From Samos Antony removed his headquarters to Athens, whence in the winter of B.C. 32 he started to invade Italy. But at Corcyra he got intelligence of an advanced squadron of Cæsar’s fleet near the Acroceraunian promontory, and thinking that Cæsar was there in full force, he decided to put off hostilities till the spring, by which time he expected to be joined by the forces of the client kings. He himself wintered at Patræ, distributing his forces so as to guard various points in Greece. He scornfully rejected Cæsar’s proposal for an interview, on the ground that there was no one to decide between them, if either broke the terms upon which they might agree. The proposal was probably not seriously meant. It was only another means of putting Antony in the wrong.
B.C. 31, Con., C. Octavius Cæsar, Val. Messala. The beginning of hostilities.
Nothing, however, was done before the end of the year, a storm having frustrated an attempt of Cæsar’s to surprise some of the enemy’s ships at Corcyra. In the early spring the first move was made by Agrippa, who swooped down upon Methone in Messenia, killed Bogovas, late king of Mauretania, and harassed the shores of Greece by other descents, in order to divert Antony’s attention; who was now with his main fleet in the Ambracian gulf, having secured the narrow entrance to it by towers on either side, and with ships stationed between. His camp was close to the temple of Apollo, on the south side of the strait. The successes of Agrippa encouraged Cæsar to move. He landed troops in Ceraunia, making his own headquarters at the “Sweet Haven,” at the mouth of the Cocytus, and sent a detachment by land round the Ambracian sea to threaten Antony’s camp. Having failed to entice the fleet from the Ambracian gulf, or to tempt the men to abandon Antony, he seized the high ground overlooking the strait, and opposite Actium, where he entrenched himself, on the ground on which he afterwards built Nicopolis. The summer months, however, were wearing away without any decisive blow being struck by either side, and the delay was irksome to both. Rome was in a state of simmering revolt owing to distress and heavy taxes, a discontent which found expression in the conspiracy of Lepidus, son of the ex-triumvir. It was promptly suppressed, indeed, and Lepidus was sent over to Cæsar to receive his condemnation; but, nevertheless, Mæcenas, who was in charge of Rome, found that he had no sinecure. To Antony, again, delay meant discontent among his Eastern followers, tottering loyalty, and probable abandonment. Above all, Cleopatra was in a highly nervous state, and was urging a return to Egypt. At last on the 31st of August, a cavalry engagement going against Antony, she became clamorous; and after long deliberation, Antony determined to follow her advice. He ordered his ships to be prepared for battle, but with the secret intention of avoiding a fight and sailing away to Alexandria.[210]
Battle of Actium, Sept. 3, B.C. 31.
Cæsar was kept informed of this, and resolved to prevent it. His idea was to allow the Antonian fleet to issue out and begin their course, and then to fall upon their rear. But Agrippa thought that the superior sailing powers of the Antonian fleet would render this impossible, and urged an attack as soon as the ships cleared the straits. There had been rough weather for four days, but on the 3rd of September there was a calm,[211] or only some surf from the preceding storms; and when the trumpet rang out for the start Antony’s huge vessels, furnished with towers and filled with armed men, began streaming out of the straits. They did not at first show any signs of standing out to sea. The ships took up a close order and waited to be attacked. There was a brief pause on Cæsar’s side. He or Agrippa hesitated to attack these great galleons with their smaller craft. But before long an order was issued to the vessels on the extremities of Cæsar’s fleet to exert their utmost powers in rowing in order to get round Antony’s two wings. To avoid this danger Antony was forced against his will to order an attack.
The battle raged all the afternoon without decisive result; though the smallness of Cæsar’s vessels proved in many points a decided advantage. They could be rowed close up to bigger ships and be rowed away again when a shower of javelins had been poured in upon the enemy. Antony’s men returned the volleys and used grappling irons of great weight. If these irons caught one of the smaller ships they were doubtless very effective; but if the cast missed they either seriously damaged their own ship, or caused so much confusion and delay that an opportunity was given to the enemy to pour in fresh volleys of darts. At length Cleopatra, whose ships were on the southern fringe of the fleet, could bear the suspense no longer. She gave the signal for retreat, and a favourable breeze springing up, the Egyptian ships were soon fading out of sight. Antony thinking that this was the result of a panic, and that the day was lost, hastened after the retiring squadron. The example of their leader was followed by many of the crews, who lightening their ships by throwing overboard the wooden towers and war tackle, fled with sails full spread. But others still maintained the struggle, and it was not until Cæsar’s men began throwing lighted brands upon the enemy’s ships that the rout became general. Even then the work was not over, for Cæsar spent the whole night on board endeavouring to rescue men from the burning ships.[212]
The finale of the civil war in Egypt, B.C. 31-30.
