War Drums Part Seven

The next step would be for Octavian to move his legions from Brundisium to a place near the Via Egnatia in the north. At that point his forces would need to march south immediately moving as fast as they possibly could to corner Antony and keep him from moving his army out of the confined area of Actium into central Greece, where he would have elbow-room to make trouble and maybe even outmaneuver Octavian.

This was an enormously daring plan to say the least. A single stroke of bad luck-a Meditteranean storm could have laid waste to the whole thing. The plan involved moving a fleet across open seas (we would assume if it wasn't to be detected the ships could not have hugged the coastline) and risking the calamity of a Meditteranean squall. However, the mission was crowned with complete success. History has not left us details of the exact sequence of events, but we do know that Methone fell and Octavian, immediately, without any harrassment from the weather or the enemy forces, transferred the main part of his army across the Adriatic Sea, landing somewhere between the Via Egnatia and Corcyra-maybe at Panormus (modern Palermo in Albania).

The first news of Octavian and Agrippa's daring move to reach the headquarters of Antony and Cleopatra was that the enemy had taken over a small town some miles north of Actium called Toryne, the Greek word for ladle. It was a sign of the general anxiety at their headquarters at Patrae that Cleopatra made a terrible joke to try to obscure the nervousness the news provoked: "What is so terrible about Caesar Octavian having got hold of a ladle?" Once Octavian arrived at Actium he found an excellent spot, a hill that is now known as Mikhalitzi today. It was about five miles north of the channel into the Ambracian Gulf, and at 400 feet in height, it had great views all around of the surrounding areas. Right next to it in the south, there was an area that was flat enough to stage a battle, should that become necessary.

Shortly after his arrival, Octavian put his fleet in open water and offered battle, but the other side, short of men and not performing well, smartly declined to come out of safe harbor. Antony was having trouble recruiting oarsmen and keeping them. According to Plutarch, Antony was so short of men that the captain of his warships were "press-ganging travellers, muledrivers, reapers, and boys not yet of military age from the exhausted provinces of Greece."

Antony and Cleopatra came from Patrae in a few days. He moved his army from Actium to the northern peninsula. This may have been at the last part of April. He built a new camp that faced Octavian's. Antony was now ready and restless for battle. However, now Octavian was no longer so eager to fight. There was a very strong reason for this: the amazing and tireless Agrippa had captured the island of Leucas. This gave Octavian's men a safe harbor right on Antony's doorstep, and would make it terribly difficult for supply ships from Egypt to make it to Actium. This was an awful move for Antony's and Cleopatra's camp. Supplies started to run very low and Antony had to break the stranglehold.

There wasn't anything to be gained by waiting to do this, Octavian would simply become stronger because he had secure logistical support coming from Italy. Antony tried to prevent Octavian's camp from access to water by taking control of the springs in the plain beneath Mikahlitzi. He also sent another force of cavalry on a long journey around the Ambracian Gulf to establish itself above Octavian's camp and with that cut off their access to the Louros. However, once again, Lady Luck favored Octavian. His general Titus Statilius Taurus, launched a sudden counterattack and drove off Antony's men. At this juncture one of the eastern client kings deserted Antony's cause.

With the passage of time the health of Antony's men began to disintegrate. There were hardly any tides produced by the Meditteranean to wash away the garbage generated by a large army and naval fleet occupying such a crowded space. During the hot months of summer a plague of either dysentery or malaria wreaked havoc on Antony's camp. Men died and morale fell severely.

Most likely in early August, Antony led a vigorous attempt to break out by land. At the same time, Sosius commanded his fleet to sail under cover of a thick fog or mist and demolished the small enemy squadron that was blockading the exit from the straits of Actium. Most likely, the plan was for Sosius to join forces with Antony at some convenient point on the coast. Again, however, Lady Luck was on the side of Octavian and his forces. Agrippa, by pure chance, arrived in the area with the rest of his fleet and made Sosius flee back into harbor. Antony then tried another cavalry engagement-maybe by trying to cut off Octavian's water supply again-but was repelled. This led to the defection of King Amyntas of Galatia from Antony's forces with 2,000 cavalry.

The image is of a silver tetradrachm, Greco-Roman, minted in the Eastern Meditteranean c. 36 B.C. It shows both Antony on one side and Cleopatra on the other. I like using images of coinage from this period in history because the coins themselves-in certain cases-tell a huge story of what was going on at the time. I need to get caught up again with having material ready to post. It may be a week before anything is here again, but I doubt it will be that long. I wanted to give an outside time limit just in case. Thanks again to Jon, Cioara, Autumnforest and anyone who is commenting, reading or following this blog! We are coming up on a fascinating time with our story here and I am anxious to get to it and the aftermath.