In 36 BCE, the Roman Republic’s fate wasn’t decided in the Senate or on a battlefield in Italy, but on the waves off Sicily. The Battle of Naulochus is a name most people have never heard, yet it was the clash that made Augustus possible. Rome was starving, her grain supply strangled by Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey the Great, who ruled the seas like a pirate king. Into this crisis stepped Marcus Agrippa, Octavian’s brilliant right-hand man, who built a secret fleet, trained new crews, and unleashed a terrifying invention called the harpax. When the two fleets met, Agrippa’s innovation crushed Sextus’ speed, and Rome’s lifeline was restored. Without Naulochus, there is no Augustus, no empire, no marble glory. In this episode, we tell the story of how a forgotten sea battle turned the tide of history and set the course for Rome’s future.

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