Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Ancient Egypt.

A civilisation immortalised by awe-inspiring monuments

and priceless treasures.

Ruled by Pharaohs...

..living gods and legendary warriors...

..but their wealth masks a darker truth:

power was bought with blood.

They assembled the greatest armies in history...

- (clamour)

NARRATOR: ..revolutionised the art of warfare...

..and waged spectacular battles...

..and titanic conquests.

- (elephant trumpeting)

NARRATOR: This is the hidden face of Egyptian history.

The story of the Pharaohs at war.

- (metallic scraping)

(ominous music)

(portals clang)

NARRATOR: Actium, Greece.

(reads out date)

The calm before the storm.

The coming battle will change the course of history.

It will seal the fate of Egyptian civilisation...

and of the Roman Republic.

On one side, Octavian,

the official heir to Julius Caesar.

Octavian's army consisted of 400 ships,

120,000 soldiers

and 12,000 horsemen.

On the other side, the Pharaoh Cleopatra,

defending her dynasty

with her ally, the Roman general Mark Antony,

Octavian's great rival.

- (battle cry)

NARRATOR: Cleopatra and Mark Antony had assembled a powerful army.

(reads out information)

- (translation from French) At Actium, what is at stake

is the survival of Egypt.

Cleopatra, via her ally Mark Antony,

must defeat Octavian,

otherwise he would take charge of Egypt - or even worse, annex it,

putting an end to the Ptolemaic dynasty.

NARRATOR: The battle of Actium would seal the fate of Egypt and Rome.

At the end of the conflict,

there would be only one emperor in the Mediterranean.

Octavian wanted to crush the ambitions

of Cleopatra and her husband Mark Antony.

It would be Cleopatra's final battle.

- (clamouring and clash of weapons)

NARRATOR: She is already a powerful living legend,

but she will be remembered, above all,

for her daring confrontations with Rome's most powerful men.

- (dramatic music)

- (translation from French) She was heir to the Ptolemaic dynasty

founded by Ptolemy I, an officer to Alexander the Great,

who became king of Egypt. Thereafter, all the rulers

bore the name "Ptolemy"

until Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's father.

NARRATOR: The Ptolemies ruled the Lagid dynasty,

founded in the 4th century BCE

following the death of Alexander the Great.

At the height of their reign,

the Ptolemies possessed an immense empire

stretching from Nubia

to the north of the Aegean Sea,

but by the time Cleopatra was born,

the Ptolemies' Egypt was at its weakest,

reduced to the Nile valley and the island of Cyprus.

Cleopatra's dynasty experienced countless familial conflicts

that weakened it over the centuries.

Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII,

sought to consolidate his power,

so he turned to Rome - a choice that sowed the seeds

of the conflict to come.

- (translation) Ptolemy XII used Egypt's resources

to bribe the powerful Romans of the time

and, finally, he bought Julius Caesar himself, in 59 BCE,

and it was Julius Caesar

who officially recognised him as king,

ally and friend of the Roman people.

NARRATOR: But all that gold wasn't enough

to satisfy Rome's territorial appetite.

- (translation) A year later, Ptolemy XII learnt

that the Romans had decided to annex

their only remaining province outside Egypt: the island of Cyprus.

NARRATOR: This is a major blow for Egypt

and another step towards Roman domination

of the Mediterranean.

- (translation from French) The Romans were interested

in getting hold of the copper mines,

the timber supplies for the fleets and, above all,

strategic control of the entire Eastern Mediterranean.

- (ominous music)

NARRATOR: Before the Roman annexation,

the island of Cyprus

was the last Egyptian stronghold in the Mediterranean.

The capital, Paphos,

known as "Little Alexandria",

is situated just 400 kilometres from Egypt.

Cleopatra's ancestors used the island

to build the largest fleet in history.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Thanks to building such an extensive fleet,

the Ptolemies had established a thalassocracy

in the Mediterranean Sea.

- (translation) "Thalasso": the sea and "cracy": power.

The control of maritime space.

The Ptolemies were confined to their own territory.

By expanding to Cyprus, Rhodes and the Aegean Sea,

they could establish their domination.

NARRATOR: The island of Cyprus

was the Greek Pharaohs' military-strategy outpost.

