The Deeds of the Divine Augustus
By Augustus
Written 14 A.C.E.
Translated by Thomas Bushnell, BSG
A copy below of the deeds of the divine Augustus,
by which he subjected the whole
wide earth to the rule of the Roman people, and
of the money which he spent for the
state and Roman people, inscribed on two bronze
pillars, which are set up in Rome.
1. In my nineteenth year, on my own initiative and
at my own expense, I raised an
army with which I set free the state, which was
oppressed by the domination of a
faction. For that reason, the senate enrolled me
in its order by laudatory resolutions,
when Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius were consuls
(43 B.C.E.), assigning me the
place of a consul in the giving of opinions, and
gave me the imperium. With me as
propraetor, it ordered me, together with the consuls,
to take care lest any detriment
befall the state. But the people made me consul
in the same year, when the consuls
each perished in battle, and they made me a triumvir
for the settling of the state.
2. I drove the men who slaughtered my father into
exile with a legal order, punishing
their crime, and afterwards, when they waged war
on the state, I conquered them in
two battles.
3. I often waged war, civil and foreign, on the earth
and sea, in the whole wide world,
and as victor I spared all the citizens who sought
pardon. As for foreign nations, those
which I was able to safely forgive, I preferred
to preserve than to destroy. About five
hundred thousand Roman citizens were sworn to me.
I led something more than three
hundred thousand of them into colonies and I returned
them to their cities, after their
stipend had been earned, and I assigned all of them
fields or gave them money for
their military service. I captured six hundred ships
in addition to those smaller than
triremes.
4. Twice I triumphed with an ovation, and three times
I enjoyeda curule triumph and
twenty one times I was named emperor. When the senate
decreed more triumphs for
me, I sat out from all of them. I placed the laurel
from the fasces in the Capitol, when
the vows which I pronounced in each war had been
fulfilled. On account of the things
successfully done by me and through my officers,
under my auspices, on earth and sea,
the senate decreed fifty-five times that there be
sacrifices to the immortal gods.
Moreover there were 890 days on which the senate
decreed there would be
sacrifices. In my triumphs kings and nine children
of kings were led before my
chariot. I had been consul thirteen times, when
I wrote this, and I was in the
thirty-seventh year of tribunician power (14 A.C.E.).
5. When the dictatorship was offered to me, both
in my presence and my absence, by
the people and senate, when Marcus Marcellus and
Lucius Arruntius were consuls (22
B.C.E.), I did not accept it. I did not evade the
curatorship of grain in the height of the
food shortage, which I so arranged that within a
few days I freed the entire city from
the present fear and danger by my own expense and
administration. When the annual
and perpetual consulate was then again offered to
me, I did not accept it.
6. When Marcus Vinicius and Quintus Lucretius were
consuls (19 B.C.E.), then again
when Publius Lentulus and Gnaeus Lentulus were (18
B.C.E.), and third when Paullus
Fabius Maximus and Quintus Tubero were (11 B.C.E.),
although the senateand Roman
people consented that I alone be made curator of
the laws and customs with the
highest power, I received no magistracy offered
contrary to the customs of the
ancestors. What the senate then wanted to accomplish
through me, I did through
tribunician power, and five times on my own accord
I both requested and received
from the senate a colleague in such power.
7. I was triumvir for the settling of the state for
ten continuous years. I was first of the
senate up to that day on which I wrote this, for
forty years. I was high priest, augur,
one of the Fifteen for the performance of rites,
one of the Seven of the sacred feasts,
brother of Arvis, fellow of Titus, and Fetial.
