Res Gestae Divi Augusti

AugustusAD 14

The Deeds of the Divine Augustus: the emperor’s own account of his career, written in the first person and finished in the last year of his life. It was inscribed on bronze at his tomb in Rome and copied on stone in the provinces.

Augustus wrote this summary of his public life himself and says at the end that he was in his seventy-sixth year, which dates the final text to AD 13–14. The original at Rome is lost. The text survives because copies were inscribed in the province of Galatia, the most complete on a temple at Ankara, where the Latin is accompanied by a Greek translation.

It lists his offices and honours, the money he spent on the Roman people and the soldiers, and his wars and conquests. Chapter 34 is his description of what happened in 28–27 BC: he says that he handed the state back to the senate and people, received the name Augustus in return, and from then on excelled others in rank, as this translation has it, while holding no more official power than his colleagues.

This is the ruler’s own version, cut in stone to be read after his death. It is exact on dates, sums and titles, and it is silent where silence suited him: Antony, for example, is never mentioned by name. It is the best evidence for how Augustus wished his position to be understood. See Augustus Becomes Rome’s First Emperor.

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