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Actium


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ACTIUM A city of Epirus, on the coast of Acarnania (now Prevenza) in the Ambracian gulf. In the earliest period not a large town, it was celebrated for a temple of Apollo, also as a safe harbour, and for an adjacent promontory of the same name - afterwards rendered more splendid, on account of the decisive naval victory gained near it by Augustus over Antony.

View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins|

Actium


The Battle of Actium, by Lorenzo A. Castro, 1672.

ACTIUM - A city of Epirus, on the coast of Acarnania (now Prevenza) in the Ambracian gulf. In the earliest period not a large town, it was celebrated for a temple of Apollo, also as a safe harbour, and for an adjacent promontory of the same name - afterwards rendered more splendid, on account of the decisive naval victory gained near it by Augustus over Antony. (from The Dictionary of Roman Coins)

The Battle of Actium - A naval battle of the Roman Civil War between Mark Antony and Octavian (Caesar Augustus). It was fought on September 2, 31 BC, near the Roman colony of Actium in Greece (near the modern-day city of Preveza), on the Ionian Sea. Octavian's fleet was commanded by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Antony's fleet was supported by the fleet of his lover, Cleopatra, queen of Ptolemaic Egypt. The battle was won by the forces of Octavian, whose victory led him to be titled the Princeps Augustus, and eventually to be considered the first Roman Emperor; for this reason the date of the battle is often used to mark the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium)
 
Following the Battle of Actium, Octavian invaded Egypt. As he approached Alexandria, Antony's armies deserted to Octavian on August 12, 30 BC.  Learning that her lover had taken his own life, Cleopatra does the same.  Cleopatra's death is used by numismatists to mark the end of the “Hellenistic Period” of Greek coinage that begins with the accession of Alexander the Great as King of Macedon in 336 BC (Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting, 2nd Edition. Iola: Krause Publications, 19).



Augustus & Agrippa AE Dupondius. Nemausus mint, 10 BC - 10 AD. IMP DIVI F, laureate heads of Avgustus and Tiberius facing out / COL-NEM, Crocodile chained to palm. Cohen 7.  The the reverse shows a defeated Egypt sybolically depicted as the nile crocodile chained to a palm tree, and the obverse portrays the two victors of Actium, Octavianus Augustus and Agrippa.


|Dictionary of Roman Coins|


Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.
ACTIUM, a city of Epirus, on the coast of Acarnania (now Prevenza) in the Ambracian gulf. In the earliest period not a large town, it was celebrated for a temple of Apollo, also as a safe harbour, and for an adjacent promontory of the same name - afterwards rendered more splendid, on account of the decisive naval victory gained near it by Augustus over Antony.

View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins|