Actium

This little beach was the site of the battle of Actium. This was the battle that really determined the course of the Roman world. It was the final battle between Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) and Mark Antony. Mark Antony's fleet was destroyed and he was forced to flee with Cleopatra to Egypt where they awaited Octavian's arrival.

Somewhere over there was Antony's fleet. He held a base somewhere on this stretch of land while Octavian had a base on the other side of the inlet. There was a fair amount of fighting and Antony was blockaded by Octavian's fleet. When he tried to break out he met with disaster.

That beach over there looks much nicer. We probably should have gone there. This beach was covered with about a foot of dried up seaweed. It was like walking on plaited mats. I'll bet this is why Antony lost, he didn't get to the nice beachfront in time!

I don't think that these walls date back to the Romans but they did have fortifications here. I'd kinda like to know where these walls came from but the only people around were having a beach party and didn't look like they'd know anyways. The land behind this is an airport, possibly a military one. Certainly there were a lot of military signs around and we didn't see any civilian planes landing.

Panoramic View

Actium in Greece

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38°56'15.00"N, 20°44'31.00"E

This is the bridge to Patras. It used to be that to get to the Peloponnese you had to go via the isthmus of Corinth but now you can cross over the Patras bridge in the west. You have to pay a toll of course, but that's the way it is with Greece. If they can get away with it they charge you for everything. They really need the money.