in accordance with the last will of my father;[69] and in my own name,
when consul for the fifth time, I gave four hundred sesterces from
the spoils of the wars;[70] again, moreover, in my tenth consulship I
gave from my own estate four hundred sesterces to each man by way of
_congiarium_;[71] and in my eleventh consulship I twelve times
made distributions of food, buying grain at my own expense;[72] and
in the twelfth year of my tribunitial power I three times gave four
hundred sesterces to each man.[73] These my donations have never
been made to less than two hundred and fifty thousand men.[74] In my
twelfth consulship and the eighteenth year of my tribunitial power I
gave to three hundred and twenty thousand of the city _plebs_
sixty _denarii_ apiece.[75] In the colonies of my soldiers, when
consul for the fifth time, I gave to each man a thousand sesterces from
the spoils; about a hundred and twenty thousand men in the colonies
received that triumphal donation.[76] When consul for the thirteenth
time I gave sixty _denarii_ to the _plebs_ who were at that
time receiving public grain; these men were a little more than two
hundred thousand in number.[77][78]
c. 16.
For the lands which in my fourth consulship, and afterwards in the
consulship of Marcus Crassus and Cnæus Lentulus, the augur, I assigned
to soldiers, I paid money to the _municipia_. The sum which I paid
for Italian farms was about six hundred million sesterces, and that for
lands in the provinces was about two hundred and sixty millions.[79]
Of all those who have established colonies of soldiers in Italy or
in the provinces I am the first and only one within the memory of my
age, to do this. And afterward in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and
Cnæus Piso, and also in that of Gaius Antistius and Decimus Lælius,
and in that of Gaius Calvisius and Lucius Pasienus, and in that of
Lucius Lentulus and Marcus Messala, and in that of Lucius Caninius and
Quintus Fabricius, I gave gratuities in money to the soldiers whom I
sent back to their _municipia_ at the expiration of their terms
of service, and for this purpose I freely spent four hundred million
sesterces.[80]
c. 17.
Four times I have aided the public treasury from my own means, to such
extent that I have furnished to those in charge of the treasury one
hundred and fifty million sesterces.[81] And in the consulship of
Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius I paid into the military treasury
which was established by my advice that from it gratuities might be
given to soldiers who had served a term of twenty or more years, one
hundred and seventy million sesterces from my own estate.[82]
c. 18.
Beginning with that year in which Cnæus and Publius Lentulus were
consuls, when the imposts failed, I furnished aid sometimes to a
hundred thousand men, and sometimes to more, by supplying grain or
money for the tribute from my own land and property.[83]
c. 19.
I constructed[84] the Curia,[85] and the Chalcidicum adjacent
thereto,[86] the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, with its
porticoes,[87] the temple of the divine Julius,[88] the Lupercal,[89]
the portico to the Circus of Flaminius, which I allowed to bear the
name, Portico Octavia, from his name who constructed the earlier one
in the same place;[90] the Pulvinar at the Circus Maximus,[91] the
temples of Jupiter the Vanquisher[92] and Jupiter the Thunderer, on the
Capitol,[93] the temple of Quirinus,[94] the temples of Minerva and
Juno Regina and of Jupiter Libertas, on the Aventine,[95] the temple of
the Lares on the highest point of the Via Sacra,[96] the temple of the
divine Penates on the Velian hill,[97] the temple of Youth,[98] and the
temple of the Great Mother on the Palatine.[99]
c. 20.
The Capitol and the Pompeian theatre have been restored by me at
enormous expense for each work, without any inscription of my name.[100]
Aqueducts which were crumbling in many places by reason of age I have
restored, and I have doubled the water which bears the name Marcian
by turning a new spring into its course.[101] The Forum Julium and
the basilica which was between the temple of Castor and the temple
of Saturn, works begun and almost completed by my father, I have
finished; and when that same basilica was consumed by fire, I began
its reconstruction on an enlarged site, inscribing it with the names
of my sons; and if I do not live to complete it, I have given orders
that it be completed by my heirs.[102] In accordance with a decree of
the senate, while consul for the sixth time, I have restored eighty-two
temples of the gods, passing over none which was at that time in need
of repair.[103] In my seventh consulship I constructed the Flaminian
way from the city to Ariminum, and all the bridges except the Mulvian
and Minucian.[104]
c. 21.
