(Pen & Sword, 2016) 194 pp. £19.99
The Battle of Actium was one of the more decisive battles of ancient history. Before the battle, Rome had been in a state of internal strife that had
(Pen & Sword, 2016) 194 pp. £19.99
The Battle of Actium was one of the more decisive battles of ancient history. Before the battle, Rome had been in a state of internal strife that had lasted for about a century from the rising discontent that led to the election of the Gracchi and then led to their deaths, to the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, as well as the Catalline conspiracy and the wars of the first and second triumvirates. This book only gives a very short discussion of that context. Afterward, though, Rome had control of the Mediterranean Sea for centuries and had extinguished the various Hellenistic states that had sprung up all over the Eastern Mediterranean in the aftermath of the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great. As a truly decisive battle, there was no opportunity for the combatants to learn from the course of the battle, on the one side because within a year resistance had been wiped out by the victorious Romans under Octavian and there was little fight left in Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, and on the other side because there was no one left to fight a naval battle on the Mare Nostrum for a long time to come. Yet despite the decisiveness of the battle, there is much about this battle that remains unknown.
This particular book seeks to provide the relevant source material to help explain what happened at the Battle of Actium. Its intent is not to provide the broader context of the wars of the late Roman Republic except insofar as to give some idea of what was going on for those readers who do not have a large degree of background knowledge about the history of the late Roman Republic. The book begins with a discussion of the Greek-language historical sources that deal with the Battle of Actium, with chapters about Plutarch, Appian, Dio Cassius, Strabo, and Josephus. The second part of the book examines Roman prose historical sources, including the Velleius Paterculus, some lost Roman sources, Octavian’s own memoirs, the accounts of Florus and Eutropius, and some evidence from a late source in Orosius. The third part of the book provides some accounts of Actium in verse, including a chapter on the description of the battle in the shield of Aenas, some possible references in Horace’s Epodes, Cleopatra’s Ode from Horace, an elegy of Propertius, a possible allegory in the penultimate book of Virgil’s Aeneid as a cavalry battle, and the lost epic poem Carmen de Bello: Aegyptiaco/Actiaco. The fourth part of the book consists of the author analyzing the evidence to discuss the disposition of forces in the battle, what really happen