Quotes from book
Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Augustus

Res Gestae Divi Augusti is the funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments. The Res Gestae is especially significant because it gives an insight into the image Augustus portrayed to the Roman people. Various portions of the Res Gestae have been found in modern Turkey. The inscription itself is a monument to the establishment of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that was to follow Augustus.

Augustus photo

“Those who slew my father I drove into exile, punishing their deed by due process of law, and afterwards when they waged war upon the republic I twice defeated them in battle.”

Augustus book Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Augustus photo

“Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon. The foreign nations which could with safety be pardoned I preferred to save rather than to destroy.”

Augustus book Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Augustus photo

“I declined to be made Pontifex Maximus in succession to a colleague still living, when the people tendered me that priesthood which my father had held. Several years later I accepted that sacred office when he at last was dead who, taking advantage of a time of civil disturbance, had seized it for himself, such a multitude from all Italy assembling for my election, in the consulship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius, as is never recorded to have been in Rome before.”

Augustus book Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Augustus photo

“The whole of Italy swore allegiance to me.”
Iuravit in mea verba tota Italia.

Augustus book Res Gestae Divi Augusti

XXV, 3-4. Translation by Thomas Bushnell
Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Augustus photo

“At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For which service the senate, with complimentary resolutions, enrolled me in its order…”

Augustus book Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Referring to the faction of Marcus Antonius.
Res Gestae Divi Augusti

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