The Battle of Apollonia occurred in 35 BC at the start of Antony's Civil War, when Octavian's general Decimus Vergilius Praetextatus attacked and captured the Illyrian town of Apollonia. The battle marked the commencement of hostilities between the rival triumvirs Octavian and Mark Antony, and completed Octavian's control over Illyricum.
Background[]
Following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Caesar's adoptive son Gaius Octavius, Caesar's right-hand man Mark Antony, and Caesar's chief political ally Marcus Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate and defeated Caesar's assassins at the Battle of Philippi two years later. However, the tenuous alliance between the three mutually-suspicious triumvirs gradually unraveled as Antony refused to come to Lepidus' aid against Sextus Pompey in 40 BC, and Octavian refused to aid Lepidus against the Cantabri. In 36 BC, Octavian forced Lepidus to resign after the latter attempted to take control of Sicily after the defeat of Sextus. Now in sole power, Octavian was occupied in wooing the traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antony in order to raise himself to power. He argued that Antony was a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife Octavia the Younger (Octavian's sister) abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Antony was accused of everything, but most of all, of "going native", an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans. Several times Antony was summoned to Rome, but remained in Alexandria with Cleopatra.
As a result, once his legions in Italy, Illyricum, and North Africa were ready, Octavian declared war on Ptolemaic Egypt, which had no political arrangements with Octavian's Rome, but which was a client kingdom of Antony's Rome. Octavian correctly anticipated that Antony would come to his lover Cleopatra's aid, and Antony joined the war on Cleopatra's side. Octavian proceeded to order a multi-pronged offensive against Antony and Cleopatra: Servius Servilius Cornutus' Legio V Illyrica would invade northern Greece and march into Asia; Decimus Vergilius Praetextatus' Legio VI Concordialis would cross the Adriatic Sea from Brundisium (Brindisi) in Italy to attack Apollonia and secure Illyricum and the Peloponnese for Octavian; and Octavian and Sextus Numerius Blaesus would lead their Legio III Gemina and Legio I Alaudae from Leptis Magna to invade Egypt, with Octavian advancing along the Mediterranean coast towards Alexandria and Upper Egypt as Blaesus advanced into the desert and secured Cyrenaica and Upper Egypt.
Battle[]
Praetextatus' legion was the first to strike, as it had put out to sea in the weeks before the declaration of war, once it had become clear that Lepidus was defeated and Antony would be Octavian's next target. The 2,680-strong Legio VI Concordialis disembarked north of Apollonia and attacked the city, which was defended by 1,720 Antonian troops, among them two cohorts of legionaries. Praetextatus deployed his legion on the outskirts of the city, and battle commenced when Praetextatus' cavalry routed the naval garrison as its soldiers disembarked on the beach near Praetextatus' left flank. Praetextatus then had his skirmishers lure out the main garrison, which was overwhelmed in a contest of both numbers and quality. Octavian's legion suffered just 106 losses, while the Antonian garrison was destroyed.
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