Editing Battle of Actium (section)

==Aftermath==
{{further|Death of Cleopatra}}
[[File:Cleopatra VII, marble, Vatican Museums, Pius-Clementine Museum, Room of the Greek Cross 2.jpg|thumb|A (restructured) [[Roman sculpture|Roman statue]] of [[Cleopatra]] wearing a [[diadem]] and [[Greco-Roman hairstyle|'melon' hairstyle]] similar to [[Ptolemaic coinage|coinage portraits]], marble, found near the [[:it:Tomba di Nerone|Tomba di Nerone]], Rome along the [[Via Cassia]], [[Museo Pio-Clementino]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Raia |first1=Ann R. |last2=Sebesta |first2=Judith Lynn |title=The World of State |publisher=College of New Rochelle |date=September 2017 |url=https://www2.cnr.edu/home/sas/araia/state.html |access-date=2 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306202531/https://www2.cnr.edu/home/sas/araia/state.html |archive-date=6 March 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lippold |first=Georg |title=Die Skulpturen des Vaticanischen Museums |language=de |volume=3 |year=1936 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter & Co |location=Berlin |url={{GBurl|7FNmEAAAQBAJ|p=169}} |doi=10.1515/9783110875737 |isbn=9783110875737 |pages=169–171}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Curtius |first=L. |title=Ikonographische Beitrage zum Portrar der romischen Republik und der Julisch-Claudischen Familie |language=de |journal=RM |volume=48 |year=1933 |pages=184 ff. Abb. 3 Taf. 25–27}}</ref>]]
The battle had extensive political consequences. Under cover of darkness some 19 legions and 12,000 [[cavalry]] fled before Antony was able to engage Octavian in a land battle. Thus, after Antony lost his fleet, his army, which had been equal to Octavian's, deserted. Though he had not laid down his [[imperium]], Antony was a fugitive and a rebel without that shadow of a legal position the presence of the consuls and senators had given him in the previous year. Some of the victorious fleet went in pursuit of him, but Octavian visited Greece and Asia and spent the winter at Samos, though he had to briefly visit Brundisium to settle a mutiny and arrange for assignations of land.{{sfn|Shuckburgh|1917|pp=780–784}}

At [[Samos]] Octavian received a message from Cleopatra with the present of a gold crown and throne, offering to abdicate in favor of her sons. She was allowed to believe that she would be well treated, for Octavian was anxious to secure her for his [[Roman triumph|triumph]]. Antony, who had found himself generally deserted, after vainly attempting to secure the army stationed near [[Mersa Matruh|Paraetonium]] under [[Lucius Pinarius|Pinarius]] and sending his eldest son [[Marcus Antonius Antyllus|Antyllus]] with money to Octavian and an offer to live at Athens as a private citizen, found himself in the spring attacked on two sides. Cornelius Gallus was advancing from Paraetonium and Octavian landed at Pelusium, with the connivance, it was believed, of Cleopatra. Antony was defeated by Gallus and, returning to Egypt, advanced on Pelusium.

[[File:Actium Cameo.jpg|thumb|The Augustan-era Actium Cameo, depicting Octavian in a [[quadriga]] drawn by four "[[Triton (mythology)#Tritons|mermen]]," with the two on each side carrying symbols of the naval victory]]
Despite a [[Battle of Alexandria (30 BC)|minor victory at Alexandria]] on 31 July 30 BC, more of Antony's men deserted, leaving him with insufficient forces to fight Octavian. A slight success over Octavian's tired soldiers encouraged him to make a general attack, in which he was decisively beaten. Failing to escape by ship, he stabbed himself in the stomach upon mistakenly believing false rumours propagated by Cleopatra claiming that she had committed suicide.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Antony'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html#76 76].</ref> He did not die at once, and when he found out that Cleopatra was still alive, he insisted on being taken to the mausoleum where she was hiding and died in her arms. She was soon brought to the palace and vainly attempted to move Octavian to pity.{{sfn|Shuckburgh|1917|pp=780–784}}

