Battle of Actium ends the Hellenistic age
- Date
- 2 September 31 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Greece (Ionian Sea, off Actium)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
On 2 September 31 BCE, the fleet of Octavian, commanded by Agrippa, defeated the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt in a naval battle off Actium on the western coast of Greece. When Cleopatra's squadron broke away toward Egypt and Antony followed, their cause collapsed.
Octavian invaded Egypt the next year; Antony and Cleopatra took their own lives in 30 BCE, and Octavian annexed Egypt as a Roman province. Cleopatra's death ended the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries, the last of the great kingdoms founded by Alexander's successors. Actium therefore conventionally marks the close of the Hellenistic age and the absorption of the Greek-ruled East into Rome. The victory also made Octavian undisputed master of the Roman world, paving the way for him to become the emperor Augustus.
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Empires active in 2 September 31 BCE
- Han Dynasty202 BCE to 220 CE
- Roman Republic509 BCE to 27 BCE
- Parthian Empire247 BCE to 224 CE
- Xiongnu Confederation209 BCE to 93 CE
- Kan Kingdom (El Mirador)300 BCE to 150 CE
- Indo-Greek Kingdom180 BCE to 10 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Caesar's Gallic Wars and the Siege of Alesia58 to 50 BCE (Alesia 52 BCE)
- Battle of the Teutoburg Forest halts Roman expansion in GermaniaSeptember 9 CE
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Destruction of Carthage and Corinth; Roman Mediterranean hegemony146 BCE
- Yuezhi defeat by the Xiongnu and westward migrationc. 176 BCE
Further reading
If you read one book
The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium
Narrative of the sea battle that founded the Roman Empire.
Get it on Amazon →Also worth reading
- Antony and Cleopatra by Amazon →
Antony and Cleopatra
Vivid dual biography of the losers at Actium, with a clear account of the battle itself.
Get it on Amazon →
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