Antony got clear off from pursuit, but his camp on land was easily taken, and his army was intercepted while trying to retreat into Macedonia. For the most part the men took service in Cæsar’s legions, the veterans being disbanded without pensions. Antony, however, was followed to Egypt by many of his adherents of rank, and still thought himself strong enough to make terms with Cæsar. But he could no longer hope for aid from the client kings. They all hastened to make their peace with Cæsar, or were captured and punished. Even Cleopatra was secretly prepared to betray him.
With the exception of one visit to Brundisium of seven days, to suppress the mutiny of some discontented veterans, Cæsar spent the winter at Samos and Athens, collecting an army and navy destined to deprive Egypt permanently of its independence. Cleopatra had indeed tried to brave it out. She returned to Alexandria with her prows decked with flowers and her pipers playing a triumphant tune. The people are not likely to have been deceived, but there was no sign of revolt. She was able to seize the property of those whose fidelity she suspected, and even put to death the captive king of Armenia to gratify her ally the king of Media. Messages were sent to the kings who had been allied with Antony, and for some gladiators whom he had in training at Trapezus. The gladiators started but were intercepted, and no help came from the client kings. A still worse disappointment awaited him in Cyrene, over which he had placed L. Pinarius Scarpus with four legions. When, leaving Cleopatra at Parætonium, he went to take over these legions, Pinarius refused to receive him and even put his messengers to death, and shortly afterwards handed over his province and army to Cæsar’s legate, Cornelius Gallus. This was an unmistakable sign that Antony’s day of influence was over. Cleopatra returned to Alexandria and made secret preparations for retiring into Asia, as far as Iberia (Georgia) if necessary, though still keeping up appearances and sending in every direction for aid. Cleopatra’s son Cæsarion and Antony’s son by Fulvia (Antyllus) were declared of man’s estate and capable of governing, and messages were despatched to Cæsar proposing that Antony should retire to Athens as a privatus, and that Cleopatra should abdicate in favour of Cæsarion. The queen also, without Antony’s knowledge, sent Cæsar a gold sceptre and crown. He made no reply to Antony, but answered in threatening terms to Cleopatra, while sending his freedman Thyrsus to give her privately a reassuring message. Antony suspected the purport of Thyrsus’s mission, and with a last ebullition of his old swaggering humour had him flogged, and sent back with the message, that if Cæsar felt aggrieved he might put his freedman Hipparchus (who had joined Cæsar) to the torture in revenge. But things went from bad to worse with him. News came that the gladiators had been impounded, that his own legatus in Syria (Q. Didius) had bidden the Arabs burn the ships which he had prepared for his flight in the Red Sea, and that the only two client kings who had seemed inclined to stand by him—those of Cilicia and Galatia—had fallen off. He therefore tried once more to open communications with Cæsar. He sent him as a prisoner one of the assassins of Iulius, whom he had protected and employed, P. Turullius, and a considerable sum of money by the hands of his son Antyllus. Cæsar put Turullius to death and took the money, but returned no answer to Antony, though he again sent a private message to Cleopatra. Presently Antony was informed that Gallus had arrived at Parætonium with the four legions taken over from Pinarius; and believing that even now his personal influence was sufficient to win back the men, he hurried thither, accompanied by the remains of his fleet coasting along to guard him. But this only led to farther disaster. The soldiers refused to listen to him; and when his ships entered the harbour the chains were made fast across the mouth and they were trapped. On land he now found himself between two hostile forces; for Cæsar with Cleopatra’s connivance had landed at Pelusium and was marching on Alexandria, and Gallus was attacking him from Parætonium. He once more executed one of those rapid movements for which he was famous. Hastening back to Alexandria he flung his cavalry upon Cæsar’s vanguard when tired with its march. But the success of this movement encouraged him to make a general attack, in which he was decisively beaten. His last resource, the ships still remaining in the harbour of Alexandria, failed him. Acting under Cleopatra’s orders the captains refused to receive him. The queen, it is said, had shut herself up in the Tomb-house or Ptolemæum, hoping to drive Antony to despair and suicide, as the only solution of the difficulty. If that was indeed her motive, she was both successful and repentant. Antony stabbed himself, and begged to be carried to the Tomb-house, where he died in her arms.
Death of Cleopatra.