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Augustus, Res Gestae

During his lifetime Augustus wrote an official account of his long career that began in 44 B.C.E., when he was nineteen years old. He included the work with his will, which told the Senate to set it up as a public inscription. The original document, which no longer survives, was engraved on two bronze columns in front of the Mausoleum of Augustus, a large tomb erected in Rome by Augustus that is still standing. In many other places throughout the Roman Empire copies were carved into monuments, some of which survive, and the text became known as the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The deeds of the divine Augustus). In this work Augustus offers his readers a firsthand account of his public life. He stresses that he has always acted according to the authority that the Romans bestowed upon him. However, Augustus’s publicized opinions of his actions and aims were not always shared by others.

In the opening section Augustus lists his accomplishments and the honors bestowed upon him by the Roman Senate and people.

1. At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. . . .

2. Those who slew my father [Julius Caesar, his adoptive father] I drove into exile, punishing their deed by due process of law, and afterwards when they waged war upon the republic I twice defeated them in battle.

3. Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon. The foreign nations which could with safety be pardoned I preferred to save rather than to destroy. The number of Roman citizens who bound themselves to me by military oath was about 500,000. Of these I settled in colonies or sent back into their own towns, after their term of service, something more than 300,000, and to all I assigned lands, or gave money as a reward for military service. I captured six hundred ships, over and above those which were smaller than triremes.

4. . . . For successful operations on land and sea, conducted either by myself or by my lieutenants under my auspices, the Senate on fifty-five occasions decreed that thanks should be rendered to the immortal gods. The days on which such thanks were rendered by decree of the Senate numbered 890. . . .

6. . . . When the Senate and the Roman people unanimously agreed that I should be elected overseer of laws and morals, without a colleague and with the fullest power, I refused to accept any power offered me which was contrary to the traditions of our ancestors.

In the next section Augustus tells of his personal donations to the republic.

20. The Capitolium and the theatre of Pompey, both works involving great expense, I rebuilt without any inscription of my own name. I restored the channels of the aqueducts which in several places were falling into disrepair through age, and doubled the capacity of the aqueduct called the Marcia by turning a new spring into its channel. . . . I rebuilt in the city eighty-two temples of the gods, omitting none which at that time stood in need of repair. . . .

22. Three times in my own name I gave a show of gladiators, and five times in the name of my sons or grandsons; in these shows there fought about ten thousand men. Twice in my own name I furnished for the people an exhibition of athletes gathered from all parts of the world, and a third time in the name of my grandson. Four times I gave games in my own name; as representing other magistrates twenty-three times. . . . [O]n twenty-six occasions I gave to the people, in the circus, in the forum, or in the amphitheatre, hunts of African wild beasts, in which about three thousand five hundred beasts were slain.

He then discusses his military actions and founding of colonies.

25. I freed the sea from pirates. About thirty thousand slaves, captured in that war, who had run away from their masters and had taken up arms against the republic, I delivered to their masters for punishment. The whole of Italy voluntarily took oath of allegiance to me and demanded me as its leader in the war in which I was victorious at Actium. The provinces of the Spains, the Gauls, Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia took the same oath of allegiance. . . .

26. I extended the boundaries of all the provinces which were bordered by races not yet subject to our empire. The provinces of the Gauls, the Spains, and Germany, bounded by the ocean from Gades to the mouth of the Elbe, I reduced to a state of peace. The Alps, from the region such lies nearest to the Adriatic as far as the Tuscan Sea, I brought to a state of peace without waging on any tribe an unjust war. . . . On my order and under my auspices two armies were led, at almost the same time, into Ethiopia and into Arabia, which is called the “Happy,” and very large forces of the enemy of both races were cut to pieces in battle and many towns were captured. . . .

28. I settled colonies of soldiers in Africa, Sicily, Macedonia, both Spains, Achaia, Asia, Syria, Gallia Narbonensis, Pisidia. Moreover, Italy has twenty-eight colonies founded under my auspices which have grown to be famous and populous during my lifetime.

Augustus concludes by describing the titles given to him by the Senate.

34. In my sixth and seventh consulships, when I had extinguished the flames of civil war, after receiving by universal consent the absolute control of affairs, I transferred the republic from my own control to the will of the Senate and the Roman people. For this service on my part I was given the title of Augustus by decree of the Senate, and the doorposts of my house were covered with laurels by public act, and a civic crown was fixed above my door, and a golden shield was placed in the Curia Julia whose inscription testified that the Senate and the Roman people gave me this in recognition of my valour, my clemency, my justice, and my piety. . . .

35. While I was administering my thirteenth consulship the Senate and the equestrian order and the entire Roman people gave me the title of Father of my Country, and decreed that this title should be inscribed upon the vestibule of my house and in the Senate-house and in the Forum Augustum. . . . At the time of writing this I was in my seventy-sixth year.

EVALUATE THE EVIDENCE

Source: Velleius Paterculus, Loeb Classical Library, Volume 152, translated by Frederick W. Shipley; pp. 345, 347, 349, 351, 355, 377, 379, 381, 383, 385, 387, 389, 393, 399, 401. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. First published 1924. The Loeb Classical Library® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.