8. When I was consul the fifth time (29 B.C.E.),
I increased the number of patricians
by order of the people and senate. I read the roll
of the senate three times, and in my
sixth consulate (28 B.C.E.) I made a census of the
people with Marcus Agrippa as my
colleague. I conducted a lustrum, after a forty-one
year gap, in which lustrum were
counted 4,063,000 heads of Roman citizens. Then
again, with consular imperium I
conducted a lustrum alone when Gaius Censorinus
and Gaius Asinius were consuls (8
B.C.E.), in which lustrum were counted 4,233,000
heads of Roman citizens. And the
third time, with consular imperium, I conducted
a lustrum with my son Tiberius
Caesar as colleague, when Sextus Pompeius and Sextus
Appuleius were consuls (14
A.C.E.), in which lustrum were cunted 4,937,000
of the heads of Roman citizens. By
new laws passed with my sponsorship, I restored
many traditions of the ancestors,
which were falling into disuse in our age, and myself
I handed on precedents of many
things to be imitated in later generations.
9. The senate decreed that vows be undertaken for
my health by the consuls and
priests every fifth year. In fulfillment of these
vows they often celebrated games for
my life; several times the four highest colleges
of priests, several times the consuls.
Also both privately and as a city all the citizens
unanimously and continuously prayed
at all the shrines for my health.
10. By a senate decree my name was included in the
Saliar Hymn, and it was
sanctified by a law, both that I would be sacrosanct
for ever, and that, as long as I
would live, the tribunician power would be mine.
I was unwilling to be high priest in
the place of my living colleague; when the people
offered me that priesthood which
my father had, I refused it. And I received that
priesthood, after several years, with the
death of him who had occupied it since the opportunity
of the civil disturbance, with a
multitude flocking together out of all Italy to
my election, so many as had never before
been in Rome, when Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius
were consuls (12 B.C.E.).
11. The senate consecrated the altar of Fortune the
Bringer-back before the temples of
Honor and Virtue at the Campanian gate for my retrn,
on which it ordered the priests
and Vestal virgins to offer yearly sacrifices on
the day when I had returned to the city
from Syria (when Quintus Lucretius and Marcus Vinicius
were consuls (19 Bc)), and
it named that day Augustalia after my cognomen.
12. By the authority of the senate, a part of the
praetors and tribunes of the plebs, with
consul Quintus Lucretius and the leading men, was
sent to meet me in Campania,
which honor had been decreed for no one but me until
that time. When I returned to
Rome from Spain and Gaul, having successfully accomplished
matters in those
provinces, when Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius
were consuls (13 B.C.E.), the
senate voted to consecrate the altar of August Peace
in the field of Mars for my return,
on which it ordered the magistrates and priests
and Vestal virgins to offer annual
sacrifices.
13. Our ancestors wanted Janus Quirinus to be closed
when throughout the all the rule
of the Roman people, by land and sea, peace had
been secured through victory.
Although before my birth it had been closed twice
in all in recorded memory from the
founding of the city, the senate voted three times
in my principate that it be closed.
14. When my sons Gaius and Lucius Caesar, whom fortune
stole from me as youths,
were fourteen, the senate and Roman people made
them consuls-designate on behalf
of my honor, so that they would enter that magistracy
after five years, and the senate
decreed that on thatday when they were led into
the forum they would be included in
public councils. Moreover the Roman knights together
named each of them first of the
youth and gave them shields and spears.
15. I paid to the Roman plebs, HS 300 per man from
my father's will and in my own
name gave HS 400 from the spoils of war when I was
consul for the fifth time (29
B.C.E.); furthermore I again paid out a public gift
of HS 400 per man, in my tenth
consulate (24 B.C.E.), from my own patrimony; and,
when consul for the eleventh
time (23 B.C.E.), twelve doles of grain personally
bought were measured out; and in
my twelfth year of tribunician power (12-11 B.C.E.)
I gave HS 400 per man for the
third time. And these public gifts of mine never
reached fewer than 250,000 men. In
my eighteenth year of tribunician power, as consul
for the twelfth time (5 B.C.E.), I
gave to 320,000 plebs of the city HS 240 per man.
And, when consul the fifth time (29
B.C.E.), I gave from my war-spoils to colonies of
my soldiers each HS 1000 per man;
about 120,000 men i the colonies received this triumphal
public gift. Consul for the
thirteenth time (2 B.C.E.), I gave HS 240 to the
plebs who then received the public
grain; they were a few more than 200,000.
