Actium: Cleopatra's flight was probably a planned breakout

The Battle of Actium was fought on 2 September 31 BC off western Greece, and Octavian’s victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII left him sole master of the Roman world. The best-known detail of the battle is Cleopatra’s squadron suddenly hoisting sail and fleeing, with Antony abandoning his fleet to follow her. That detail is also the most misunderstood.

Did Cleopatra panic and run?

Probably not. Plutarch, writing over a century later, tells it as a love story: sixty Egyptian ships bolt through the battle line and Antony, “dragged along by the woman”, chases after them. Yet Plutarch himself records that before the battle Antony forced his captains to load their sails. Warships normally left sails ashore before a fight. Antony’s war chest had also been placed on Cleopatra’s fastest ships. Modern historians read these preparations as a plan: fight if possible, but break out to Egypt if not. Antony’s men were trapped in the Gulf of Ambracia and short of food, so escape may have been the realistic aim. By that measure the breakout worked. The battle was lost anyway.

How big were the fleets?

The figures vary widely:

• Plutarch: Antony had “no fewer than 500” warships against Octavian’s 250, though he burned all but sixty of the Egyptian ships before the battle.
• Modern estimate (Livius): Antony sailed with about 230 vessels, while Agrippa alone brought 300 war galleys.

Plutarch’s larger figure of 800 ships describes Antony’s fleet assembling at Ephesus a year earlier, merchant ships included, not the fleets at Actium.

The fleet Antony left behind was beaten and burned, and, according to Plutarch, his land army held together for seven days before going over to Octavian. Within a year both Antony and Cleopatra were dead in Alexandria. Octavian founded a new city, Nicopolis (“victory city”), on the site of his camp, and in 27 BC he became Augustus.