In 32 BC, Octavian convinced the Roman Senate to declare war on the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Forty percent of the Roman Senate, together with both consuls, left Rome to join the war on Antony's side.

Both Antony and Octavian's legions were experienced veterans of previous civil wars who had fought together, many also having once served under Caesar.

Octavian became the most powerful man in the Roman world and the Senate bestowed upon him the honorific of Augustus in 27 BC.

Octavian was scheming to find a way to sever ties with Mark Antony, start a war to crush him, kill a potential rival and take control of the entire Roman world.

Eventually, Octavian chased Antony's senatorial supporters from Rome, and in 32 BC, the Roman Senate declared war against Cleopatra.

When Cleopatra received word that Rome had declared war, Antony threw his support to Egypt.

Cleopatra and Antony did so too, assembling roughly the same number in mixed heavy Roman and light Egyptian infantry.

Octavian brought with him his chief military adviser and closest friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to command his naval forces.

The strategy of delay paid dividends to Octavian, as morale sank and prominent Romans deserted Antony's cause.

The first conflict of the war occurred when Octavian's general Agrippa captured the Greek city and naval port of Methone.

The stage was set for one of the largest naval battles of all time, with Antony bringing 290 ships in addition to between 30 and 50 transports.

In what would become known as the Battle of Actium, Antony, on September 2, 31 BC, moved his large quinqueremes through the strait and into the open sea.

Antony had hoped to use his biggest ships to drive back Agrippa's wing on the north end of his line, but Octavian's entire fleet stayed carefully out of range.

Shortly after mid-day, Antony was forced to extend his line out from the protection of the shore, and then finally engage the enemy.

Octavian's fleet, armed with better trained and fresher crews, made quick work of Antony's larger and less experienced navy.

Octavian's soldiers had spent years fighting in Roman naval combat, where one objective was to ram the enemy ship and at the same time kill the above deck crew with a shower of arrows and catapult-launched stones large enough to decapitate a man.

As a gap opened in Agrippa's blockade, she funneled through, Antony then issued orders for his entire fleet to breakthrough Octavian's lines.

By the end of the day, almost Antony's entire fleet lay at the bottom of the sea and the Roman world witnessed the largest naval battle in almost 200 years.

After a week the commanders of Antony's land forces, which were supposed to follow him to Asia, promptly surrendered their legions without a fight.

In early 30 BC, Octavian rejected the idea of transporting his army across the sea and attacking Alexandria directly, and instead travelled by land through Asia.

The majority of Antony's army, 23 legions plus 15,000 cavalry, had been left in Greece after Actium where, eventually, without supplies, they surrendered.

Trapped in Egypt with the remnant of their former army, Antony and Cleopatra bided their time awaiting Octavian's arrival.

According to the ancient accounts however, he was not entirely successful and with an open wound in his belly, was taken to join Cleopatra, who had fled to her mausoleum.

According to Strabo, who was alive at the time of the event, Cleopatra died from a self-induced bite from a venomous snake, or from applying a poisonous ointment to herself.

In the ensuing months and years, Augustus passed a series of laws that, while outwardly preserving the appearance of the republic, made his position within it of paramount power and authority.

The reign of Augustus would usher in the golden era of Roman culture and produce a stability which Rome had not seen in over a century.