Myth of Actium

Myth of Actium

1. 2nd triumvirate

   • Octavian
   • Lepidus
     • Target Lepidus
       • propaganda claimed against him
         • Anti- republican
           • Stripped of power
             • except Pontifex Maximus
               • lost in 12 BC
   • Marc Antony
     • Married Octavia
       • 40 BC
       • Political marriage to consolidate an agreement between Antony and Octavian
         • stop civil war
   • Initiation of proscriptions to rise money to finance troops
     • November 43 BC: eliminate political enemies and to replenish the Treasury.
       • Some of the proscribed enemies of the state were stripped of their property but protected from death by their relatives in the Triumvirate (e.g., Lucius Julius Caesar and Lepidus' brother).
   • defeate of Brutus and Cassius at philippi
     • 42 BC
     • The Battle of Philippi: Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus
       • The Second Triumvirate declared this civil war to avenge Julius Caesar's murder.
       • he battle of two engagements in Philippi. The first occurred on the first week of October; Brutus faced Octavian, while Antony's forces were up against those of Cassius. At first, Brutus pushed back Octavian and entered his legions' camp. But to the south, Cassius was defeated by Antony, and committed suicide after hearing a false report that Brutus had also failed. Brutus rallied Cassius' remaining troops and both sides ordered their army to retreat to their camps with their spoils, and the battle was essentially a draw, but for Cassius' suicide.
       • A second encounter, on 23 October, finished off Brutus's forces, and he committed suicide in turn, leaving the triumvirate in control of the Roman Republic.

2. 2 September 31 BC

3. Decline of Marc Antony

   • Abandon octavia for Cleopatra
     • divorce
       • betray Roman heritage
   • Marc Antony made public enemy
     • Forced
       • senate threatened by Army

4. build up

   • M.A
     • assembling armarda in ambracian
       • close to Rome
   • Octavian
     • propaganda
       • reminds people of M.A. previous behaviour
         • Wearing silk dresses
         • Drunk in the forum at night and being sick over the Rostra
         • driving fast in chariots
         • Worship him as a god
           • Dionysis
       • Marc Antony's will
         • in temple of Vesta
         • sacrilegiously broken into to recieve M.A. Will
           • Leave all position to Cleopatra
             • and children
           • move capital city to Alexandria
         • Makes octavian seem Roman
           • intergity and divinty of Octavian
           • moral purity
           • Romes dear of Alien
     • Launch of a armarda to italy

5. The Battle

   • Octavian
     • Seized Northen promontory
       • later would build a memorial
         • Neptune and Mars
         • built in Nicropolis
           • city of Victory
     • stormy winds delayed engagment for 4 days
       • 2nd september 31 BC perfect day for battle
   • Battle lost before it began
     • M.A. over come with indecisiveness
       • Cleopatra Fleed
         • Antony sat for three days
           • left his 19 legions on stand by
             • M.A. Generals began to flee
               • Domitius Ahenobarbus
   • 30 Bc
     • Cleopatra and M.A. commited suicied as octavian closed in on egypt

6. The sources

   • Cards