Res Gestae Divi Augusti (AD 14): Augustus Tells His Own Story

The Res Gestae Divi Augusti, “The Deeds of the Divine Augustus”, is the first Roman emperor’s own account of his life and achievements, written in the first person and made public after his death in AD 14. The original was inscribed on bronze pillars outside his mausoleum in Rome, which are lost. A nearly complete copy survives in Latin and Greek on the walls of a temple in Ankara, Turkey, making it one of the most important documents of Roman history.

Origins and purpose

According to the biographer Suetonius, Augustus deposited his will with the Vestal Virgins together with three sealed rolls. One was an index of his achievements, which he wished to be engraved on bronze tablets in front of his mausoleum. After his death on 19 August AD 14, these documents were read in the Senate under his successor Tiberius.

In the last chapter Augustus says he was in his 76th year when he wrote it, which dates the final version to AD 13 or 14. Many scholars think he revised earlier drafts over several years. The text is a kind of political testament, presenting the image of himself that he wanted Romans to remember.

What the text says

The Res Gestae has 35 short chapters. It begins with Augustus at 19, in 44 BC, raising an army at his own expense and, as he puts it, freeing the state from the domination of a faction. It goes on to list the offices and honours he received, the honours he refused, his victories, and the peoples and kings who sought Roman friendship.

A large part describes his spending: payments to citizens and soldiers, land for veterans, games, gladiatorial shows and buildings. He lists dozens of temples, the Theatre of Marcellus, roads and aqueducts. He records three censuses, in which the number of Roman citizens grew from about 4,063,000 in 28 BC to 4,937,000 in AD 14, and he notes that the doors of the Temple of Janus, closed only in times of peace, were shut three times during his rule.

The climax comes in chapters 34 and 35. Augustus says that in 28-27 BC he transferred the state from his own power to the Senate and people, and that the Senate gave him the name Augustus. He claims that from then on he exceeded all in auctoritas, prestige or influence, but had no more power than his colleagues in office. He ends with the title Father of the Fatherland, granted in 2 BC. A short appendix, written after his death in the third person, sums up his expenditure.

The Monumentum Ancyranum

Copies were set up in the provinces, especially in Galatia in central Anatolia. The best preserved is on the Temple of Augustus and Rome in Ancyra, modern Ankara. The Latin text was carved on the inner walls of the temple porch, and a Greek translation on an outer wall of the main chamber, so that local Greek speakers could read it. Fragments of other copies have been found at Apollonia and Antioch in Pisidia.

The temple survived because it was later converted into a church, and in the fifteenth century a mosque, the Hacı Bayram Mosque, was built beside it. In 1555 Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, the ambassador of the Habsburg emperor to the Ottoman sultan, saw the inscription and had parts of it copied, bringing it to European attention. The German historian Theodor Mommsen published a landmark scholarly edition in 1865.

Reliability and interpretation

Historians value the Res Gestae because it is an official text from Augustus himself, and its dates, honours and figures generally match other evidence. Yet it is carefully selective. It never names Antony, Brutus or Cassius, the defeated enemies are described in vague terms, and the bloody proscriptions of 43 BC are not mentioned.

Its language reflects the political message of the first emperor’s settlement: one-man rule presented as a restored Republic, built on traditional offices and the consent of Senate and people. Reading what it leaves out is as revealing as reading what it says.

Modern reuse

In 1938, for the 2,000th anniversary of Augustus’s birth, Mussolini’s government had the Latin text carved on the wall of a new square beside the reconstructed Ara Pacis in Rome. The inscription remains there today, on the outside of the modern Ara Pacis Museum. The text is also widely read in schools and universities as an introduction to Augustus and Roman political propaganda.

Timeline

• 44 BC: Octavian, aged 19, raises a private army, the opening event of the text.
• 28-27 BC: Augustus returns the state to the Senate and people and receives his new name.
• 2 BC, 5 February: Augustus is named Father of the Fatherland, the last honour in the text.
• AD 13-14: Augustus completes the final version in his 76th year.
• AD 14, 19 August: Augustus dies; the text is read in the Senate and later inscribed.
• 1555: Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq records the inscription in Ankara.
• 1865: Theodor Mommsen publishes his scholarly edition.
• 1938: The Latin text is carved beside the Ara Pacis in Rome.

Why it matters

The Res Gestae is the only extended account of a Roman emperor’s reign written in his own words to survive. It shows how Augustus wanted to be remembered and how carefully he shaped public memory, which makes it a key source for historians and a classic example of political self-presentation.