Quick questions on Second Triumvirate and the Battle of Actium: HSC Ancient History

Within days of taking office, the triumvirs published proscription lists naming political and personal enemies as outlaws, subject to execution and confiscation of property, consciously echoing Sulla's proscriptions of 82 BC. In the ancient tradition (chiefly Appian, Civil Wars 4.5), around 300 senators and 2,000 equites were proscribed - figures modern historians treat with caution, since ancient sources routinely inflate victim counts for rhetorical effect and no contemporary tally survives.

Antony based himself in the East, first in Athens with Octavia and then increasingly in Alexandria with Cleopatra VII, whom he had first met in 41 BC.

In a public ceremony at the Gymnasium of Alexandria, Antony conferred royal titles on Cleopatra and her children.

<!-- Diagram: 43-30 BC timeline of the Second Triumvirate to Actium, with fracture points (Perusine War, Brundisium, Misenum, Naulochus/Lepidus, the propaganda war) highlighted against the cooperative phases | reviewed 2026-07-01 --> <svg class="fig" viewBox="0 0 400 620" role="img" aria-labelledby="trmv-t trmv-d"> <title id="trmv-t">The Second Triumvirate to Actium, 43-30 BC</title> <desc id="trmv-d">A vertical timeline from the lex Titia (43 BC) to the annexation of Egypt (30 BC), marking cooperative phases in teal and fracture points in amber/rose along a central spine.</desc> <defs> <filter id="trmv-sh" x="-30%" y="-30%" width="160%" height="160%"> <feDropShadow dx="0" dy="2" stdDeviation="2.2" flood-color="#0f172a" flood-opacity="0.32"/> </filter> <linearGradient id="trmv-spine" x1="0" y1="0" x2="0" y2="1"> <stop offset="0" stop-color="#0f766e"/> <stop offset="1" stop-color="#7c2d12"/> </linearGradient> <radialGradient id="trmv-coop" cx="0.35" cy="0.35" r="0.75"> <stop offset="0" stop-color="#5eead4"/> <stop offset="1" stop-color="#0f766e"/> </radialGradient> <radialGradient id="trmv-fracture" cx="0.35" cy="0.35" r="0.75"> <stop offset="0" stop-color="#fda4af"/> <stop offset="1" stop-color="#9f1239"/> </radialGradient> </defs>

Antony's wife Fulvia and his brother Lucius Antonius resisted Octavian's programme of settling discharged veterans on confiscated Italian land, raising an army and holding the town of Perusia (modern Perugia). Octavian besieged and starved the town into surrender in early 40 BC; Fulvia fled to Greece and died soon after, and Lucius was pardoned. The episode brought Octavian and Antony to the brink of open war.

With Fulvia dead, Octavian and Antony met at Brundisium and restored the alliance, confirming the division of the empire (Octavian the West, Antony the East, Lepidus Africa) and sealing it with Antony's marriage to Octavia, Octavian's sister. Octavia bore Antony two daughters.

Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey the Great, controlled Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica with a powerful fleet and was strangling Italy's grain supply. At Misenum the triumvirs recognised his hold on those provinces in exchange for lifting the blockade - a temporary, uneasy truce.

War with Sextus resumed; Agrippa, commanding Octavian's rebuilt fleet, decisively defeated Sextus off Naulochus (Sicily) in September 36 BC. Sextus fled east and was later killed.

In the aftermath of Naulochus, Lepidus attempted to claim Sicily for himself and assert equal standing, but his legions deserted to Octavian. Octavian stripped him of triumviral power, sparing his life but confining him to the ceremonial office of Pontifex Maximus for the rest of his life. The Triumvirate was now, in practice, a duumvirate of Octavian and Antony.

Antony was the servant of an Eastern queen, betraying Roman virtue. Antony had abandoned the lawful wife Octavia for the foreign sorceress Cleopatra. The Donations were the giveaway of Roman territory.

Octavian was a usurper, an enemy of his fellow triumvir, and the violator of triumviral agreements. Octavian's adoption was suspect; his power rested on military force alone.

Octavian claimed to have seized Antony's will from the Vestal Virgins and published its contents. The will allegedly confirmed Antony's identification with Cleopatra: he asked to be buried in Alexandria. The publication, though probably partly fabricated, completed Antony's political destruction in Rome.

Octavian's fleet under Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa consisted of around 250 lighter Liburnian ships. Antony commanded around 230 heavier quinqueremes. Cleopatra's Egyptian squadron of around 60 ships, including the treasure transports, was behind Antony's line.

Agrippa had blockaded Antony's fleet and army on land for months. Antony's troops were suffering from disease and desertion. Antony's strategy was either to defeat Octavian in a decisive battle or to break out to Egypt with the fleet.

On 2 September 31 BC, Antony's fleet sailed out to engage. After several hours of indecisive fighting, Cleopatra's Egyptian squadron raised sail and broke through the centre carrying the treasure. Antony followed in a smaller vessel.