Actium, Battle Of

(September 2, 31 BC), naval battle off a promontory in the north of Acarnania, on the western coast of Greece, where Octavian (known as the emperor Augustus after 27 BC), by his decisive victory over Mark Antony, became the undisputed master of the Roman world. Antony, with 500 ships and 70,000 infantry, made his camp at Actium, which lies on the southern side of a strait leading from the Ionian Sea