Author Series | Barry Strauss | The War That Made the Roman Empire

Barry Strauss discusses his newest book The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium. Strauss’s book describes one of history’s most important and yet little-known wars, the campaign culminating in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, whose outcome determined the future of the Roman Empire. Publisher’s Weekly opines, “A gripping account of the war for control of the Roman Empire. . . . [Strauss] has an eye for telling details and a knack for explaining the era’s complex political alliances and rivalries in clear terms. Ancient history buffs will be riveted.”
Following Caesar’s assassination and Mark Antony’s defeat of the conspirators who killed Caesar, two powerful men remained in Rome-Antony and Caesar’s chosen heir, young Octavian, the future Augustus. When Antony fell in love with the most powerful woman in the world, Egypt’s ruler Cleopatra, and thwarted Octavian’s ambition to rule the empire, another civil war broke out. The Battle of Actium had great consequences for the empire. Had Antony and Cleopatra won, the empire’s capital might have moved from Rome to Alexandria, Cleopatra’s capital, and Latin might have become the empire’s second language after Greek, which was spoken throughout the eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt. The War That Made the Roman Empire is essential history that features three of the greatest figures of the ancient world.
Barry Strauss is a professor of history and classics at Cornell University, The Corliss Page Dean Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a leading expert on ancient military history. He has written or edited several books, including The Battle of Salamis, The Trojan War, The Spartacus War, Masters of Command, The Death of Caesar, and Ten Caesars.