Upon private ground I have built with the spoils of war the temple
of Mars the Avenger, and the Augustan Forum.[105] Beside the temple
of Apollo, I built upon ground, bought for the most part at my own
expense, a theatre, to bear the name of Marcellus, my son-in-law.[106]
From the spoils of war I have consecrated gifts in the Capitol, and
in the temple of the divine Julius, and in the temple of Apollo, and
in the temple of Vesta, and in the temple of Mars the Avenger; these
gifts have cost me about a hundred million sesterces.[107] In my fifth
consulship I remitted to the _municipia_ and Italian colonies the
thirty-five thousand pounds given me as coronary gold on the occasion
of my triumphs, and thereafter, as often as I was proclaimed imperator,
I did not accept the coronary gold which the _municipia_ and
colonies voted to me as kindly as before.[108]
c. 22.
Three times in my own name, and five times in that of my sons or
grandsons, I have given gladiatorial exhibitions; in these exhibitions
about ten thousand men have fought.[109] Twice in my own name,
and three times in that of my grandson, I have offered the people
the spectacle of athletes gathered from all quarters.[110] I have
celebrated games four times in my own name, and twenty-three times
in the turns of other magistrates.[111] In behalf of the college of
quindecemvirs, I, as master of the college, with my colleague Agrippa,
celebrated the Secular Games in the consulship of Gaius Furnius and
Gaius Silanus.[112] When consul for the thirteenth time, I first
celebrated the Martial games, which since that time the consuls have
given in successive years.[113] Twenty-six times in my own name,
or in that of my sons and grandsons, I have given hunts of African
wild beasts in the circus, the forum, the amphitheatres, and about
thirty-five hundred beasts have been killed.[114]
c. 23.
I gave the people the spectacle of a naval battle beyond the Tiber,
where now is the grove of the Cæsars.[115] For this purpose an
excavation was made eighteen hundred feet long and twelve hundred
wide. In this contest thirty beaked ships, triremes or biremes, were
engaged, besides more of smaller size. About three thousand men fought
in these vessels in addition to the rowers.
c. 24.
In the temples of all the cities of the province of Asia, I, as victor,
replaced the ornaments of which he with whom I was at war had taken
private possession when he despoiled the temples.[116] Silver statues
of me, on foot, on horseback and in quadrigas, which stood in the city
to the number of about eighty, I removed, and out of their money value,
I placed golden gifts in the temple of Apollo in my own name, and in
the names of those who had offered me the honor of the statues.[117]
c. 25.
I have freed the sea from pirates. In that war with the slaves I
delivered to their masters for punishment about thirty thousand
slaves who had fled from their masters and taken up arms against the
state.[118] The whole of Italy voluntarily took the oath of allegiance
to me, and demanded me as leader in that war in which I conquered at
Actium. The provinces of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Sicily and Sardinia swore
the same allegiance to me.[119] There were more than seven hundred
senators who at that time fought under my standards, and among these,
up to the day on which these words are written, eighty-three have
either before or since been made consuls, and about one hundred and
seventy have been made priests.[120]
c. 26.
I have extended the boundaries of all the provinces of the Roman people
which were bordered by nations not yet subjected to our sway.[121] I
have reduced to a state of peace the Gallic and Spanish provinces, and
Germany, the lands enclosed by the ocean from Gades to the mouth of
the Elbe.[122] The Alps from the region nearest the Adriatic as far as
the Tuscan Sea I have brought into a state of peace, without waging an
unjust war upon any people.[123] My fleet has navigated the ocean from
the mouth of the Rhine as far as the boundaries of the Cimbri, where
before that time no Roman had ever penetrated by land or sea;[124] and
the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and other German peoples of that
section, by means of legates, sought my friendship and that of the
Roman people.[125] By my command and under my auspices two armies at
almost the same time have been led into Ethiopia and into Arabia, which
is called “the Happy,” and very many of the enemy of both peoples have
fallen in battle, and many towns have been captured. Into Ethiopia the
advance was as far as Nabata, which is next to Meroe.[126] In Arabia
the army penetrated as far as the confines of the Sabaei, to the town
Mariba.[127]
c. 27.
