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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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video
in 44 BC a group of aristocrats led by
Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius Sasson
ated 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 gaseous the
triumvirate took over Rome and divided
its provinces amongst themselves at
Brindisi amman 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 control 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 Naas pompey sexist 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 my cinema 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
sexta 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 sexist 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 the negotiations with Antony
to secure more ships the latter was
planning the invasion of Parthia and
hope 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 analogous 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 the grippers army
approached the forces of Lepidus
defected and his territory was absorbed
into the holdings of Octavian the air of
Caesar now had an unprecedented
forty-five legions under his command yet
all these soldiers demanded pay in 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 path and 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 heir to the throne
Freight he's killed his father and
brothers to become the King Antony
started his campaign against Parthia and
36 BC by sending his general Kennedy us
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
Anthony marched forward he left behind
his supply train it was not long before
was attacked and the two legions
carrying it for crushed supplies and
artillery and abundance were lost to
make matters worse the Romans were
abandoned by the Armenian king r2
vesties yet Antony still moved ahead
the partha not willing to fight a
general battle and used their horse
archers in 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 and
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 a thesis 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 engineer each
tempera sin the spring of 32 BC and
distributed his troops and ships along
the coastline as Garrison's with the
majority of the battle vessels in the
Gulf of embrasure 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 Metheny at the
southernmost part of Antony's defensive
line
Agrippa continued to attack transports
and detached Garrison's in the Ionian
Sea and that allowed a large group of
Octavian's troops to land and pen
immerse his navy then positioned itself
at the entry of embrasure 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 Lucas
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 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 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 squadron went to the open sea
under all sails soon after that Antony
moved to a faster ship and also
abandoned
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 and 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 sand Phoenix's
channel and we'll catch you on the next
one
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you
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