torius in one of the most noted battles in Roman history.
Historian George Bruce writes:
[The battle was] between the Republicans under
Brutus and Cassius, 100,000 strong, and the army
of the Triumvirs, about equal in numbers, under
Octavius and Mark Antony. Brutus on the right
repulsed the legions of Octavius and penetrated
into his camp. Cassius however was overthrown
by Antony and would have been overwhelmed
but for the arrival of aid from the successful right
wing. The action was renewed on the second day,
when the Triumvirs were completely victorious
and the Republican army dispersed. Brutus com-
mitted suicide on the field of battle. These two
battles decided that Rome would be ruled by an
autocracy.After Philippi, Octavian and Mark Antony, in what
has come to be known as the Treaty of Brundisium (40
b.c.), reached agreement to split up the Roman Empire
under their exclusive control; Lepidus was given a prov-
ince in Africa. Antony married Octavian’s sister Octavia,
but he later formed an alliance with Queen Cleopatra
in Egypt, which would become a scandalous love affair.
Octavian, meanwhile, began a series of military expedi-
tions on the coast of Dalmatia on the Adriatic Sea, but
returned home to quell the threat of civil war hanging
over Rome. He took on one rival for power, Sextus Pom-
peius, a son of the famed Roman general PomPey, and
defeated him in 36 b.c. with the assistance of Marcus
agriPPa in a massive naval battle at Mylae.
An extension of the Treaty of Brundisium, agreed
at Tarentum in 36 b.c., was finished by 32 b.c., when
Octavian received information that Antony was hav-
ing an adulterous affair with Cleopatra. After Antony
divorced his wife, Octavian received a copy of Antony’s
will and read the document in public; a codicil gave
large amounts of money to Antony’s illegitimate chil-
dren with Cleopatra. Using this, Octavian persuaded
the Roman Senate to declare war against Antony. The
opposing forces met at Actium, off the western coast of
Greece, on 2 September 31 b.c. While Antony’s land
troops were far superior in numbers to Octavian’s, Mar-
cus Agrippa’s naval force cut off his supplies, despite the
Romans having only 400 ships to Antony’s 500. Antony
and Cleopatra attempted to return to Egypt by sea, but
they were defeated in battle and escaped with only a por-
tion of their force. Octavian chased them to Egypt and
cornered them in Alexandria, where both Antony and
Cleopatra committed suicide. To avoid any challenge to
his leadership, Octavian had Caesarion, Julius Caesar’s
illegitimate child with Cleopatra, put to death.
Octavian was now the unchallenged leader of the
world. He was given the titles of imperator (commander)
and princeps, or “first citizen of Rome.” He asked that
the Senate control Rome, in his program known as the
First Settlement of 27 b.c. Theoretically, Octavian ceded
all power and allowed Rome to remain a Republic; in ex-
change, the Senate gave him the name Augustus, meaning
“revered one” or “sacred one.” He also retained the role
of commander of the Roman armies. From this point
on, Augustus ruled as the first Roman emperor.
Following these changes, Augustus launched a se-
ries of wars across Europe, fighting in Spain and Gaul,
although after Actium he only commanded the army
himself in the so-called Cantabrian war in Spain (26–25
b.c.). With the death of Lepidus in 12 b.c., his title of
pontifex maximus was granted to Augustus; in 2 b.c., the
Roman Senate granted Augustus the title of pater patriæ,
or “father of the country.”
In a.d. 14, after a lengthy reign, Augustus decided
to withdraw from public life and go to Beneventum to
retire. However, on the way, he fell ill in Capri, and after
returning to the Italian mainland, he died in the village
of Nola on 19 August a.d. 14, one month shy of his
77th birthday. His body was returned to Rome, where
he was cremated and given his own mausoleum.
Two thousand years later, Caesar Augustus is sec-
ond only to his great-uncle Julius Caesar in the popular
memory of Roman leaders. While Julius Caesar’s states-
manship and military skill established him as dictator of
Rome, Augustus went on to even greater things. The first
of the Roman emperors, he extended Rome’s authority
around the Mediterranean, put an end to the civil war,
and laid the foundations of an empire that was to last
until Constantinople fell in 1453.References: Buchan, John, Augustus (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1937); Green, Peter, Alexander to Actium; The
Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age (Berkeley: The
University of California Press, 1990); Bruce, George,
“Philippi,” in Collins Dictionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scot-
land: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), 194; Baker,
George Philip, Augustus: The Golden Age of Rome (New
York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1937); Del Mar, Al-AuguStuS