Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Res Gestae Divi Augusti, literally "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus" i.e. the accomplishments of the first Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, was a record of Augustus' career. There were numerous copies of the Res Gestae, one of which was carved into bronze pillars and placed in Augustus' mausoleum. This copy does not survive, but other copies do, carved in stone on monuments or temples throughout the Roman Empire; most notably, a full copy, written in Latin and Greek was preserved on a temple to Augustus in Ancyra (the Monumentum Ancyranum, now in Ankara, Turkey). According to the text it was written just before Augustus' death in AD 14, but it was probably written years earlier and revised over the years. Augustus left the text with his will, which instructed the Senate to set up the inscriptions. The first part of the Res Gestae begins with Augustus being granted power by the Senate, describing the various honours bestowed upon him, with the sense that he was not ambitious and did not ask for these honours. The second part describes Augustus' gifts of money, games, and buildings to the Roman people. The third part describes the expansion of the empire and the peace and friendship with the rest of the world established during his reign. An appendix summarizes the entire text, and lists the various buildings he constructed; it states that he spent 600,000,000 of his own denarii during his reign. The Res Gestae is considered to be obvious propaganda. It tends to gloss over events between the assassination of Julius Caesar and the victory of Augustus (at the time still called Octavian) over Marcus Antonius and Pompeius Magnus. Antonius is, in fact, never mentioned by name, and Pompeius is referred to simply as a "pirate."

External link

\n*in LacusCurtius, in Latin, Greek and English\n*The Res Gestae at the Latin Library (in Latin)\n*The Res Gestae at the Internet Classics Archive (in English) Category:Ancient Rome