16. I paid the towns money for the fields which I
had assigned to soldiers in my fourth
consulate (30 B.C.E.) and then when Marcus Crassus
and Gnaeus Lentulus Augur
were consuls (14 B.C.E.); the sum was about HS 600,000,000
which I paid out for
Italian estates, and about HS 260,000,000 which
I paid for provincial fields. I was
first and alone who did this among all who founded
military colonies in Italy or the
provinces according to the memory of my age. And
afterwards, when Tiberius Nero
and Gnaeus Piso were consuls (7 B.C.E.), and likewise
when Gaius Antistius and
Decius Laelius were consuls (6 B.C.E.), and when
Gaius Calvisius and Lucius
Passienus were consuls (4 B.C.E.), and when Lucius
Lentulus and Marcus Messalla
were consuls (3 B.C.E.), and when Lucius Caninius
and Quintus Fabricius were
consuls (2 B.C.E.) , I paid out rewards in cash
to the soldiers whom I had led into
their towns when their service was completed, and
in this venture I spent about HS
400,000,000.
17. Four times I helped the senatorial treasury with
my money, so that I offered HS
150,000,000 to those who were in charge of the treasury.
And when Marcus Lepidus
and Luciu Arruntius were consuls (6 A.C.E.), I offered
HS 170,000,000 from my
patrimony to the military treasury, which was founded
by my advice and from which
rewards were given to soldiers who had served twenty
or more times.
18. From that year when Gnaeus and Publius Lentulus
were consuls (18 Bc), when the
taxes fell short, I gave out contributions of grain
and money from my granary and
patrimony, sometimes to 100,000 men, sometimes to
many more.
19. I built the senate-house and the Chalcidicum
which adjoins it and the temple of
Apollo on the Palatine with porticos, the temple
of divine Julius, the Lupercal, the
portico at the Flaminian circus, which I allowed
to be called by the name Octavian,
after he who had earlier built in the same place,
the state box at the great circus, the
temple on the Capitoline of Jupiter Subduer and
Jupiter Thunderer, the temple of
Quirinus, the temples of Minerva and Queen Juno
and Jupiter Liberator on the
Aventine, the temple of the Lares at the top of
the holy street, the temple of the gods of
the Penates on the Velian, the temple of Youth,
and the temple of the Great Mother on
the Palatine.
20. I rebuilt the Capitol and the theater of Pompey,
each work at enormous cost,
without any inscription of my name. I rebuilt aqueducts
in many places that had
decayed with age, and I doubled the capacity of
the Marcian aqueduct by sending a
new spring into its channel. I completed the Forum
of Julius and the basilic which he
built between the temple of Castor and the temple
of Saturn, works begun and almost
finished by my father. When the same basilica was
burned with fire I expanded its
grounds and I began it under an inscription of the
name of my sons, and, if I should not
complete it alive, I ordered it to be completed
by my heirs. Consul for the sixth time
(28 B.C.E.), I rebuilt eighty-two temples of the
gods in the city by the authority of the
senate, omitting nothing which ought to have been
rebuilt at that time. Consul for the
seventh time (27 B.C.E.), I rebuilt the Flaminian
road from the city to Ariminum and
all the bridges except the Mulvian and Minucian.
21. I built the temple of Mars Ultor on private ground
and the forum of Augustus from
war-spoils. I build the theater at the temple of
Apollo on ground largely bought from
private owners, under the name of Marcus Marcellus
my son-in-law. I consecrated
gifts from war-spoils in the Capitol and in the
temple of divine Julius, in the temple of
Apollo, in the tempe of Vesta, and in the temple
of Mars Ultor, which cost me about
HS 100,000,000. I sent back gold crowns weighing
35,000 to the towns and colonies
of Italy, which had been contributed for my triumphs,
and later, however many times I
was named emperor, I refused gold crowns from the
towns and colonies which they
equally kindly decreed, and before they had decreed
them.
