Early (509–275 BC) Early Italian campaigns (509–396 BC) The first non-apocryphal Roman wars were wars of both expansion and defence, aimed at protecting Rome itself from neighbouring cities and nations and establishing its territory in the region. Florus writes that at this time "their neighbours, on every side, were continually harassing them, as they had no land of their own ... and as they were situated, as it were, at the junction of the roads to Latium and Etruria, and, at whatever gate they went out, were sure to meet a foe." Again in 508 BC Tarquin persuaded the king of
Clusium,
Lars Porsenna, to wage
war on Rome, resulting in a siege of Rome and afterwards a peace treaty. Initially, Rome's immediate neighbours were either
Latin towns and villages on a tribal system similar to that of Rome, or else tribal Sabines from the Apennine hills beyond. One by one, Rome defeated both the persistent Sabines and the local cities that were either under Etruscan control or else Latin towns that had cast off their Etruscan rulers, as had Rome. were defeated by the
Veientes in the
Battle of the Cremera in 477 BC, defeated the
Sabines in an unnamed battle in 449 BC, in the
Battle of Corbio, in 446 BC the
Aurunci in the Battle of Aricia, the
Capture of Fidenae in 435 BC and the
Siege of Veii in 396 BC, and the Capture of Antium in 377 BC. After defeating the Veientes, the Romans had effectively completed the conquest of their immediate Etruscan neighbours, as well as secured their position against the immediate threat posed by the tribespeople of the Apennine hills. In the meantime, it also affected the agriculture as well as diet regime of the empire. Since the enlargement the population in Apennine peninsula had increased and led to certain changes in agriculture, such as switch to goat breeding from cattle, indicating higher levels of protein supply in the diet which played a crucial role in stature of the locals. However, Rome still controlled only a very limited area and the affairs of Rome were minor even to those in Italy At this point the bulk of Italy remained in the hands of
Latin,
Sabine,
Samnite and other peoples in the central part of Italy,
Greek colonies to the south, and the
Celtic people, including the
Gauls, to the north.
Celtic invasion of Italia (390–387 BC) By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes had begun invading Italy from the north as their culture expanded throughout Europe. Most of this was unknown to the Romans at this time, who still had purely local security concerns, but the Romans were alerted when a particularly warlike tribe, the
Senones, not far from Rome's sphere of influence. The Clusians, overwhelmed by the size of the enemy in numbers and ferocity, called on Rome for help. Perhaps unintentionally before being either driven off or bought off. Now that the Romans and Gauls had blooded one another, intermittent
Roman-Gallic wars were to continue between the two in Italy for more than two centuries, including the
Battle of Lake Vadimo, the Romans immediately resumed their expansion within Italy. Despite their successes, their mastery of the whole of Italy was by no means assured. The
Samnites were a people just as martial and as rich as the Romans and had the objective of their own to secure more lands in the fertile The
First Samnite War of between 343 BC and 341 BC that followed widespread Samnite incursions into Rome's territory was a relatively short affair: the Romans beat the Samnites in both the
Battle of Mount Gaurus in 342 BC and the
Battle of Suessula in 341 BC but were forced to withdraw from the war before they could pursue the conflict further due to the revolt of several of their Latin allies in the
Latin War. Rome was therefore forced to contend by around 340 BC against both Samnite incursions into their territory and, simultaneously, in a bitter war against their former allies. Rome bested the Latins in the
Battle of Vesuvius and again in the
Battle of Trifanum, Perhaps due to Rome's lenient treatment of their defeated foe, running for over twenty years and incorporating twenty-four battles and the
Battle of Lautulae. The Romans then proved victorious at the
Battle of Bovianum and the tide turned strongly against the Samnites from 314 BC onwards, leading them to
sue for peace with progressively less generous terms. By 304 BC the Romans had effectively annexed the greater degree of the Samnite territory, founding several colonies. This pattern of meeting aggression in force and so inadvertently gaining territory in strategic counter-attacks was to become a common feature of Roman military history. Seven years after their defeat, with Roman dominance of the area looking assured, the Samnites rose again and defeated the Romans at the
Battle of Camerinum in 298 BC, to open the
Third Samnite War. With this success in hand they managed to bring together a coalition of several previous enemies of Rome, all of whom were probably keen to prevent any one faction dominating the entire region. The army that faced the Romans at the
Battle of Sentinum When the Roman army won a convincing victory over these combined forces it must have become clear that little could prevent Roman dominance of Italy and in the
Battle of Populonia (282 BC) Rome destroyed the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region.
Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) By the beginning of the 3rd century Rome had established itself as a major power on the
Italian Peninsula, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers in the
Mediterranean at the time:
Carthage and the
Greek kingdoms. Rome had all but completely defeated the
Samnites, mastered its fellow Latin towns, and greatly reduced
Etruscan power in the region. However, the south of Italy was controlled by the
Greek colonies of
Magna Grecia who had been allied to the Samnites, and continued
Roman expansion brought the two into inevitable conflict. In the naval Battle of Thurii, Motivated by his diplomatic obligations to Tarentum, and a personal desire for military accomplishment, Pyrrhus landed a Greek army of some 25,000 men on Italian soil in 280 BC, where his forces were joined by some Greek colonists and a portion of the
Samnites who revolted against Roman control, taking up arms against Rome for the fourth time in seventy years. The Roman army had not yet seen elephants in battle, and again at the
Battle of Ausculum in 279 BC. Despite these victories, Pyrrhus found his position in Italy untenable. Rome steadfastly refused to negotiate with Pyrrhus as long as his army remained in Italy. Furthermore, Rome entered into a treaty of support with
Carthage, and Pyrrhus found that despite his expectations, none of the other
Italic peoples would defect to the Greek and Samnite cause. Facing
unacceptably heavy losses with each encounter with the Roman army, and failing to find further allies in Italy, Pyrrhus withdrew from the peninsula and campaigned in
Sicily against Carthage, abandoning his allies to deal with the Romans. Effectively dominating the Italian peninsula, and with a proven international military reputation, Rome now began to look to expand from the Italian mainland. Since the Alps formed a natural barrier to the north, and Rome was none too keen to meet the fierce Gauls in battle once more, the city's gaze turned to Sicily and the islands of the Mediterranean, a policy that would bring it into direct conflict with its former ally
Carthage.
Middle (274–148 BC) Rome first began to make war outside the Italian peninsula during the
Punic wars against
Carthage, a former
Phoenician colony that had established on the north coast of Africa and developed into a powerful state. These wars, starting in 264 BC were probably the largest conflicts of the ancient world yet and saw Rome become the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean, with territory in
Sicily,
North Africa,
Iberia, and with the end of the
Macedonian wars (which ran concurrently with the Punic wars)
Greece as well. After the defeat of the Seleucid Emperor
Antiochus III the Great in the
Roman-Syrian War (Treaty of Apamea, 188 BC) in the eastern sea, Rome emerged as the dominant Mediterranean power and the most powerful city in the classical world.
Punic Wars (264–146 BC) The
First Punic War began in 264 BC when settlements on Sicily began to appeal to the two powers between which they lay – Rome and Carthage – in order to solve internal conflicts. The war saw land battles in Sicily early on, such as the
Battle of Agrigentum, but the theatre shifted to naval battles around Sicily and Africa. For the Romans, naval warfare was a relatively unexplored concept. Before the
First Punic War in 264 BC there was no Roman navy to speak of, as all previous Roman wars had been fought on land in
Italy. The new war in
Sicily against
Carthage, a great naval power, forced Rome to quickly build a fleet and train sailors. Rome took to naval warfare "like a brick to water" a Roman naval force under C. Duillius was able to roundly defeat a Carthaginian fleet at the
Battle of Mylae. In just four years, a state without any real naval experience had managed to better a major regional maritime power in battle. Further naval victories followed at the
Battle of Tyndaris and the
Battle of Cape Ecnomus. After having won control of the seas, a Roman force landed on the African coast under
Marcus Regulus, who was at first victorious, winning the
Battle of Adys and forcing Carthage to sue for peace. However, the terms of peace that Rome proposed were so heavy that negotiations failed, Xanthippus managed to cut off the Roman army from its base by re-establishing Carthaginian naval supremacy and then defeated and captured Regulus at the
Battle of Tunis. Despite being defeated on African soil, the Romans with their newfound naval abilities, roundly beat the Carthaginians in naval battle again – largely through the tactical innovations of the Roman fleet during which negotiations, Rome battled the