Cleopatra killed herself on 12 August 30 BC. Most accounts say she put an end to her life by the bite of an [[asp (reptile)|asp]] conveyed to her in a basket of figs.{{sfn|Shuckburgh|1917|pp=780–784}} Octavian had [[Caesarion]] killed later that month, finally securing his legacy as Caesar's only 'son', while sparing Cleopatra's children by Antony, with the exception of Antony's [[Marcus Antonius Antyllus|older son]].<ref>Green (1990), 697.</ref><ref>Scullard (1982), 171.</ref> Octavian admired the bravery of Cleopatra and gave her and Antony a public military funeral in Rome. The funeral was grand and a few of Antony's legions marched alongside the tomb. A day of mourning throughout Rome was enacted. This was partly due to Octavian's respect for Antony and partly because it further helped show the Roman people how benevolent Octavian was. Octavian had previously shown little mercy to surrendered enemies and acted in ways that had proven unpopular with the Roman people, yet he was given credit for pardoning many of his opponents after the Battle of Actium.<ref name="eck 49">Eck (2003), 49.</ref> Further, after the battle, upon Octavian's return to Rome he celebrated his triple triumph spread over three days: the first for his [[Roman–Dalmatae Wars|victory over Illyria]], the second for the Battle of Actium, and the third for his conquest of Egypt.

Octavian's victory at Actium gave him sole, uncontested control of "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea", i.e., the Roman Mediterranean) and he became "Augustus Caesar" and the "first citizen" of Rome. The victory, consolidating his power over every Roman institution, marked Rome's transition from republic to empire. Egypt's surrender after Cleopatra's death marked the demise of both the [[Hellenistic Period]] and the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]],<ref>[http://www.vizin.org/projects/actium/html/actiumsol.htm Actium – the solution] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306120845/http://www.vizin.org/projects/actium/html/actiumsol.htm |date=March 6, 2007 }}</ref> turning it into a [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman province]].

[[File:Octavian's campsite memorial at Actium 02.jpg|thumb|alt=Terrace wall of Octavian's campsite memorial, with cuttings for ship's rams|Terrace wall of [[Campsite Memorial of Augustus|Octavian's Campsite Memorial]], with cuttings for ship's rams]]To commemorate his victory, Octavian founded the nearby city of [[Nicopolis]] ("City of Victory") in 29&nbsp;BC on the southernmost promontory of [[Epirus]], opposite Actium at the mouth of the [[Ambracian Gulf]].<ref>''[[Chronicon (Jerome)|Chronicon]]'' of [[Jerome]], [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_chronicle_03_part2.htm 2005 online edition] (tertullian.org)</ref> He also built a series of memorials around the battlefield and campsites. On a hill just north of the newly founded [[Nicopolis]], at the site where he had made his camp during the war, he constructed the [[Campsite Memorial of Augustus|Campsite Memorial]], a [[tropaion]] dedicated to [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]], [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], and [[Apollo]], renown for the display of the bronze ''[[wiktionary:rostrum#Latin|rostra]]'' ([[Naval ram|rams]]) taken from the captured warships.<ref>[[Cassius Dio|Dio Cassius]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/51*.html#1 51.1]; [[Suetonius]], ''Augustus'' 18.2; Murray and Petsas (1989).</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zachos |first=Konstantinos L. |date=2003 |title=The <i>tropaeum</i> of the sea-battle of Actium at Nikopolis: interim report |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/s1047759400013003 |journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology |volume=16 |pages=64–92 |doi=10.1017/s1047759400013003 |issn=1047-7594}}</ref> At the cape of Actium, Octavian built the [[Actian dekanaia|Actian ''dekanaia,'']] another [[tropaion]] composed of the dedication a whole set of ten warships captured from his enemy's fleet. The [[Actian dekanaia|Actian ''dekanaia'']] was symbolically located adjacent to the naval battlefield and probably within the area of [[Mark Antony]]'s camp.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reitz-Josse |first=B |title=Valuing Landscape in Classical Antiquity |date= |publisher=Brill |year=2016 |isbn= |editor-last=McInerney |editor-first=J |location=Leiden and Boston |pages=279 |chapter=Land at Peace and Sea at War. Landscape and the Memory of Actium in Greek Epigrams and Propertius' Elegies |editor-last2=Sluiter |editor-first2=I}}</ref> Meanwhile, it was situated down the hill where the [[Temple of Apollo Aktios]] stood. Apollo Aktios was a deity which Octavian repetitively invoked in his post-war commemoration, and the temple was renovated and enlarged following his victory.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Suetonius, Divus Augustus, Chapter 18, Section 2 |url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi1348.abo012.perseus-lat1:18.2 |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae, Book 51, chapter 1, section 2 |url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0385.tlg001.perseus-grc1:51.1.2 |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Lorenzo |first=K |title=Signs of Place: A Visual Interpretation of Landscape |date= |publisher=Edition Topoi |year=2019 |isbn= |editor-last=Döhl |editor-first=R |location=Berlin |pages=134 |chapter=Post-Actium place making: Octavian and the Ambracian Gulf |editor-last2=Rensburg |editor-first2=J. J.}}</ref>