Augustus, the first Roman emperor, had an autobiographical report of his accomplishments displayed around the empire. These excerpts reveal his justifications for his rule, especially the peace and financial benefits that he had brought to Roman citizens, thereby making him their patron and morally obligating them to be loyal clients. Many of the sections not included here list his numerous and expensive personal payments for public works.

1.At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army, which I used to liberate the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For this reason the Senate passed honorary votes for me and made me a member [in 43 B.C.E.], at the same time granting me the rank of a consul in its voting, and it gave me the power of military command [imperium]. It ordered me as propraetor to see to it, along with the consuls, that no harm came to the state. Moreover, in the same year, when both consuls had died in the war, the people elected me consul and a triumvir with the duty of establishing the republic. . . .

3.I waged many wars, civil and foreign, throughout the whole world by land and by sea, and as victor I spared all citizens who asked for pardons. Foreign peoples who could safely be pardoned I preferred to spare rather than destroy. Approximately 500,000 Roman citizens swore military oaths to me. A little more than 300,000 of these, when their terms of service were ended, I settled in colonies or sent back to their own municipalities; I allotted lands or granted money to all of them as rewards for military service. . . .

5.I refused to accept the dictatorship offered to me [in 22 B.C.E.] by the people and by the Senate, both in my absence and my presence. During a severe scarcity of grain I accepted the supervision of the grain supply, which I so administered that within a few days I freed the whole people from imminent panic and danger by my expenditures and effort. The consulship, too, which was offered to me at that time as an annual office for life, I refused to accept.

6.[In 19, 18, and 11 B.C.E.], although the Roman Senate and people in unison agreed that I should be elected sole guardian of the laws and morals with supreme power, I refused to accept any office offered to me that was contrary to our ancestors’ traditions [mos maiorum]. The measures that the Senate desired me to take at that time I carried out under the tribunician power. While holding this power I five times voluntarily requested and was given a colleague by the Senate.

7. . . . I have been ranking senator [princeps senatus] for forty years, up to the day on which I wrote this document. . . .

34.In my sixth and seventh consulships [28 and 27 B.C.E.], after I had put an end to the civil wars, having gained possession of everything through the consent of everyone, I returned the state from my own power [potestas] to the control of the Roman Senate and the people. As reward for this meritorious service, I received the title of Augustus by vote of the Senate, and the doorposts of my house were publicly decked with laurels, the civic crown was affixed over my doorway, and a golden shield was set up in the Julian Senate house, which, as the inscription on this shield testifies, the Roman Senate and people gave me in recognition of my valor, clemency, justice, and devotion. After that time I excelled all in the moral authority [auctoritas] that brings respect, but I possessed no more power [potestas] than the others who were my colleagues in each magistracy.

35.When I held my thirteenth consulship [2 B.C.E.], the Senate, the equestrian order, and the entire Roman people gave me the title of “father of the country” [pater patriae]. . . . At the time I wrote this document I was in my seventy-sixth year.

Source: Herbert W. Benario, ed., Caesaris Augusti Res Gestae et Fragmenta, 2nd ed. (1990). Translation by Thomas R. Martin.

Question to Consider

Why do you think Augustus ends this justification of his rule with a list of his personal and moral qualities as officially recognized by the Roman Senate and people?