Claire Balandier is an archaeologist

specialising in ancient cities

and their defensive policies.

The site of the kings' tomb was one of the last to be built

by the Ptolemaic military elite.

- (translation) This type of peristyle tomb

recreates their home environment.

In other words, there's columns all around it,

so in death, they hope to continue to live in the same environment

as the one they had lived in previously in Alexandria.

- (commotion)

NARRATOR: Cyprus was the last jewel in the crown of the Mediterranean

for the Ptolemies.

The Alexandrians were outraged by the Roman annexation

of this strategic territory

and they demanded the alliance with Rome be broken.

- With the loss of Cyprus,

the people of Alexandria and the Egyptians, in general,

feel a sense of betrayal towards Rome.

NARRATOR: Ptolemy XII did not just receive hostility from the people.

Even his daughter Berenice opposed him.

- (translation) He had the rebel assassinated, his daughter Berenice,

so that his favourite daughter, Cleopatra, could take her place.

SCHWENTZEL: (translation) She was 17 years old

when Ptolemy XII ascended her to the throne.

She was crowned and became a goddess.

She was known as the "Philopator" goddess,

the goddess who loved her father.

She reigned jointly with him.

They were a royal father-daughter couple.

NARRATOR: The Ptolemaic dynasty

was inspired by Pharaonic traditions.

It took two to wield power.

- (gong strikes)

NARRATOR: Against the backdrop of conflict,

Ptolemy XII had to establish his legitimacy as Pharaoh.

He inscribed his legend in stone,

as the great warrior Pharaohs and builders of the New Kingdom

had done before him.

- On the temple walls of Edfu,

King Ptolemy XII actually has himself represented

as a typical Egyptian Pharaoh.

He's smiting his enemies.

SWENTZEL (translation): He's holding a group of enemies

in one hand

and is about to decapitate them

with the weapon in his other hand.

TORRES-HUGON (translation): Ptolemy XII never went to war.

It was Rome that put him in power.

- This is typical pharaonic propaganda

and a twisting of realities.

- (translation) He wants to show he is like the great Pharaohs.

He accomplishes his mission:

to maintain the Ma'at - just order,

by massacring foreign enemies

who are seen as the vectors of chaos.

- (turbulent music)

NARRATOR: Ptolemy XII died in 51 BCE.

Cleopatra, already Pharaoh,

expected to rule Egypt alone.

- (translation) But she opened her father's will

and discovered he requested her to marry

her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, aged 13 or 14,

in order to respect dynastic custom.

So she married Ptolemy XIII

and we have a new couple, a brother-sister couple,

a common tradition in the dynasty.

- Together, they could rule Egypt, but in reality,

Cleopatra had no desire to share power.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra has no intention of respecting tradition

and reigning in anyone's shadow.

An unprecedented situation,

which causes cracks and inevitable conflict

at the height of power.

- (translation) The court advisors chose to support

her brother Ptolemy XIII,

because they thought that the young Ptolemy XIII

would be easier to manipulate than this dynamic and ambitious queen,

and so a civil war broke out

between Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra.

- (clamour)

NARRATOR: Cleopatra was forced into exile.

She fled to Syria

with one objective: to return to the throne.

It was against this backdrop of civil war

that Julius Caesar, Rome's most powerful general,

arrived in Alexandria.

He does not look favourably on this conflict,

which risks damaging his interests.

For Egypt to be profitable for him,

the country must return to peace.

He positions himself as referee, but soon becomes trapped.

- The Alexandrian people were still very unhappy

with the loss of Cyprus

and, on top of that, the advisors of Ptolemy the XIII

had pushed for skirmishes

against the Roman forces.

- (flames crackle, shouting)

- (translation) Ptolemy XIII had no trouble

stirring up the people of Alexandria against Caesar.

Ptolemy and his entourage thought they could take advantage

of Caesar's numerical inferiority,

with only 3,200 men.

You have to realise that Alexandria

was the most densely populated city in the Mediterranean basin

at the time. There were at least 500,000 inhabitants.

Ptolemy distributed weapons to all volunteers,

even slaves, in order to create a militia

that would help the regular Ptolemaic army.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: The situation soon deteriorates.

Caesar found himself trapped in Alexandria,

surrounded by the civilian population

and the 20,000 soldiers of Ptolemy XIII.