I have added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people.[128] Of greater
Armenia, when its king Artaxes was killed I could have made a
province, but I preferred, after the example of our fathers, to deliver
that kingdom to Tigranes, the son of king Artavasdes, and grandson of
king Tigranes; and this I did through Tiberius Nero, who was then my
son-in-law.[129] And afterwards, when the same people became turbulent
and rebellious, they were subdued by Gaius, my son, and I gave the
sovereignty over them to king Ariobarzanes, the son of Artabazes, king
of the Medes, and after his death to his son Artavasdes. When he was
killed I sent into that kingdom Tigranes, who was sprung from the royal
house of the Armenians.[130] I recovered all the provinces across the
Adriatic Sea, which extend toward the east, and Cyrenaica, at that time
for the most part in the possession of kings, together with Sicily and
Sardinia, which had been engaged in a servile war.[131]
c. 28.
I have established colonies of soldiers[132] in Africa, Sicily,
Macedonia, the two Spains, Achaia, Asia, Syria, Gallia Narbonensis and
Pisidia.[133] Italy also has twenty-eight colonies established under
my auspices, which within my lifetime have become very famous and
populous.[134]
c. 29.
I have recovered from Spain and Gaul, and from the Dalmatians, after
conquering the enemy, many military standards which had been lost by
other leaders.[135] I have compelled the Parthians to give up to me
the spoils and standards of three Roman armies, and as suppliants to
seek the friendship of the Roman people. Those standards, moreover,
I have deposited in the sanctuary which is in the temple of Mars the
Avenger.[136]
c. 30.
The Pannonian peoples, whom before I became _princeps_, no army
of the Roman people had ever attacked, were defeated by Tiberius Nero,
at that time my son-in-law and legate; and I brought them under
subjection to the empire of the Roman people,[137] and extended the
boundaries of Illyricum to the bank of the river Danube.[138] When an
army of the Dacians crossed this river, it was defeated and destroyed,
and afterwards my army, led across the Danube, compelled the Dacian
people to submit to the sway of the Roman people.[139]
c. 31.
Embassies have been many times sent to me from the kings of India, a
thing never before seen in the case of any ruler of the Romans.[140]
Our friendship has been sought by means of ambassadors by the Bastarnae
and the Scythians, and by the kings of the Sarmatae, who are on either
side of the Tanais, and by the kings of the Albani, the Hiberi, and the
Medes.[141]
c. 32.
To me have betaken themselves as suppliants the kings of the
Parthians, Tiridates, and later, Phraates, the son of king
Phraates;[142] of the Medes, Artavasdes;[143] of the Adiabeni,
Artaxares;[144] of the Britons, Dumnobellaunus and Tim_____;[145]
of the Sicambri, Maelo;[146] and of the Marcomanian Suevi,
__________rus.[147] Phraates, king of the Parthians, son of Orodes,
sent all his children and grandchildren into Italy to me, not because
he had been conquered in war, but rather seeking our friendship
by means of his children as pledges.[148] Since I have been
_princeps_ very many other races have made proof of the good
faith of the Roman people, who never before had had any interchange of
embassies and friendship with the Roman people.
c. 33.
From me the peoples of the Parthians and of the Medes have received
the kings they asked for through ambassadors, the chief men of those
peoples: the Parthians, Vonones, the son of king Phraates, and
grandson of king Orodes;[149] the Medes, Ariobarzanes, the son of king
Artavasdes, and grandson of king Ariobarzanes.[150]
c. 34.
In my sixth and seventh consulships, when I had put an end to the
civil wars, after having obtained complete control of affairs by
universal consent, I transferred the commonwealth from my own dominion
to the authority of the senate and Roman people.[151] In return for
this favor on my part I received by decree of the senate the title
Augustus,[152] the door-posts of my house were publicly decked with
laurels, a civic crown was fixed above my door,[153] and in the Julian
Curia was placed a golden shield, which, by its inscription, bore
witness that it was given to me by the senate and Roman people on
account of my valor, clemency, justice and piety.[154] After that time
I excelled all others in dignity, but of power I held no more than
those also held who were my colleagues in any magistracy.[155]
c. 35.
While I was consul for the thirteenth time the senate and the
equestrian order and the entire Roman people gave me the title of
father of the fatherland, and decreed that it should be inscribed upon
the vestibule of my house and in the Curia, and in the Augustan Forum
beneath the quadriga which had been, by decree of the senate, set up
in my honor.[156] When I wrote these words I was in my seventy-sixth
year.[157]
SUPPLEMENT.
c. 1.
The sum of the money which he gave in to the treasury or to the Roman
people, or to discharged soldiers, was six hundred million denarii.[158]
c. 2.