22. Three times I gave shows of gladiators under
my name and five times under the
name of my sons and grandsons; in these shows about
10,000 men fought. Twice I
furnished under my name spectacles of athletes gathered
from everywhere, and three
times under my grandson's name. I celebrated games
under my name four times, and
furthermore in the place of other magistrates twenty-three
times. As master of the
college I celebrated the secular games for the college
of the Fifteen, with my
colleague Marcus Agrippa, when Gaius Furnius and
Gaius Silanus were consuls (17
B.C.E.). Consul for the thirteenth time (2 B.C.E.),
I celebrated the first games of Mas,
which after that time thereafter in following years,
by a senate decree and a law, the
consuls were to celebrate. Twenty-six times, under
my name or that of my sons and
grandsons, I gave the people hunts of African beasts
in the circus, in the open, or in
the amphitheater; in them about 3,500 beasts were
killed.
23. I gave the people a spectacle of a naval battle,
in the place across the Tiber where
the grove of the Caesars is now, with the ground
excavated in length 1,800 feet, in
width 1,200, in which thirty beaked ships, biremes
or triremes, but many smaller,
fought among themselves; in these ships about 3,000
men fought in addition to the
rowers.
24. In the temples of all the cities of the province
of Asia, as victor, I replaced the
ornaments which he with whom I fought the war had
possessed privately after he
despoiled the temples. Silver statues of me-on foot,
on horseback, and standing in a
chariot-were erected in about eighty cities, which
I myself removed, and from the
money I placed goldn offerings in the temple of
Apollo under my name and of those
who paid the honor of the statues to me.
25. I restored peace to the sea from pirates. In
that slave war I handed over to their
masters for the infliction of punishments about
30,000 captured, who had fled their
masters and taken up arms against the state. All
Italy swore allegiance to me
voluntarily, and demanded me as leader of the war
which I won at Actium; the
provinces of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia
swore the same allegiance.
And those who then fought under my standard were
more than 700 senators, among
whom 83 were made consuls either before or after,
up to the day this was written, and
about 170 were made priests.
26. I extended the borders of all the provinces of
the Roman people which neighbored
nations not subject to our rule. I restored peace
to the provinces of Gaul and Spain,
likewise Germany, which includes the ocean from
Cadiz to the mouth of the river
Elbe. I brought peace to the Alps from the region
which i near the Adriatic Sea to the
Tuscan, with no unjust war waged against any nation.
I sailed my ships on the ocean
from the mouth of the Rhine to the east region up
to the borders of the Cimbri, where
no Roman had gone before that time by land or sea,
and the Cimbri and the Charydes
and the Semnones and the other Germans of the same
territory sought by envoys the
friendship of me and of the Roman people. By my
order and auspices two armies
were led at about the same time into Ethiopia and
into that part of Arabia which is
called Happy, and the troops of each nation of enemies
were slaughtered in battle and
many towns captured. They penetrated into Ethiopia
all the way to the town Nabata,
which is near to Meroe; and into Arabia all the
way to the border of the Sabaei,
advancing to the town Mariba.
27. I added Egypt to the rule of the Roman people.
When Artaxes, king of Greater
Armenia, was killed, though I could have made it
a province, I preferred, by the
example of our elders, to hand over that kingdomto
Tigranes, son of king Artavasdes,
and grandson of King Tigranes, through Tiberius
Nero, who was then my step-son.
And the same nation, after revolting and rebelling,
and subdued through my son Gaius,
I handed over to be ruled by King Ariobarzanes son
of Artabazus, King of the Medes,
and after his death, to his son Artavasdes; and
when he was killed, I sent Tigranes,
who came from the royal clan of the Armenians, into
that rule. I recovered all the
provinces which lie across the Adriatic to the east
and Cyrene, with kings now
possessing them in large part, and Sicily and Sardina,
which had been occupied
earlier in the slave war.
28. I founded colonies of soldiers in Africa, Sicily,
Macedonia, each Spain, Greece,
Asia, Syria, Narbonian Gaul, and Pisidia, and furthermore
had twenty-eight colonies
founded in Italy under my authority, which were
very populous and crowded while I
lived.
