wanted a deal.

18:43 They told him that they would switch sides

18:45 if he would agree to give them a share of the spoils from the battle that they

18:49 had just technically been on the losing side of.

18:52 Octavian agreed.

18:53 And now, with the defection of the legions

18:56 and the capture of so many of his ships, Antony’s position was not so secure.

19:01 Agrippa and Octavian found themselves with unrivaled

19:05 naval superiority over the entire Mediterranean, and it wasn’t even close.

19:10 Antony still had 20,000 soldiers stationed in Libya,

19:13 but by the time he arrived there,

19:15 they had already heard about the fiasco at Actium,

19:18 and they refused to follow his orders.

19:21 If you’re counting, that’s 70,000 soldiers that Antony

19:25 had lost not in battle, but to defection.

19:29 Antony and Cleopatra returned to Egypt empty handed,

19:32 with fewer options than they had imagined.

19:35 The actual Battle of Actium may not have been decisive,

19:44 but the aftermath certainly was.

19:48 Octavian and Agrippa were in no rush to push Antony.

19:52 They had absolute naval superiority,

19:54 and that wasn’t going to change any time soon.

19:57 Octavian made contact with all of the eastern monarchs,

20:01 and reassured them that their positions were secure

20:04 and their relationship with Rome would not be changing.

20:08 With these words, Octavian dismantled the Donations of Alexandria

20:13 and Antony’s plan for a restructured Roman east.

20:16 Octavian also took this opportunity to discharge a lot of soldiers,

20:21 everybody over a certain age.

20:24 His financial obligations were immense.

20:27 He didn’t have the means to pay them right now,

20:29 but with all of the incoming defections,

20:31 he had no use for such a massive army anymore.

20:35 Agrippa accompanied the soon-to-be discharged veterans back to Italy.

20:40 Amid all of this turmoil, Armenia fell back into Parthia’s sphere of influence.

20:47 A decade of Antony’s work had been undone in an instant.

20:51 His Parthian campaign had been for nothing.

21:02 Agrippa wrote to Octavian from Italy.

21:05 Discharging the veterans was not going well.

21:08 Octavian still owed each of them farmland for their retirement,

21:12 and he had no farmland to give them.

21:14 There was a growing consensus that Octavian was just stringing them along.

21:19 There was now open talk of armed rebellion.

21:23 Octavian traveled to Rome to meet with the veterans.

21:27 He told them that Egypt would fall within a year,

21:31 and that after Egypt, he was done.

21:34 After Egypt, he would fulfill all of his promises.

21:38 There was a lot of grumbling,

21:40 but after some negotiations the veterans stood down.

21:43 It’s possible that Octavian offered to pay them a bonus or something.

21:51 Octavian spent the rest of the winter making preparations.

21:55 In the spring, he departed Italy and led an army into the Roman East.

22:00 The intervening time had made it clear that Antony’s

22:03 support was only growing weaker by the day.

22:06 The Egyptian campaign would not be difficult.