David Keys: Secrets of horrific battle with Cleopatra that gave birth to Roman Empire

Archaeologists and historians are shedding extraordinary new light on one of the most important events in human history – the horrific battle which gave birth to the Roman Empire. A detailed study of a unique victory monument, overlooking the sea in northwest Greece, is revealing some of the long-lost secrets of that crucial military engagement – a great sea battle, fought between Julius Caesar’s adoptive son and heir, Octavian (who became Rome’s first emperor) and Egypt’s Queen
Cleopatra(and her Roman lover, Mark Antony). The remains of the victory monument still survive adjacent to Nicopolis – the largest ancient ruined city in Greece.

Octavian (who received the title Augustus when he became Rome’s first emperor) won that crucial naval clash of arms in 31BC – and, now, more than 2,000 years later, detailed analysis of his great victory monument, overlooking the battle site near the ancient Greek religious sanctuary of Actium, is helping scholars to more fully understand how his world-changing victory was achieved. It’s always been thought that many of Cleopatra and Mark Antony’s ships were bigger than Octavian’s – and were therefore less manoeuvrable.

But now crucial archaeological data obtained from the victory monument excavations over recent years has provided the first archaeological confirmation that some of Cleopatra and Mark Antony’s ships were indeed unusually large. This would have given Octavian – who had smaller, faster vessels – a history-changing advantage. The evidence is also allowing archaeologists to begin to work out the military rationale behind Octavian’s battle tactics. The crucial data is from a series of around 35 niches set into the front of Octavian’s great victory monument. It’s known, in part from a first century AD Roman poem, that the niches were made to hold the great bronze marine battering rams from some of Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s most important warships.

Octavian captured 350 of their vessels – and chose the rams of just 35 of them as war trophies for permanent display in his monument to his enemies’ defeat. The analysis of the niches (some of which were only excavated in the past two years) has revealed that they are all of different dimensions and had therefore been made to hold specific enemy rams of different shapes and sizes... read more:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/roman-empire-cleopatra-octavian-ceasar-egypt-battle-sea-nicopolis-history-archaeology-a8843886.html