Ligures tribe in the
Ligurian War and the
Insubres in the
Gallic War. Continuing distrust led to the renewal of hostilities in the
Second Punic War when
Hannibal, a member of the
Barcid family of Carthaginian nobility, attacked
Saguntum, a city with diplomatic ties to Rome. Hannibal then raised an army in Iberia and famously crossed the Italian Alps with elephants to invade Italy. In the first battle on Italian soil at
Ticinus in 218 BC Hannibal defeated the Romans under
Scipio the Elder in a small cavalry fight. Hannibal's success continued with victories in the
Battle of the Trebia, the
Battle of Lake Trasimene, where he ambushed an unsuspecting Roman army, and the
Battle of Cannae, in what is considered one of the great masterpieces of tactical art, and for a while "Hannibal seemed invincible", In the three battles of Nola, Roman general
Marcus Claudius Marcellus managed to hold off Hannibal but then Hannibal smashed a succession of Roman consular armies at the
First Battle of Capua, the
Battle of the Silarus, the
Second Battle of Herdonia, the
Battle of Numistro and the
Battle of Asculum. By this time Hannibal's brother
Hasdrubal Barca sought to cross the Alps into Italy and join his brother with a second army. Despite being defeated in Iberia in the
Battle of Baecula, Hasdrubal managed to break through into Italy only to be defeated decisively by
Gaius Claudius Nero and
Marcus Livius Salinator on the
Metaurus River. In 203 BC at the
Battle of Bagbrades the invading Roman army under
Scipio Africanus Major defeated the Carthaginian army of
Hasdrubal Gisco and
Syphax and Hannibal was recalled to Africa. – perhaps even "annihilated" and the
Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, demanding as their further terms of surrender the complete destruction of the city and, seeing little to lose, its culture "almost totally extinguished".
Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (219–18 BC) Rome's conflict with the
Carthaginians in the
Punic Wars led them into expansion in the
Iberian Peninsula of modern-day
Spain and
Portugal. The Punic empire of the Carthaginian
Barcid family consisted of territories in Iberia, many of which Rome gained control of during the Punic Wars. Italy remained the main theatre of war for much of the
Second Punic War, but the Romans also aimed to destroy the Barcid Empire in Iberia and prevent major Punic allies from linking up with forces in Italy. Over the years, Rome had expanded along the southern Iberian coast until in 211 BC it captured the city of
Saguntum. Following two major military expeditions to Iberia, the Romans finally crushed Carthaginian control of the peninsula in 206 BC, at the
Battle of Ilipa, and the peninsula became a Roman province known as
Hispania. From 206 BC onwards the only opposition to Roman control of the peninsula came from within the native
Celtiberian tribes themselves, whose disunity prevented their security from Roman expansion. in 195–194 BC war broke out between the Romans and the
Lusitani people in the
Lusitanian War, in modern-day Portugal. By 179 BC, the Romans had mostly succeeded in pacifying the region and bringing it under their control. In 150 BC, Galba betrayed the Lusitani leaders he had invited to peace talks and had them killed, ingloriously ending the first phase of the war. The Lusitanians were initially successful, defeating a Roman army at the
Battle of Tribola and going on to
sack nearby Carpetania, and then besting a second Roman army at the
First Battle of Mount Venus in 146 BC, again going on to
sack another nearby city. and persuaded them to rise against Rome too, in the
Second Numantine War. Viriathus' new coalition bested Roman armies at the
Second Battle of Mount Venus in 144 BC and again at the failed
Siege of Erisone. In 136 and 135 BC, more attempts were made to gain complete control of the region of Numantia, but they failed. In 134 BC, the Consul
Scipio Aemilianus finally succeeded in suppressing the rebellion following the successful
Siege of Numantia. Since the Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula had begun in the south in the territories around the Mediterranean controlled by the Barcids, the last region of the peninsula to be subdued lay in the far north. The
Cantabrian Wars or Astur-Cantabrian Wars, from 29 BC to 19 BC, occurred during the Roman conquest of these northern provinces of
Cantabria and
Asturias. Iberia was fully occupied by 25 BC and the last revolt put down by 19 BC
Macedon, the Greek poleis, and Illyria (215–148 BC) Rome's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for
Philip V of the kingdom of