He constructed new works as follows: the temples of Mars, of Jupiter
the Thunderer and the Vanquisher, of Apollo, of the divine Julius,
of Quirinus, of Minerva, of Juno Regina, of Jupiter Libertas, of the
Lares, of the divine Penates, of Youth, and of the Mother of the
gods, the Lupercal, the Pulvinar in the Circus, the Curia with the
Chalcidicum, the Augustan Forum, the Basilica Julia, the Theatre of
Marcellus, the Portico on the Palatine, the Portico in the Flaminian
Circus, the grove of the Cæsars beyond the Tiber.[159]
c. 3.
He restored the Capitol, and sacred structures to the number of
eighty-two, the Theatre of Pompey, the aqueducts, the Flaminian
Way.[160]
c. 4.
His expenses for theatrical representations, for gladiatorial and
athletic exhibitions, for chases and the naval combat,[161] also for
gifts in money to the colonies and cities of Italy,[162] to provincial
cities suffering from earthquake or conflagrations,[163] and to
individual friends and to senators, whose property he raised to the
standard,[164] were innumerable.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
(_Roman numerals refer to chapters._)
A. U. C.
706. Made _pontifex_, VI.
710. Raises army at his own cost, I; gives to each citizen 300
sesterces, according to will of Julius Cæsar, XV.
711. Enters senate, receives consular rank, and the _imperium_,
becomes _propraetor_, _imperator_, consul, I; triumvir, I
and VII; exiles murderers of Julius Cæsar, II.
712. War of Philippi, II; builds the curia, XIX, app. II.
714. _Imperator_ second and third times; ovation, IV.
716. Recovers Sardinia, XXVII.
718. The Sicilian war, III and XIX; fourth time _imperator_, IV;
punishes revolted slaves, XXV; recovers Sicily, XXVII; ovation, IV;
receives tribunitial power, X, cf. VI; builds temple of Apollo on the
Palatine, XIX, app. II.
721. Fifth time _imperator_? IV; recovers standards from
Dalmatians, XXIX.
722. Becomes leader against Antony, XXV.
723. Victory of Actium; clemency as victor, III; sixth time
_imperator_, IV.
724. Fourth consulship; veterans colonized, XVI; provinces east of
the Adriatic, and Cyrenae recovered; Egypt annexed, XXVII; Artavasdes
the Mede and Tiridates the Parthian flee to Augustus, XXXII;
ornaments replaced in temples of Asia, XXIV.
725. Fifth consulship, VIII, XV, XXI; seventh time _imperator_;
triple triumph, IV; declines coronary gold, XXI; gives to 120,000
colonized soldiers 1,000 sesterces apiece; gives the people 400
sesterces each, XV; gives gladiatorial show, XXII; consecrates gifts
in various temples, XXI; closes temple of Janus, XIII; name placed in
Salian hymn, X; increases number of patricians, VIII.
726. Sixth consulship, VIII, XX, XXXIV. Takes census; revises list
of senators, VIII; made _princeps senatus_, VII; restores city
temples, XX, app. III; gives money to the treasury, XVII; gives
gladiatorial and athletic shows, XXII; games vowed and celebrated for
health of Augustus, IX; restores the commonwealth to the senate and
people, XXXIV.
727. Seventh consulship, XX, XXXIV. Continuation of transfer of
power to senate and people; is called Augustus; door-posts decked
with laurel; civic crown and golden shield accorded, XXXIV; repairs
Flaminian Way, XX, app. III; melts down silver statues for offerings,
XXIV.
729. Eighth time _imperator_; refuses triumph, IV; closes temple
of Janus the second time, XIII; Arabian expedition, XXVI.
730. Tenth consulship; gives the people 400 sesterces each.
731. Eleventh consulship; twelve times supplies food for citizens,
XV, cf. V; Ethiopian expedition, XXVI.
732. Consulship of Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius; refuses
annual and perpetual consulship; also the dictatorship; accepts
the administration of grain supply, V; dedicates temple of Jupiter
Tonans, XIX.
733. Refuses consulship? V.
734. Receives embassy from India, XXXI; ninth time _imperator_?
refuses a triumph, IV; recovers standards from Parthia, XXIX; gives
Armenia Major to Tigranes, XXVII.
735. Quintus Lucretius and Marcus Vinucius consuls; altar of Fortuna
Redux consecrated; Augustalia established, XI; deputation of leading
men meet Augustus in Campania, XII; declines the custody of laws and
morals, VI.
