The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization | Actium
Actium (see map: Greece and the Aegean world), a flat sandy promontory at the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf, forming part of the territory of Anactorium, as well as the NW extremity of Acarnania. A cult of Apollo was located here as early as the 6th cent. bc to judge from the torsos of two archaic kouroi found on the cape in 1867. At this time, or soon thereafter, a temple stood on a low hill near the tip of the promontory where games were celebrated in honour of the god as late as the end of the 3rd cent. bc. In 31 BC the cape was the site of Mark Antony's camp, and gave its name to the naval battle, fought just outside the gulf, in which he was defeated by Octavian, the future Augustus (2 September). A few years later, when Octavian founded Nicopolis on the opposite (northern) side of the strait, he took care to enlarge...
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