The siege of Alexandria began.

Vincent Torres-Hugon

is an expert in ancient armies.

He dons the armour and weaponry of the ancient soldiers

in order to study their equipment and tactics.

- (translation) The Egyptian fighters

are the Thyreophoroi,

the "shield-bearers".

The thyreos, which in Greek means "the door",

is a fairly compact shield

and when the combatant is on guard... On guard!

..this shield covers

from the ankle to the head,

so even if you're lightly armed,

you can still be well protected.

NARRATOR: Ptolemy's armed forces were large,

but lacked the experience of Caesar's troops.

TORRES-HUGON (translation): His troops are fully equipped,

loyal and well trained. They wear body armour.

This is the most common type of protection,

which all Roman legionaries wore after the Gallic War.

It's called "lorica hamata", or chain mail.

The concept behind chain mail is that it's extremely protective

and shields against jabs and slashes.

NARRATOR: The Romans were masters of military art.

One manoeuvre that made them

particularly successful on the battlefield

was the turtle,

where the soldiers grouped themselves in a square

and formed a shell with their shields.

They also developed offensive tactics, such as permutation.

- (barks order in Latin)

- A pugnam...

Pugnate!

(translation) This soldier is wounded

and asks his companion to replace him,

and so on, down the line.

All the combatants can rest

and have direct confrontation in short bursts.

This experience benefited Caesar,

while Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII only had troops that would continually fight,

and where the front lines would only withdraw

when they were dead or wounded.

NARRATOR: With this knowledge,

Cleopatra felt she had a card to play.

The tide could turn in her favour.

- Cleopatra was well educated.

She had been educated with her father at the Roman court.

She had access to all the Alexandrian knowledge

from the Library of Alexandria.

- (translation) Cleopatra was a linguist.

She was the first Pharaoh to speak Egyptian.

Above all, she understood the Mediterranean issues of her time.

She knew that Rome had the power

to make or break kings.

WATT: She knew how the world turned

and what made the world change.

NARRATOR: Unlike her brother,

who was young and inexperienced,

Cleopatra was a woman of action,

a strategist who had already ruled.

Faced with Rome,

she made a bold decision:

she would do anything to regain her title as Pharaoh

and she will go down in history

thanks to a now-famous ruse.

- (translation) Imagine Cleopatra hidden at the bottom of a boat.

She discreetly enters the port

with a single servant called Apollodorus.

He's a Sicilian athlete.

This is important because, once he arrives at the quay

near the palace,

he carries her on his back in a rucksack

and this is how she enters the palace.

The bag is placed at Caesar's feet,

so he doesn't know what it is.

He finds the young Queen of Egypt,

who's 21 years old.

She emerges from the bag

and he immediately asks his staff

to leave the room

and they become lovers that night.

Julius Caesar is 52, she is 21

and her idea, which will dictate her entire strategy,

is to form a political, or erotic-political alliance

with the powerful Romans.

Her father has given money to the powerful Romans

and she is going to take it for herself.

- (flames crackle, screaming)

NARRATOR: Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and his men

find themselves besieged

in the palace of Alexandria.

SCHWENTZEL: (translation) "So we have to hold out."

That's the essence of Caesar's strategy.

- They're waiting for reinforcements,

supplies, troops to arrive.

- (clamouring, horns sound)

NARRATOR: Caesar ordered the burning

of Pharaoh Ptolemy's ships,

which were depriving him of access to the sea.

The collateral damage was devastating:

a fire ravaged the famous Library of Alexandria.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: Pharaoh Ptolemy was also planning a major coup.

The city of Alexandria is a masterpiece of engineering

built around an intelligent irrigation and storage system

that provides drinking water to every corner of the city.

- (translation) Since the people of Alexandria

couldn't force Caesar to give up,

they tried to make him and his troops thirsty.

- (translation) The insurgents are deliberately pouring seawater

into the pipes and cisterns

that bring drinking water to the palace.

The aim is, obviously, to make it unfit for consumption.

- So Caesar ordered his men

to find new water sources

and within one night,

after digging throughout the night,

they found and dug a well.

NARRATOR: Thanks to their unrivalled coordination,

the Romans succeeded just in time.

