The Battle of Augila was a battle fought between Octavian's Rome and Ptolemaic Egypt in 35 BC at the start of Antony's Civil War. The Roman general Sextus Numerius Blaesus' Legio I Alaudae attacked the army of Queen Cleopatra at the oasis town of Augila in the Cyrenaican desert, resulting in a major battle which saw the destruction of Cleopatra's army and Cleopatra's flight to join forces with Antony.
Background[]
While the triumvirs Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus battled for control of Sicily and North Africa from 40 to 35 BC, the third member of the triumvirate, Mark Antony, waged war against the Parthians while romancing the Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra. Cleopatra herself went to war with Judea to the northeast and the Nasamones of Cyrenaica to the west, conquering the oasis town of Augila in the process. However, in 35 BC, Octavian achieved a final triumph over Lepidus' Rome, leaving two of his legions in a position to strike east from northern Libya once he was ready to take on his rival Antony and Antony's powerful lover in Egypt. Octavian, seeking a decisive war with Antony, persuaded the Roman Senate to declare war on Cleopatra, who was under Antony's protection as his client; this forced Antony to enter the war on Cleopatra's side, and enabled Octavian to launch a multi-pronged offensive to the east: in Greece, Illyricum, and Cyrenaica. He personally led his Legio III Gemina to capture Cyrene in northern Cyrenaica as his legate Sextus Numerius Blaesus led his Legio I Alaudae southward and into the Cyrenaican desert, bound for Augila. Blaesus' legion suffered attritional casualties during its march through the desert, and his legion of 1,791 troops soon came across the combined forces of Queen Cleopatra's field army and the garrison of Augila, which, put together, totalled some 2,436 troops.
Battle[]
Blaesus ordered an assault on the oasis town, with his skirmishers deploying at the end of the central street running through the town, and inflicting heavy losses on the Egyptian spearmen with their missiles. When Cleopatra sent her Greek Citizen Cavalry forth to charge the Roman skirmishers, the Roman vigiles charged into battle with their spears, repelling the Greek cavalry. Battle soon opened up across the front as the Roman legionaries met the Egyptian pikemen in battle, and the Romans attacked the town from two sides, enabling them to push towards the central market from multiple directions. The Egyptians put up fierce resistance, their phalanxes holding their ground in the face of grueling combat, but they were ultimately overwhelmed and pressed into the central market. Cleopatra directed the battle from her chariot until she was wounded by a javelin, and her army was utterly destroyed. The Romans took Augila with 497 losses, while Cleopatra's field army was annihilated. This left Egypt under the control of her general Hilarion, who continued the fight while leading a defensive effort.
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