Lee Fratantuono - The Battle of Actium 31 BC: War for the World

The Battle of Actium

31 BC

The Battle of Actium

31 BC

War for the World

Lee Fratantuono

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

Pen & Sword Military

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

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Barnsley

South Yorkshire

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Copyright Lee Fratantuono, 2016

ISBN 978 1 47384 714 9

eISBN 978 1 47384 715 6

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47384 716 3

The right of Lee Fratantuono to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Illustration: Northwestern Greece

Illustration: The Battle of Actium, disposition of forces

The present volume is a study of one of the most famous battles in history; the naval engagement of Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium. Its aim is to explicate what might well have happened in the waters off northwestern Greece, where the future course of the Roman Republic was charted, and where the lives of three of the most celebrated figures of ancient history converged in one fateful struggle for dominance over the waters of the Mediterranean.

John M. Carters 1970 monograph, The Battle of Actium has a somewhat misleading title, despite its cover illustration of a warship; the subtitle, The Rise and Triumph of Augustus Caesar gives away the books omnibus concern with the entirety of the struggle by which the man history knows best as Augustus came to power in Rome (or restored the Republic, or served as its first citizen, or conquered disorder, etc., etc.). Carters book is a wonderful introduction to a difficult period in Roman history, and the product of careful investigation of the surviving primary historical sources on Actium in particular the full-scale accounts in Plutarchs Life of Antony and Dio Cassius Roman History. As a general primer on a subject of vast and enduring interest, Carters book has worn its years well, and it remains an important guide to the events of the transition from Roman Republic to Empire.

My interest in Actium has romance as its genesis: the twin lures of poetry and cinema, of the poets of Augustan Rome and the cinematic depiction of the battle in Mankiewiczs 1963 Cleopatra, a film that despite its numerous problems of both film quality and historical accuracy, was a contributing factor to my early interest in antiquity. Before long, I was reading numerous studies of Actium out of sheer interest in knowing as much as possible about what happened at the battle, and learning that frustration was a common experience for those who would study the events of 2 September, 31 B.C.E. It seemed unbelievable that so major an event in military history should be so poorly understood, and that so many questions should linger about the events of that September day. Questions such as whether or not Antony and/ or Cleopatra always planned an attempt at escape from entrapment, and just how great a role in the battle was played by Egypts most famous queen seemed surprisingly vexed, especially given the ever expanding bibliography, much of which was derivative of a few of the seminal debates from the early to mid-twentieth century, especially those of Kromayer and Tarn, the main scholarly opponents of the twentieth century on the problem of what happened at the battle.

My study of Actium took a new turn quite unexpectedly, when I commenced a dissertation on Virgils Aeneid. My topic was Book 11, one of the more understudied and unappreciated sections of the epic. In the process of explicating the mysteries of the cavalry battle that is extensively narrated in that book of epic verse, I realized that were significant parallels between Virgils poetic exercise in the description of an equestrian engagement and our surviving evidence for what happened at Actium. More generally, I realized that a close study of the allusions and references to Actium in the poets, Virgil and Horace in particular, were a potential source for serious inquiry into the military situation at Actium. It seemed that the poets of Augustan Rome, notoriously condemned by some as mere propagandists of the victorious regime, deserved to be taken seriously as witnesses and sources of evidence alongside the traditional accounts preserved in the ancient historians. Further investigation into the appearance of Actium in these contemporary works, the earliest literary references to the battle that we possess, seemed to justify the investment of interest and attention. In short, I did not initially approach Virgil with an expectation to find much about Actium other than the celebrated appearance of the battle on Aeneas shield, and the mention of the site of the battle in the course of Aeneas wanderings westward from Troy to Italy. What I discovered about the Virgilian treatment of Actium lore was thus both surprising and unsurprising; Actium emerged as a key event in the unfolding of the depiction of the Virgilian vision of the nature of Augustan Rome.

It is a pleasure then, to turn to Actium as a subject of separate study and investigative research. It is my hope that this book will be of interest to a wide range of possible readers, including both those primarily interested in Roman military and naval history, and those with a particular love for Virgil and his contemporary poets of Augustan Rome. The notes try to blend elements of respect for diverse audiences; those with both more and less knowledge of Roman history, and Latin language and literature, are begged for the indulgence that a book of intentionally diverse aims may require. For ultimately, the desired audience of this work is anyone with a love for the wonder of the study of ancient military history, a field of justly popular interest and enduring appeal. Devotees of Cleopatra may be pleased to find a reading of Egypts queen that concludes that for all her many faults, her military performance at Actium may have been impressive; certainly the Augustan poets were capable of respectful admiration, even as they were willing to criticize the behaviour of both queen and lover.

The plan of the book is to provide commentary and analysis on surviving records and references to the war in ancient literary and historical sources; first the Greek and then the Latin. In the latter case, prose evidence is followed by poetic. Consideration of the evidence is followed by a reconstruction of the battle and some treatment of the question of how certain possible myths and fantasies may have developed in the aftermath of the engagement. A brief afterword considers certain aspects of Roman naval technology and practice, with particular attention to the innovations in strategy and hardware that were implemented by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.