Actium

A map showing Actium.

Actium (Greek: Ἄκτιον) was the ancient name of a promontory of western Greece in northwestern Acarnania, at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf). Actium is chiefly famous as the site of the naval Battle of Actium, in which Octavian won a decisive victory over Mark Antony on September 2, 31 BC.

Actium is situated on the southern side of the strait opposite the later city of Nicopolis built by Octavian.[1]

Since 2002 Actium has been linked with Preveza on the north shore of the Ambracian Gulf by the Aktio-Preveza Undersea Tunnel.

History

Battle of Actium by Laureys a Castro, 1672. Note anachronisms.

Actium belonged originally to the Corinthian colonists of Anactorium, who probably founded the worship of Apollo Actius and the Actia games;[2] in the 3rd century BC it fell to the Acarnanians, who subsequently held their synods there.

On the promontory was the small town, or rather village of Actium, and also near the point an ancient temple of Apollo Actius, which was enlarged by Augustus.

Octavian also ordered a war monument to be constructed to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC on the site of his campsite prior to the naval engagement.[3]

Octavian instituted or renewed the quinquennial games known as Actia or Ludi Actiaci, named after Actium in Nicopolis (the new city) to memorialise the battle. Actiaca Aera was a computation of time from the battle.

Archaeology

In 1980 the Greek Ministry of Transport and Communications reported that shipwrecks from the Battle of Actium had been located at Actium near the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf.

In summer 2009 archaeologists discovered the ruins of the Temple of Apollo and found two statue heads, one of Apollo, one of Artemis (Diana).[4]

Among the features of the great Actium War Monument that have come to light [5] are sockets which have an outline shape that closely resembles that of the cast bronze Athlit ram. Decades of study have led to the conclusion that these sockets held the actual rams of warships from the larger classes in Antonius’s fleet.[6]

See also

Coordinates: 38°57′11″N 20°46′05″E / 38.953°N 20.768°E / 38.953; 20.768

References

  1. ↑ http://www.enotes.com/occc-encyclopedia/actium
  2. ↑ E. Kristen: "The Origins of the first inhabitants of Nicopolis", Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Nicopolis, 1984
  3. ↑ Dio Cassius, Roman history, 51.1.3
  4. ↑ Dr. Harry Gouvas:History of Preveza Prefecture, 2009, ISBN 978-960-87328-2-7
  5. ↑ Octavian's Campsite Memorial for the Actian War - William Michael Murray, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Nov 1989
  6. ↑ Polyremes from the Battle of Actium, Some Construction Details, William Murray, Tropis IV, Proceedings of the 4th Internat. Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, 1991

External links

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Actium". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 


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