Macedon in northern
Greece to attempt to extend his power westward. Philip sent ambassadors to Hannibal's camp in Italy, to negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rome. However, Rome discovered the agreement when Philip's emissaries, along with emissaries from Hannibal, were captured by a Roman fleet. and the city-state of
Rhodes, The
First Macedonian War saw the Romans involved directly in only limited land operations. When the Aetolians sued for peace with Philip, Rome's small expeditionary force, with no more allies in Greece, was ready to make peace. Rome had achieved its objective of pre-occupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal. Macedon began to encroach on territory claimed by several other Greek city states in 200 BC and these pleaded for help from their newfound ally Rome. Rome gave Philip an ultimatum that he must submit Macedonia to being essentially a Roman province. Philip, unsurprisingly, refused and, after initial internal reluctance for further hostilities, Rome declared war against Philip in the
Second Macedonian War. and in a second larger battle under the same opposing commanders in 197 BC, in the
Battle of Cynoscephalae, Flamininus again beat the Macedonians decisively. Macedonia was forced to sign the
Treaty of Tempea, in which it lost all claim to territory in Greece and Asia, and had to pay a war indemnity to Rome. Between the second and third Macedonian wars Rome faced further conflict in the region due to a tapestry of shifting rivalries, alliances and leagues all seeking to gain greater influence. After the Macedonians had been defeated in the Second Macedonian War in 197 BC, the Greek city-state of
Sparta stepped into the partial power vacuum in Greece. Fearing the Spartans would take increasing control of the region, the Romans drew on help from allies to prosecute the
Roman-Spartan War, defeating a Spartan army at the
Battle of Gythium in 195 BC. against the
Istrians in the
Istrian War, against the Illyrians in the
Illyrian War, and against
Achaia in the
Achaean War. Rome now turned its attentions to
Antiochus III of the
Seleucid Empire to the east. After campaigns as far abroad as Bactria, India, Persia and Judea, Antiochus moved to Asia Minor and Thrace to secure several coastal towns, a move that brought him into conflict with Roman interests. A Roman force under
Manius Acilius Glabrio defeated Antiochus at the
Battle of Thermopylae the Romans then pursued the Seleucids beyond Greece, beating them again in naval battles at the
Battle of the Eurymedon and
Battle of Myonessus, and finally in a decisive engagement of the
Battle of Magnesia. In 179 BC Philip died and his talented and ambitious son,
Perseus of Macedon, took his throne and showed a renewed interest in Greece. He also allied himself with the warlike
Bastarnae, and the Macedonians, lacking the reserve of the Romans and with King Perseus captured, duly capitulated, ending the
Third Macedonian War. The Fourth Macedonian War, fought from 150 BC to 148 BC, was the final war between Rome and Macedon and began when
Andriscus usurped the Macedonian throne. The Romans raised a consular army under
Quintus Caecilius Metellus, who swiftly defeated Andriscus at the
Second battle of Pydna. Under
Lucius Mummius,
Corinth was destroyed following a siege in 146 BC, leading to the surrender and thus conquest of the
Achaean League (see
Battle of Corinth).
Late (147–30 BC) Jugurthine War (112–105 BC) Rome had, in the earlier Punic Wars, gained large tracts of territory in Africa, which they consolidated in the following centuries. Much of that land had been granted to the kingdom of Numidia, a kingdom on the north African coast approximating to modern Algeria, in return for its past military assistance. The Jugurthine War of 111–104 BC was fought between Rome and
Jugurtha of
Numidia and constituted the final Roman pacification of Northern Africa, after which Rome largely ceased expansion on the continent after reaching natural barriers of desert and mountain. In response to Jugurtha's usurpation of the Numidian throne, a loyal ally of Rome since the Punic Wars, Rome intervened. Jugurtha impudently bribed the Romans into accepting his usurpation and was granted half the kingdom. Following further aggression and further bribery attempts, the Romans sent an army to depose him. The Romans were defeated at the
Battle of Suthul but fared better at the
Battle of the Muthul and finally defeated Jugurtha at the
Battle of Thala, the
Battle of Mulucha, and the
Battle of Cirta (104 BC). Jugurtha was finally captured not in battle but by treachery, ending the war.
