Download the res Gestae

SOURCE OF THE DAY: THE RES GESTAE
‘THE QUEEN OF INSCRIPTIONS’
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015
Author: Augustus, 1st emperor of Rome (63 BCE-14 CE)
Title: Res Gestae Divi Augusti/Autobiography of the Divine
Augustus/Monumentum Ancyranum
Date: written before 14 CE, unless Augustus dictating from
beyond grave
Subject: an account of all the amazing things he did during his life
for the Roman people and state
Location: Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome; Ankara, Galatia, and
other locations around the empire (?)
Languages: written in Latin, translated into Greek: extant in both
languages: copies are close, but not identical. Latin version only
in Rome.
Extant copy: from Ankara, Turkey (former Galatia: it had not been
a Roman province for long. It was also not heavily Hellenized.)
Ancient source on the inscription:
Augustus had made a will in the consulship of Lucius Plancus and Gaius Silius
on the third day before the Nones of April, a year and four months before he
died, in two note-books, written in part in his own hand and in part in that of
his freedmen Polybius and Hilarion. These the Vestal virgins, with whom they
had been deposited, now produced, together with three rolls, which were
sealed in the same way. All these were opened and read in the senate…. In
one of the three rolls he included directions for his funeral; in the second, an
account of what he had accomplished, which he desired to have cut upon
bronze tablets and set up at the entrance to the Mausoleum
Suetonius, Augustus I01
Mausoleum of Augustus, Rome
Reconstruction of the Mausoleum
Opening words of the Latin copy:
Below is a copy of the acts of the Deified Augustus by which he placed the
whole world under the sovereignty of the Roman people, and of the amounts
which he expended upon the state and the Roman people, as engraved upon
two bronze columns which have been set up in Rome.
Rerum gestarum divi Augusti, quibus orbem terrarum imperio populi Rom.
subiecit, § et inpensarum, quas in rem publicam populumque Romanum fecit,
incisarum in duabus aheneis pilís, quae sunt Romae positae, exemplar
subiectum.
Ankara, Galatia
Greek translation of the Res Gestae
What would the first emperor of Rome mention in such an inscription?
Before answering, consider:
- He is the first emperor of Rome: he could not know if transition to the
next in line (Tiberius) would be easy or difficult
- Augustus is not a king: he is primus inter pares: first among equals*
- This is a public representation of his rule
- It is also a public representation of the Roman state to anyone who can
read Latin or Greek
- It must reflect Roman values and show that his rule is in line with
tradition and also good for Rome
- Figures could be checked against other records in Rome
- His primary audience are Romans; his secondary audience is the rest of
the empire
- The Greek translation is not exactly the same as the Latin original, but it is
close
* yes, everyone knew this was a fiction, but it was an important fiction.