- (wind gusting)

NARRATOR: After several months of siege,

Cleopatra and Caesar finally received reinforcements.

Mithridates of Pergamum,

a king of Anatolia,

wants to seek favour with Caesar.

He raised an army of tens of thousands of men

in Cilicia and Syria

and headed for Egypt.

In response to the threat,

Ptolemy XIII reinforced the fortified outpost of Pelusium,

but this did not stop Mithridates,

who crushed the Egyptian garrison

and continued to advance

towards Alexandria.

Faced with this serious threat,

Ptolemy XIII and his army tried to block the way,

but Caesar also sent troops to the Nile Delta.

It was on the banks of the sacred river

that the final battle took place

and it would seal the fate of the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII.

- (battle cries) NARRATOR: The allied Roman forces

would crush Ptolemy's army.

SCHWENTZEL: (translation) The shock is so great

that the battle probably didn't last long.

Ptolemy XIII, defeated,

fled and drowned in the Nile.

TORRET-HUGON: (translation) It was a huge victory for Caesar and Rome,

but mostly for Cleopatra,

who watched her main opponent to the pharaonic throne die in battle.

SCHWENTZEL: (translation) Caesar put Cleopatra back on the throne,

but as there had to be a pharaonic couple,

Cleopatra married her second remaining younger brother,

Ptolemy XIV.

NARRATOR: Ptolemy XIV was only 12 years old

and posed no threat to the Pharaoh.

Cleopatra now has full power over Egypt.

- (translation) In the end, it was Cleopatra who really triumphed

in the Battle of the Nile.

Thanks to her alliance with Caesar,

she established her authority over Egypt

and, above all, because Caesar needed her

to keep the peace in Egypt,

he was going to give her diplomatic gifts,

including the return of Cyprus.

NARRATOR: For the Egyptian people, it was a relief.

For Cleopatra, a new horizon.

- (translation) The return of this island, a key part

of the Egyptian defensive system,

enabled Egypt to revive

its dream of thalassocracy and domination

of the Eastern Mediterranean.

NARRATOR: After the war,

Cleopatra launched a diplomatic operation

using resources worthy of the Pharaohs.

She showed Caesar the treasures of Egypt

aboard the Thalamos.

SCHWENTZEL: (translation) "Thalamos" in Greek

means the bedroom, the palace,

and it's a colossal boat.

It's the biggest ship ever built -

not a warship at all, but a ship of state.

It's a huge yacht, in a way.

She was proud to show Julius Caesar

the glorious heritage of the Pharaohs

that she claimed for herself...

..and which, in a way, also symbolises her power

as the Egyptian goddess-queen.

She wanted to show Julius Caesar a part of herself.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra offers Caesar a spectacle like no other.

3,000 years of Pharaonic splendour

and architectural gems

are revealed to him.

WATT: But at the same time, it gave the opportunity to Caesar

to assess the wealth of Egypt

on the resources he was interested in.

He was more interested

in the wheat resources than, perhaps, in the old temples.

For her, it was an opportunity

to demonstrate her power over Egyptian territory

and establish important diplomatic relations

with the new strongman of Rome.

Caesar, on his part, wasn't fooled.

It was a way for him to establish his authority in Egypt,

to leave an ally loyal to his own interests,

so that he could continue his civil war

and control Egypt through Cleopatra.

Both had an interest in this alliance.

As luck would have it,

Cleopatra's romance led to her becoming pregnant

and, more importantly, to her giving birth to a son,

the future Caesarion, the new Pharaoh,

who would be of Ptolemaic and Roman origin.

For Cleopatra, this was a way of establishing her authority.

NARRATOR: After the birth of her son,

Cleopatra eliminated her last brother, Ptolemy XIV.

She could now reign Egypt

with Caesarion at her side,

like Isis and Horus before them.

From then on, Cleopatra developed

a Pharaonic propaganda campaign around her son.

He was at the heart of her political strategy.

At the temple of Dandarah,

she ordered the creation of monumental reliefs,

in which she represented herself and Caesarion

in the manner of the great Pharaohs.

Her son was only three years old,

but he was depicted as a bloodthirsty warrior.

Inside the temple,

Cleopatra addressed the gods directly.

An extraordinary number of reliefs

honouring the mother and her son

adorn the most sacred spaces.