Resurgence of the Celtic threat (121 BC) Memories of the
sack of Rome by Celtic tribes from Gaul in 390/387 BC, had been made into a legendary account that was taught to each generation of Roman youth, were still prominent despite their historical distance. In 121 BC, Rome came into contact with the Celtic tribes of the
Allobroges and the
Arverni, both of which they defeated with apparent ease in the
First Battle of Avignon near the Rhone river and the
Second Battle of Avignon, the same year.
New Germanic threat (113–101 BC) The
Cimbrian War (113–101 BC) was a far more serious affair than the earlier clashes of 121 BC. The
Germanic tribes of the
Cimbri and the
Teutons or
Teutones where they clashed with Rome and her allies. The Cimbrian War was the first time since the
Second Punic War that
Italia and
Rome itself had been seriously threatened, and caused great fear in Rome. Rome was given the opportunity to carefully prepare for and successfully meet the Cimbri and Teutons Rome was plagued by several slave uprisings during this period, in part because in the past century vast tracts of land had been given to veterans who farmed by use of slaves and who came to greatly outnumber their Roman masters. In the last century BC, at least twelve
civil wars and rebellions occurred. This pattern did not break until Octavian (later
Caesar Augustus) ended it by becoming a successful challenger to the Senate's authority, and was made
princeps (emperor). Between 135 BC and 71 BC there were three
Servile Wars against the Roman state; the
third, and most serious, may have involved the revolution of 120,000 to 150,000 slaves. Additionally, in 91 BC the
Social War broke out between Rome and its former allies in Italy, collectively known as the
Socii, over the grievance that they shared the risk of Rome's military campaigns, but not its rewards. Despite defeats such as the
Battle of Fucine Lake, Roman troops defeated the Italian
militias in decisive engagements, notably the
Battle of Asculum. Although they lost militarily, the
Socii achieved their objectives with the legal proclamations of the
Lex Julia and
Lex Plautia Papiria, which granted citizenship to more than 500,000 Italians. Whatever the merits of his grievances against those in power of the state, his actions marked a watershed of the willingness of Roman troops to wage war against one another that was to pave the way for the wars of the
triumvirate, the overthrowing of the Senate as the
de facto head of the Roman state, and the eventual
endemic usurpation of power by contenders for the emperor-ship in the later Empire.
Conflicts with Mithridates (89–63 BC) Mithridates VI was the ruler of
Pontus, a large kingdom in
Asia Minor, from 120 to 63 BC. He is remembered as one of Rome's most formidable and successful enemies who engaged three of the most prominent generals of the late Roman Republic:
Sulla,
Lucullus, and
Pompey the Great. In a pattern familiar from the Punic Wars, the Romans came into conflict with him after the two states' spheres of influence began to overlap. Mithridates antagonised Rome by seeking to expand his kingdom, After conquering western
Anatolia (modern Turkey) in 88 BC, Roman sources claim that Mithridates ordered the killing of the majority of the 80,000 Romans living there. In the subsequent
First Mithridatic War, the Roman general
Lucius Cornelius Sulla forced Mithridates out of Greece proper after the
Battle of Chaeronea and later
Battle of Orchomenus but then had to return to Italy to answer the internal threat posed by his rival Marius; consequently, Mithridates VI was defeated but not destroyed. A peace was made between Rome and Pontus, but this proved only a temporary lull. The
Second Mithridatic War began when Rome tried to annex
Bithynia as a province. In the
Third Mithridatic War, first
Lucius Licinius Lucullus and then
Pompey the Great were sent against Mithridates. Mithridates was finally defeated by Pompey in the night-time
Battle of the Lycus. After defeating Mithridates, Pompey
invaded Caucacus, subjugated the
Kingdom of Iberia and established Roman control over
Colchis.
