Octavian won the Battle of Actium and ended the Roman Republic
On this day · 2 September 31 BC
On a September afternoon off the Greek coast, a sea fight decided who would rule Rome for the next four centuries.
On 2 September 31 BC, two fleets met in the Ionian Sea off Actium, on the western coast of Greece. On one side stood Octavian, with his fleet entrusted to the able admiral Marcus Agrippa; on the other, Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII. Octavian’s smaller, nimbler ships and experienced crews outmaneuvered Antony’s heavier vessels.
When the line broke, Cleopatra’s squadron, carrying the war treasury, slipped through the gap and turned south for Egypt. Antony followed. The fleet they abandoned soon surrendered, and Antony’s land army gave up about a week later.
One afternoon’s fighting settled who would command the Roman world.
The couple fled to Egypt, where both died the following year. Victory left Octavian unrivalled; in 27 BC the Senate granted him the name Augustus, and the Republic gave way to imperial rule that endured for centuries.
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