by Michael Fassbender

Created on: July 27, 2009   Last Updated: February 25, 2010

In 31 B.C., the fate of Rome depended upon the results of a naval clash. It was not a comfortable situation for the Romans; after all, the Roman military system was a fundamentally land-based one.  Indeed, some of Rome's most striking naval victories, those of the First Punic War, swung upon the Romans' discovery of a way to fight a battle at sea with tactics that made use of Roman infantry skill. As the era of the Civil Wars drew to a close, however, one of the combatants was Cleopatra of Egypt.  A Hellenistic ruler with great wealth, but weak manpower, she naturally sought to seize the advantage through an overwhelming naval force. When at last this fleet engaged with the more agile fleet built by Marcus Agrippa, the course of Roman history was decided in a single day.

The entire Mediterranean world was at stake. The death of Julius Caesar had caused a new eruption of civil wars, first one that pit Caesar's partisans, notably Octavian and Antony, against his murderers, followed by a struggle between the victorious Octavian and Antony over how to divide the spoils. For a time, the latter conflict had remained covert, and it seemed wise to adopt a power-sharing arrangement that left Octavian in control of the west, and Antony of the east. Antony's relationship with Cleopatra, at once personal and political, raised the specter of an Eastern Mediterranean united under the couple. Even so, it was not as easy as he would later pretend for Octavian to unify Roman opinion against his erstwhile ally.

When battle was joined, it was again in Greece, as had happened in earlier Civil Wars. Antony was gathering his forces at Actium, threatening a massive invasion of Italy.  Octavian and Marcus Agrippa were faster, however, and brought their own forces to the area before Antony was even capable of mustering an active defense. By bluff alone Antony staved off the threat of a direct attack on his still-undermanned ships, but in the time that he bought with his ruse, Marcus Agrippa was able to position his own fleet in such a way that threatened Antony's supplies and hemmed in his prospects for maneuver. At last, on September 2, Antony attempted to break through Agrippa's blockade.

Antony and Cleopatra had certain advantages. They had very large, powerful ships, including massive quinqueremes that could have splintered Agrippa's ships if they succeeded in a ramming attack. Agrippa, however, had built a fleet that seemed ideal in averting precisely that threat.

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