Campaign against the Cilician pirates (67 BC) The Mediterranean had at this time fallen into the hands of
pirates, The pirates had seized the opportunity of a relative power vacuum and had not only strangled shipping lanes but had plundered many cities on the coasts of Greece and Asia, and had even made descents upon Italy itself. After the Roman admiral
Marcus Antonius Creticus (father of the
triumvir Marcus Antonius) failed to clear the pirates to the satisfaction of the Roman authorities,
Pompey was nominated his successor as commander of a special naval task force to campaign against them. and restore communication between Iberia, Africa, and Italy. Plutarch describes how Pompey first swept their craft from the Mediterranean in a series of small actions and through the promise of honouring the surrender of cities and craft. He then followed the main body of the pirates to their strongholds on the coast of
Cilicia, and destroyed them there in the naval
Battle of Korakesion. Following a consular term, he was then appointed to a five-year term as Proconsular Governor of Transalpine Gaul (current southern France) and Illyria (the coast of Dalmatia). Not content with an idle governorship, Caesar strove to find reason to invade Gaul, which would give him the dramatic military success he sought. To this end he stirred up popular nightmares of the first sack of Rome by the Gauls and the more recent spectre of the Cimbri and Teutones. the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had the barely sufficient excuse he needed for his
Gallic Wars, fought between 58 BC and 49 BC. After slaughtering the Helvetii tribe, Caesar prosecuted a "long, bitter and costly" campaign against other tribes across the breadth of Gaul, many of whom had fought alongside Rome against their common enemy the
Helvetii, Although "fierce and able" Caesar defeated the
Helvetii in 58 BC at the
Battle of the Arar and
Battle of Bibracte, the Belgic confederacy known as the
Belgae at the
Battle of the Axona, the
Aquitani,
Treviri,
Tencteri,
Aedui and
Eburones in unknown battles, In 52 BC, following the
Siege of Avaricum and a string of inconclusive battles, Caesar defeated a union of Gauls led by
Vercingetorix at the
Battle of Alesia, completing the Roman conquest of Transalpine Gaul. By 50 BC, the entirety of Gaul lay in Roman hands. It was always an uncomfortable alliance given that Crassus and Pompey intensely disliked one another. In 53 BC, Crassus launched a Roman invasion of the
Parthian Empire. After initial successes, he marched his army deep into the desert; but here his army was cut off deep in enemy territory, surrounded and slaughtered in "the greatest Roman defeat since Hannibal" in which Crassus himself perished. The death of Crassus removed some of the balance in the Triumvirate and, consequently, Caesar and Pompey began to move apart. While Caesar was fighting against Vercingetorix in Gaul, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda for Rome that revealed that he was at best ambivalent towards Caesar and perhaps now covertly allied with Caesar's political enemies. In 51 BC, some Roman senators demanded that Caesar would not be permitted to stand for Consul unless he turned over control of his armies to the state, and the same demands were made of Pompey by other factions. Relinquishing his army would leave Caesar defenceless before his enemies. Caesar chose Civil War over laying down his command and facing trial. However, by the spring of 49 BC, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon river with his invading forces and swept down the Italian peninsula towards Rome, Pompey ordered the abandonment of Rome. Pompey's forces retreated south towards Brundisium, and then fled to Greece. Caesar first directed his attention to the Pompeian stronghold of Iberia but following campaigning by Caesar in the
Siege of Massilia and
Battle of Ilerda he decided to attack Pompey in Greece. Pompey initially defeated Caesar at the
Battle of Dyrrachium in 48 BC but failed to follow up on the victory. Pompey was decisively defeated in the
Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC despite outnumbering Caesar's forces two to one. Pompey fled again, this time to Egypt, where he was murdered in an attempt to ingratiate the country with Caesar and avoid a war with Rome. Further civil war followed between those loyal to Caesar and those who supported the actions of the Liberators. Caesar's supporter
Mark Antony condemned Caesar's assassins and war broke out between the two factions. Antony was denounced as a public enemy, and
Octavian was entrusted with the command of the war against him. In the
Battle of Forum Gallorum Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus in
Mutina, defeated the forces of the consul Pansa, who was killed, but Antony was then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Hirtius. At the
Battle of Mutina Antony was again defeated in battle by Hirtius, who was killed. Although Antony failed to capture Mutina, Decimus Brutus was murdered shortly thereafter. Octavian betrayed his party, and came to terms with Caesarians Antony and
Lepidus and on 26 November 43 BC the
Second Triumvirate was formed, this time in an official capacity.
Octavian decisively defeated Antony and
Cleopatra in a naval battle near Greece, using fire to destroy the enemy fleet. Octavian went on to become Emperor under the name Augustus and, in the absence of political assassins or usurpers, was able to greatly expand the borders of the Empire. ==Empire==