The Battle of Actium

The last contest for Caesar's inheritance comes down to two men: Octavian holds Italy and the west, Antony the eastern provinces and the alliance with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The fleets meet off Cape Actium in western Greece; Antony breaks out with part of his ships, and the rest of his forces go over to the enemy. Within a year Alexandria is taken, Antony and Cleopatra die by their own hands, and Egypt becomes a province — and a peculiar one, the personal domain of the victor, from which Rome's grain comes. Octavian is left alone, and four years later the senate will name him Augustus; the century of civil wars is over.