Battle of Actium
On 2 September 31 BC, off Actium in north-western Greece, Octavian’s fleet defeated the combined fleet of Antony and Cleopatra, deciding the last civil war of the Roman Republic.
Laureys a Castro · Public domain · Source
After Caesar’s death Octavian, Antony and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate and divided the Roman world. Antony, who took the East, met Cleopatra at Tarsus in 41 BC and allied with her, and in 34 BC at Alexandria proclaimed the gift of Rome’s eastern territories to Cleopatra and her children. Octavian denounced this as handing Rome to an Egyptian queen, and in 32 BC Rome declared war on Cleopatra.
On 2 September 31 BC the fleet of Antony and Cleopatra, hemmed in at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, put out to sea. Octavian’s fleet was commanded by his friend the general Agrippa. At the height of the battle Cleopatra’s ships broke through the line and headed for Egypt, and Antony followed her. The remaining fleet and the land army surrendered to Octavian.
The victory left Octavian sole master of the Roman world; in 27 BC he received the title Augustus and founded the empire. Around the same time, in the north of the Korean peninsula, Jumong is said to have founded Goguryeo in 37 BC.
