 After a week the commanders of Antony's land forces, which were supposed to follow him to Asia, promptly surrendered their legions without a fight.By the end of the day, Antony's entire fleet would lie at the bottom of the sea and the Roman world would have witnessed the largest naval battle in almost 200 years.Even though Octavian wanted to immediately pursue Antony and Cleopatra, many of his veterans wanted to retire and return to private life.