Page 154 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

Caesar before him, he fell in love. Octavian began a propaganda campaign, accusing Antony of catering to Cleopatra and giving away Roman territory to this “whore of the East.” Finally, at the Battle of Actium in Greece in 31 B.C.E., Octavian’s forces smashed the army and navy of Antony and Cleopatra. Both fled to Egypt, where, according to the account of the Roman historian Florus, they committed suicide a year later:
Antony was the first to commit suicide, by the sword. Cleo- patra threw herself at Octavian’s feet, and tried her best to attract his gaze: in vain, for his self-control was impervious to her beauty. It was not her life she was after, for that had
already been granted, but a portion of her kingdom. When she realized this was hopeless and that she had been ear- marked to feature in Octavian’s triumph in Rome, she took advantage of her guard’s carelessness to get herself into the mausoleum, as the royal tomb is called. Once there, she put on the royal robes which she was accustomed to wear, and lay down in a richly perfumed coffin beside her Antony. Then she applied poisonous snakes to her veins and slipped into death as though into a sleep.5
Octavian, at the age of thirty-two, stood supreme over the Roman world (see Map 5.3). The civil wars had ended. And so had the republic.
North Sea
Baltic Sea
Roman dominions in the late Republic
Battle sites
Atlantic Ocean
GAUL
CISALPINE
Po R. GAUL Rubicon
SPAIN
R. ILLYRIA Corsica ITALY
Black Sea
Rome
Sicily
MACEDONIA
BITHYNIA AND PONTUS
Sardinia
Philippi 42 B.C.E.
Pharsalus 48 B.C.E.
ACHAEA
Actium 31 B.C.E.
ASIA
Alexandria
EGYPT
CILICIA
PARTHIA
SYRIA
Dead Sea
JUDAEA
Red Sea
NUMIDIA
Crete
Cyprus
Mediterranean Sea
CYRENE
0 0
200 400 200
600 Kilometers 400 Miles
MAP 5.3 Roman Dominions in the Late Republic, 31 B.C.E. Rome expanded its empire not only in response to military threats on its borders but also for increased access to economic resources and markets, in addition to the vanity of conquest itself.
Q For comparison, look back at Map 5.2. In what areas did the Romans gain the greatest amount of territory, and how?
116 Chapter 5 The Roman Republic
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