ET CETERA ANTIQUA

📝 Classical Civilisation essay, Year 11. Mark: 15 marks. Teacher feedback: “Well-structured paragraphs and great use of sources. Fantastic evaluation. However, what you say about Antony’s ships ramming is not accurate — they were too slow and too hard to manoeuvre to do this.”

One of Antony’s disadvantages was his soldiers. Due to Agrippa’s capture of key places, like Patrae, and the naval blockade, his soldiers had no supplies, which led to starvation and disease, so many soldiers deserted. This meant that Antony had fewer soldiers, and so his captains were ‘mule-drivers’, as Plutarch says. Many soldiers also lost confidence in Antony, especially after Octavian’s reading of his will, believing Antony to be corrupt, or more foreign because of his association with Cleopatra. This meant that Antony had fewer loyal soldiers. This led to his defeat at Actium because he had very few willing soldiers in comparison to Octavian, after people dying of disease and deserting, and the few soldiers he did have were relatively unexperienced and unskilled. I think this was the biggest reason for Antony’s defeat because his soldiers were the ones fighting the battle, so with less soldiers, Antony had no chance of victory.

Another reason for Antony’s defeat was Agrippa’s superior naval strategies, for example his smaller ships. Plutarch describes Octavian’s ships as ‘more agile’, while Antony’s ships were fitted out with elaborate decorations, which would make them heavier and therefore much slower. This meant Octavian’s ships were faster and more manoeuvrable, and could fight at close quarters. While Antony’s ships were good for fighting at longer range, they were defenceless when Octavian’s ships grew closer, as they could not sail away faster. This contributed to Antony’s defeat because the naval strategies employed by Agrippa were simply more effective, and utilised the ships available, while Antony’s tactics weren’t suitable for this particular battle. However, I think Antony’s disadvantage of his soldiers was a more important reason for his defeat, because the soldiers were the ones controlling the ships and executing Antony’s strategies. Perhaps if Antony had more skilled sailors, they would have been able to manoeuvre the ships better and outfight Agrippa.