- (translation) Eight, nine, ten, 11, 12,

13, 14... About 20.

The message here is clear.

There are about 20 representations of Caesarion

and only four of Cleopatra.

She really wanted to showcase her son,

so it's an official discourse, a discourse of pure propaganda.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra travelled to Rome

in the hope Caesar would recognise Caesarion

as her official heir,

but Octavian, Caesar's grand-nephew and legitimate heir,

had little regard for her claims.

- But her attempt to have Caesarion recognised

as an official heir to Caesar

was stopped.

- (translation) Unfortunately for Cleopatra, Caesar was assassinated.

It was a serious blow to her strategy

of getting close to the strongman of Rome.

NARRATOR: Caesar's death put everything back into play.

Without a Roman protector

and without recognition of her son as the official heir,

Cleopatra was vulnerable.

- (translation) There are two main heirs to Cesar,

who share the Roman Empire:

Octavian, the nephew adopted as his son by Caesar,

who basically dominated the West,

and then Mark Antony, one of Julius Caesar's loyal collaborators...

..and his heir in the East.

WATT: Mark Antony was loyal to Julius Caesar.

He had fought alongside him...

..and actually fought to defend his honour

against the people who had murdered him.

Mark Antony was a logical choice for Cleopatra

to approach, in order to establish a new alliance.

NARRATOR: Mark Antony and Cleopatra

meet in 41 BCE in what is now southern Turkey.

Immediately, a legendary political, military

and romantic alliance begins.

Their passionate relationship will upset the balance of power

in the ancient world.

- (translation) And it's quite natural, you might say,

that Cleopatra will become attached to Mark Antony,

who is the Roman of the moment,

with whom she will repeat her erotic-political strategy.

- (translation) She's going to marry him

and, importantly, give him three children.

NARRATOR: First came twins

Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene,

then another boy,

Ptolemy Philadelphus.

- For Mark Antony, an alliance with Cleopatra is...

really helpful.

She provides him

with supplies, with food,

with fleet,

with gold and silver...

She becomes the purse

of Mark Antony's war efforts in the East.

For Cleopatra this is an opportunity to rebuild,

perhaps soon,

the kingdom of Ptolemy I, as it was.

NARRATOR: With the union of Cleopatra and Mark Antony,

Egypt became the axis of Roman domination in the East.

In 37 BCE, Cleopatra obtained a gift

from Mark Antony:

a series of Near East territories

in Cyrenaica and Cilicia,

to the south of present-day Turkey.

She was one step closer

to her dream of restoring

the great Lagid empire.

She established herself as an all-powerful sovereign

reigning over land and sea.

WATT: Cleopatra, for the Egyptians,

she was Isis, the goddess of the sea,

the queen-sister-ruler.

For the Greek people, she was Aphrodite.

Goddess of love, sure,

but goddess also that came out of the sea.

NARRATOR: Located on the southwest coast of Cyprus,

Aphrodite's Rock is the mythical place

where, according to legend,

the goddess Aphrodite emerged from the waves

carried by a shell.

According to mythology,

anyone who swims around the rock

is blessed with eternal youth

and beauty.

Claire Balandier has discovered an extraordinary place of worship.

Buried deep in the ground, it had been ignored

for over 2,000 years.

- (translation) We were surprised

to discover this fantastic setting,

which is a large shell carved into the rock.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra and Mark Antony were to become gods.

She identifies with the goddess Aphrodite

and he with the god Dionysus.

- (translation) And, symbolically,

they are going to show their political and emotional association

in a wedding that is going to take place where?

In Cyprus, in the sanctuary of Aphrodite.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra is the goddess of love and beauty,

Mark Antony the god of wine and celebration.

But that's not all: in the East,

Dionysus is also a god of war and conquest.

- (translation) Antony and Cleopatra founded a community

called The Inimitables,

where the two sovereigns celebrated the Dionysian cult

through an art of living and extreme decadence,

as only the great Hellenistic sovereigns could afford.

NARRATOR: The Cup of the Ptolemies

is a priceless royal treasure dedicated to the cult of Dionysus.

Carved from a block of fine stone,

it was sculpted in Alexandria in the 1st century BCE

and has been used to crown a multitude of kings.

- Cleopatra and Mark Antony's propaganda

was expressed through...luxuries.

