The Decisive Battles of World History

course for Egypt. Antony, seeing Cleopatra escaping, transferred

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but were overwhelmed. Estimates are that around 150 of Antony’s

ships were taken or destroyed, added to the approximately 150

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of his army.

Outcomes
x Antony may have believed he could recover and rebuild his forces
after the Battle of Actium, but his reputation was irretrievably
damaged. Although he caught up with Cleopatra and both reached
Egypt safely, in terms of opposing Octavian after Actium, they were
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x Octavian was now the sole ruler of the Roman world. Drawing on

his skill at manipulating images, he cloaked his power in innocuous-

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themselves, lulling Romans into a false belief that the republic lived

on. In reality, it was dead, and Octavian, under the new name of

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x Augustus’s settlement of the Roman state and his establishment of

the position of emperor would form the system of government for

the next 500 years. He and the empire would continue to exert a

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from Charlemagne to Napoleon to Mussolini.