29. I recovered from Spain, Gaul, and Dalmatia the
many military standards lost
through other leaders, after defeating te enemies.
I compelled the Parthians to return to
me the spoils and standards of three Roman armies,
and as suppliants to seek the
friendship of the Roman people. Furthermore I placed
those standards in the sanctuary
of the temple of Mars Ultor.
30. As for the tribes of the Pannonians, before my
principate no army of the Roman
people had entered their land. When they were conquered
through Tiberius Nero, who
was then my step-son and emissary, I subjected them
to the rule of the Roman people
and extended the borders of Illyricum to the shores
of the river Danube. On the near
side of it the army of the Dacians was conquered
and overcome under my auspices,
and then my army, led across the Danube, forced
the tribes of the Dacians to bear the
rule of the Roman people.
31. Emissaries from the Indian kings were often sent
to me, which had not been seen
before that time by any Roman leader. The Bastarnae,
the Scythians, and the
Sarmatians, who are on this side of the river Don
and the kings further away, an the
kings of the Albanians, of the Iberians, and of
the Medes, sought our friendship
through emissaries.
32. To me were sent supplications by kings: of the
Parthians, Tiridates and later
Phrates son of king Phrates, of the Medes, Artavasdes,
of the Adiabeni, Artaxares, of
the Britons, Dumnobellaunus and Tincommius, of the
Sugambri, Maelo, of the
Marcomanian Suebi (...) (-)rus. King Phrates of
the Parthians, son of Orodes, sent all
his sons and grandsons into Italy to me, though
defeated in no war, but seeking our
friendship through the pledges of his children.
And in my principate many other
peoples experienced the faith of the Roman people,
of whom nothing had previously
existed of embassies or interchange of friendship
with the Roman people.
33. The nations of the Parthians and Medes received
from me the first kings of those
nations which they sought by emissaries: the Parthians,
Vonones son of king Phrates,
grandson of king Orodes, the Medes, Ariobarzanes,
son of king Artavasdes, grandson
of king Aiobarzanes.
34. In my sixth and seventh consulates (28-27 B.C.E.),
after putting out the civil war,
having obtained all things by universal consent,
I handed over the state from my
power to the dominion of the senate and Roman people.
And for this merit of mine, by
a senate decree, I was called Augustus and the doors
of my temple were publicly
clothed with laurel and a civic crown was fixed
over my door and a gold shield
placed in the Julian senate-house, and the inscription
of that shield testified to the
virtue, mercy, justice, and piety, for which the
senate and Roman people gave it to me.
After that time, I exceeded all in influence, but
I had no greater power than the others
who were colleagues with me in each magistracy.
35. When I administered my thirteenth consulate (2
B.C.E.), the senate and Equestrian
order and Roman people all called me father of the
country, and voted that the same
be inscribed in the vestibule of my temple, in the
Julian senate-house, and in the forum
of Augustus under the chario which had been placed
there for me by a decision of the
senate. When I wrote this I was seventy-six years
old.
Appendix
Written after Augustus' death.
1. All the expenditures which he gave either into
the treasury or to the Roman plebs or
to discharged soldiers: HS 2,400,000,000.
2. The works he built: the temples of Mars, of Jupiter
Subduer and Thunderer, of
Apollo, of divine Julius, of Minerva, of Queen Juno,
of Jupiter Liberator, of the Lares,
of the gods of the Penates, of Youth, and of the
Great Mother, the Lupercal, the state
box at the circus, the senate-house with the Chalcidicum,
the forum of Augustus, the
Julian basilica, the theater of Marcellus, the Octavian
portico, and the grove of the
Caesars across the Tiber.
3. He rebuilt the Capitol and holy temples numbering
eighty-two, the theater of
Pompey, waterways, and the Flaminian road.
4. The sum expended on theatrical spectacles and
gladatorial games and athletes and
hunts and mock naval battles and money given to
colonies, cities, andtowns destroyed
by earthquake and fire or per man to friends and
senators, whom he raised to the
senate rating: innumerable.
THE END