They took part

and created parties and luxurious feasting,

which were completely normal

in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

On the other hand, for the Romans,

this was debauchery.

TORRES-HUGON: Cleopatra is the one who led Mark Antony

into a life of Eastern luxury and perversion.

- Rome starts an active propaganda

against Cleopatra.

She is everything the Romans do not agree with.

NARRATOR: Octavian orchestrated a terrible campaign against Cleopatra,

smearing her with all manner of evils.

The author Cassius Dio

transcribed Octavian's insults to the Pharaoh:

- (translation) "It would be unbearable for us to be defeated

and despised by a woman,

an Egyptian woman."

SCHWENTZEL: (translation) This propaganda is xenophobic

and misogynistic.

In the patriarchal society of the Romans,

women were submissive.

There were no female senators,

whereas in Egypt there was a tradition of female power.

- (translation) "Who would not weep when they saw Antony himself

bowing down at the feet of this female?

He is no longer Roman - he is Egyptian.

He has renounced all the sanctity of ancestral institutions

to go and play cymbals in the slums of Canope."

- (translation) It was the incessant criticism by Octavian of Cleopatra

that led to the Battle of Actium.

He even described her as an "Egyptian whore".

- (translation) And Antony, almost in spite of himself,

like a victim, became the enemy of the Roman people.

NARRATOR: In 34 BCE,

a new event would set the world alight:

the Alexandria donations.

- During the donations of Alexandria in 34 BC,

Mark Antony, not only did he recognise Caesarion

as rightful heir of Julius Caesar,

but he also awarded part of his land,

which he was controlling for Rome,

to each of his children.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra and Mark Antony

seek to strengthen their power

by crowning their children.

They laid the foundations for a new dynasty

that would take control of the entire Eastern Mediterranean.

East is given to Alexander Helios.

North went to Ptolemy Philadelphus.

The west became the kingdom of Cleopatra Selene...

..and as for Caesarion, he became the king of kings.

TORRES-HUGON: (translation) For Rome, it was a scandal

and the threat of a new dynasty in the East, an Egyptian dynasty,

led to a conflict with Octavian.

NARRATOR: The donated lands provoked the anger of the Roman Senate,

which refused to approve the agreement.

This sealed the conflict with Rome.

- (translation) And so, Octavian declared war

only on Cleopatra, the femme fatale, the evil woman,

and not on Mark Antony,

because Mark Antony no longer represented anything

but a toy in Cleopatra's hands.

NARRATOR: The war is on.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony are going to assemble a huge army.

They are more determined than ever to confront Octavian.

Cleopatra is not a queen of the shadows.

She is a sovereign on the front line, a determined warrior.

She embarks with her troops

for the battle that will seal the future of her dynasty.

- (translation from Greek) Mark Antony and Cleopatra

have joined forces with 500 warships

and an army of 100,000 soldiers

and horsemen.

NARRATOR: In the summer of 32 BCE,

Cleopatra and Mark Antony left Alexandria with their huge fleet.

They made several stopovers,

gathering more and more troops from across the empire.

In the spring of 31 BCE,

they settle at Actium,

ideally positioned on the sea routes linking Greece, Italy and Egypt.

They want to control the passages that are vital to Octavian.

Jenny Barka is a historian.

She is fascinated by the war that was fought right here,

in the Bay of Actium.

- (translation) The first supply camps were built in the Peloponnese.

Others were installed on the Ionian Islands:

one on the island of Lefkada, in front of us,

the others on Ithaca and Corfu.

NARRATOR: Octavian had assembled slightly fewer ships,

but had better prepared for the war.

He had a secret weapon within his ranks.

WATT: Octavian forces amounted to 350 ships,

80,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry.

He is helped by a successful land general, Agrippa,

who also became an incredible admiral of his fleet.

General Agrippa was one of the strongest assets of Octavian

and probably the reason why he won that war.

- (battle cries)

NARRATOR: Octavian's headquarters

were on the hills to the north of Actium.

From there, he had an overview

of both land and sea.

His troops are positioned

facing out to sea,

providing easy access to shipping lanes.

- (suspenseful music builds)

- He established his headquarters on this exact spot,

so this entire range of the hills

was covered by his army...

