Books
6 Best Novels About the War of Actium
Bestselling authors first, then star rating.
War
War of Actium
32–30 BCE
The War of Actium was the final struggle between Octavian and the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. It was framed in Roman propaganda as a war against eastern monarchy and foreign influence, though it was also a Roman civil war. The conflict culminated in the naval battle of Actium and the fall of Alexandria.
The war mattered because it ended the last major opposition to Octavian’s control of the Roman world. Antony and Cleopatra’s defeat allowed Octavian to present himself as restorer of order rather than another warlord. The settlement that followed created the political foundation of the Roman Empire.
The War of Actium is a strong setting for fiction about Antony, Cleopatra, Octavian, and the birth of the imperial system. Margaret George’s The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Colleen McCullough’s late-republic novels, Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy, Conn Iggulden’s Emperor series, and Steven Saylor’s work all connect to this world of propaganda, romance, and power politics. It suits reading lists about the end of the republic and the making of Augustus.
Related people for War of Actium
Alexander Heliosborn 41 BCE Arsinoe IV of Egypt69 BCE–42 BCE Augustus64 BCE–14 Caesarion48 BCE–31 BCE Cleopatra70 BCE–31 BCE Cleopatra Selene II41 BCE–6 BCE Herod the Great75 BCE–5 BCE Juba II53 BCE–23 Julius Caesar101 BCE–45 BCE Marcus Aemilius Lepidusc. 90–13 BCE Marcus Junius Brutus86 BCE–43 BCE Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa64 BCE–13 BCE Mark Antony83–30 BCE Octavia the Younger67 BCE–12 BCE Phraates IV of Parthiadied 2 BCE Pompey106–48 BCE Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator63 BCE–48 BCE Sullac. 138–78 BCE
Non Fiction
5 Non-Fiction Books About the War of Actium
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.