- (horse whinnies)

- ..and here he had the command

of the plain below him.

On the waters of the Ionian Sea, you can see over there,

was the navy.

On the other side, we see

the waters of the Ambracian Gulf,

where, inside, the navy of Antony was stationed.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra and Mark Antony's ships

were sheltered from storms by the Gulf of Ambracia.

Their camps were set up nearby.

In the event of a land offensive,

the soldiers of Mark Antony and Cleopatra,

like those of Octavian,

were ready to fight back,

separated only by the mouth of Actium,

a strategic choice that would backfire

on Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

- They selected a point

that actually was low on the water,

easily accessible to their ships,

but it contained swamps.

- That area, during the summer, had...

standing waters,

so wasn't a healthy position.

- (translation) Many of the troops were decimated by disease,

particularly malaria and dysentery.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: Their situation only got worse.

The shrewd strategist Agrippa, Octavian's commander,

undermined Cleopatra and Mark Antony's position.

He led a series of offensives

against the supply points they had established

along their route from Egypt.

- Agrippa's strategy

led to a situation of blockade

for Mark Antony and Cleopatra's troops.

TORRES-HUGON: (translation) The siege organised by Agrippa

causes enormous damage

to Cleopatra and Mark Antony's army.

Firstly, there were deaths,

but also the planned reinforcements didn't arrive.

This situation, which dragged on for months,

forced Cleopatra and Mark Antony

to go on the offensive.

Actium is a way out of the siege.

The Egyptian fleet and Mark Antony's Roman fleet

surge to break the blockade organised by Agrippa.

BARKA: (translation) We're probably in the same place here

where the battle began

on 2 September 31 BCE.

The combined fleets of Mark Antony and Cleopatra

sailed into the Bay of Actium.

- (battle cries)

NARRATOR: When Cleopatra and Mark Antony

finally sail out of the Gulf of Ambracia,

Octavian's fleet is waiting for them

lined up in battle position.

The fleet assembled by Cleopatra and Mark Antony

was theoretically more powerful and more destructive.

Their warships were designed

to crush smaller enemy boats by smashing them.

In a standard configuration, the larger the boat,

the more imposing the rostrum.

It indicates more rowers,

greater acceleration and impact

and more damage to enemy ships.

But at Actium, history was to take a very different path.

Germain Rousseaux, an interdisciplinary physicist,

is studying these ancient ships.

He has examined the battle of Actium

in great detail.

- (translation) We're going to accelerate

during an extremely fast phase

lasting around one to two minutes,

with rowers who will collide with the opposing hull,

create a hole and the enemy boat sinks.

- (dramatic music intensifies)

- (translation) When we look at the two sides here,

Octavian on one and Mark Antony on the other,

if the impact is made at the same speed,

as you can see,

a larger size gives you a competitive advantage.

NARRATOR: But for some mysterious reason,

at Actium, Mark Antony's ships were struggling to make headway.

- And this question motivated us:

why couldn't Mark Antony use the rostrum technique

and crush Octavian, as he should have done,

on the open sea?

NARRATOR: The Bay of Actium has some unique features.

Here, freshwater from the Ambracian Gulf meets seawater,

creating special sailing conditions:

the phenomenon of "dead water".

Freshwater, which is lighter than saltwater,

will create a layer on the surface.

Scientists are studying the various factors

that may have played a role at Actium.

The depth of the water in the bay,

the power of the boats,

their positioning

and also the depth of their hulls:

the bigger they are,

the deeper they sink into layers of different densities.

- The difference is that Octavian's boats

penetrated the layer by about 80 centimetres,

while Mark Antony's boats

penetrated the layer by about 2.5 meters.

Mark Antony's boats didn't feel the jump in density

between fresh- and saltwater.

NARRATOR: As it accelerates, the boat will create a wave

between the two layers.

Depending on its depth and speed,

the boat will either be carried

or slowed by this ripple.

- So the boat has just accelerated,

so it's generating the internal wave at the stern.

So the question is whether or not

it's going to catch up, break away,

or whether the boat will manage to escape.

It catches up! So it breaks, and so the boat stops.

NARRATOR: In this configuration,

Mark Antony's boats were at a disadvantage,

but Octavian's boats were at an advantage.

- (translation) The ship has generated a wake here,

but it's not going fast enough to escape.

It's a wake that the boat can surf.

Instead of being slowed down by the wake generated,

this time it's accelerated.

It has an advantage.

- In ancient texts, it is said

that not only were Mark Antony's boats slowed down,

but Octavian's boats had "a doubled impetus".

"Impetus" in Latin means the quantity of movement,

so they were going twice as fast as usual.

NARRATOR: For Cleopatra and Mark Antony's side,

it was impossible to attack with the rostrums.

The frontal attack did not take place as planned.

General Agrippa expanded his front line

both north and south

and ordered his fleet to gradually surround the enemy ships,

which were slowly advancing to the front.

BARKA: (translation) These smaller boats were going to board

Mark Antony's big ships

and that's why the battle takes a completely different turn.

The ships are neck and neck,

very close.

The fighting is close. It's not really a naval battle any more.

NARRATOR: With no ramming, there's a cry for boarding.

Mark Antony's legionaries, like Octavian's,

were professionals experienced in close combat.

It was no longer a naval battle,

but hand-to-hand combat,

Roman against Roman,

in the Bay of Actium.

- (clang of weaponry)

NARRATOR: An almost familial battle on home ground.

Roman legionaries were at each other's throats.

Wearing the same armour, same helmets

and using the same weapons,

they had to develop their own method of identifying the enemy.

TORRES-HUGON: (translation) That's why, in the chaos of battle,

if there's any doubt,

each combatant has a watchword that is provided before the battle

so that he can be identified.

NARRATOR: If the soldier doesn't give the right answer,

they are an enemy.

- For example, Mark Antony could've very well used a Pharaonic phrase.

The other one would have to answer "Ra".

If he didn't answer properly, he would have been attacked.

- (suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: Cleopatra remained in the background.

The ramming has failed

and Mark Antony and his troops are in peril.

She is faced with a difficult choice:

whether to throw HER ships into battle and risk everything,

or protect the gold she has already loaded

on board her boat.

She chooses to save her treasure...

and her life.

When a loophole appeared in General Agrippa's system,

she seized the opportunity

and fled.

BARKA: Mark Antony realises he is going to lose the battle

and, at that precise moment,

everything changes:

Mark Antony decides to follow the Egyptian queen.

NARRATOR: By following in Cleopatra's footsteps,

Mark Antony abandoned many of his ships

and the vast majority of his troops.

WATT: Octavian took advantage of the situation

and presented Mark Antony's defection

to the remaining troops,

announcing that the victory was his

and the battle was over.

NARRATOR: In the midst of uncertainty,

the lonely troops on the battlefield make a fateful decision.

TORRES-HUGON: These legionaries are used to changing sides.

They line up behind the winner or whoever pays better.

- (translation) All of Mark Antony's allies gradually defected

and sided with Octavian,

which meant that Mark Antony could no longer count on anyone.

He couldn't organise another great battle against Octavian.

NARRATOR: Mark Antony and Cleopatra

didn't just lose the battle - they lost the war.

- (metallic scraping)

(suspenseful music builds)

NARRATOR: Nicopolis literally means "the city of victory".

Here, Octavian had a huge building erected at his headquarters -

a gigantic frieze

50 metres long,

in monumental letters, in honour of Mars and Neptune,

the gods of war and the sea.

To thank them for their incredible support,

he dedicated trophies to them.

35 rostra seized from the tips of Cleopatra and Mark Antony's ships

are set in stone.

TORRES-HUGON: The defeat at Actium was a tragedy

for Mark Antony and Cleopatra. They had to return to Alexandria.

They waited for reinforcements that never arrived

and finally, Octavian came to lay siege to them,

forcing them to make a dramatic choice: suicide.

It was the last major political act of this queen,

who buried the Ptolemaic dynasty with her.

- The walls of this room

were made at precisely the moment when Cleopatra killed herself

and it's worth noting that the cartridges were not filled in

because, in the meantime, Caesarion was assassinated by Octavian

and Cleopatra killed herself.

- Cleopatra VII died,

but also the 3,000-year history of Pharaohs,

of Egyptian kings on the throne of Egypt.

NARRATOR: Cleopatra was to be the last Pharaoh,

the last representative of the Egyptian gods on Earth.

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