736. Cnaeus and Publius Lentulus consuls, VI, XVIII; remits tribute,
XVIII; again declines custody of laws and morals; associates Agrippa
in tribunitial power, VI.
737. Gaius Furnius and Gaius Silanus consuls; secular games, XXII.
738. Augustus supplies money to the treasury, XVII; gives
gladiatorial show, XXII; dedicates temple of Quirinus, XIX, app. II.
739. Tenth time _imperator_, IV.
740. Marcus Crassus and Cnaeus Lentulus consuls; pays provincials for
lands taken for veterans.
741. Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius consuls, XII; deposits
laurel in the Capitol, IV; altar of the Augustan Peace dedicated,
XII; again associates Agrippa in tribunitial power, VI.
742. Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius consuls, X; twelfth year of
tribunitial power, XV; eleventh time _imperator_, IV; made
_pontifex maximus_, X; gives gladiatorial show, XXII; gives the
people 400 sesterces each, XV.
743. Paullus Fabius Maximus and Quintus Tubero consuls, VI; twelfth
time _imperator_, IV; for the third time refuses the custody of
laws and morals, VI; dedicates theater of Marcellus, XXI, app. II.
745. Thirteenth time _imperator_; deposits the laurel in temple
of Jupiter Feretrius, IV; Tiberius Nero subdues the Pannonians, XXX.
746. Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius consuls; second census taken;
list of senate revised, VIII; children of Phraates sent to Rome;
Maelo, King of the Sicambri, surrenders himself, XXXII; fourteenth
time _imperator_; refuses a triumph, IV.
747. Tiberius Nero and Cnaeus Piso consuls; veterans discharged, with
gratuities, XVI; Alpine peoples added to the empire, XXVI; gives
gladiatorial show, XXII.
748. Gaius Antistius and Decimus Laelius consuls; veterans
discharged, with gratuities, XVI; associates Tiberius in tribunitial
power, VI.
749. Eighteenth year of tribunitial power; twelfth consulship; gives
sixty denarii each to 320,000 citizens; Gaius Cæsar consul designate,
made prince of the youth, received into senate, XIV; aqueducts
repaired, XX, app. III.
750. Gaius Calvisius and Lucius Passienus consuls; veterans
discharged, with gratuities, XVI.
751. Lucius Lentulus and Marcus Messala consuls; veterans discharged,
with gratuities, XVI.
752. Thirteenth consulship, XV, XXII, XXXV; Lucius Caninius and
Quintus Fabricius consuls; veterans discharged, with gratuities,
XVI; gives the citizens sixty denarii each, XV; Lucius Cæsar
consul designate, prince of the youth, and admitted to senate,
XIV; dedicates temple of Mars Ultor, XXI, app. II; martial games
instituted, XXII; naval contest exhibited, XXIII; title _pater
patriae_ conferred, XXXV.
755. Lucius Cæsar dies, XIV, cf. XX; fifteenth time _imperator_,
IV; Armenia subdued by Gaius Cæsar and given to Ariobarzanes, XXVII.
757. Gaius Cæsar dies, XIV, cf. XX; again associates Tiberius in
tribunitial power, VI.
758. Fleet penetrates to limits of the Cimbri; the Cimbri, Charudes
and Semnones send ambassadors, XXVI; King Vonones given to the
Parthians, XXXIII.
759. Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius consuls, XVII; seventeenth
time _imperator_, IV; Dacians subdued, XXX; gives gladiatorial
show, XXII; military treasury established, XVII.
762. Nineteenth time _imperator_, IV.
766. Associates Tiberius the third time in tribunitial power, VI.
767. Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius consuls, VIII;
thirty-seventh year of tribunitial power, IV; seventy-sixth year of
Augustus, XXXV; third census taken; list of senate revised, VIII.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Abbreviations as used in the Notes are put in parentheses.
I. EDITIONS.
=Mommsen, Theodor: Res Gestæ Divi Augusti ex Monumentis Ancyrano et
Apolloniensi.= pp. LXXXXVII, 223. With eleven photogravure plates.
Berlin, 1883. (_R. G._)
This work is so exhaustive and so full that it puts all preceding
editions and discussions out of date. Hence this bibliography
enumerates only such editions and discussions as have appeared since
1883.
=C. Peltier and R. Cagnat: Res Gestæ Divi Augusti, d’après la
dernière recension de Th. Mommsen.= Paris, 1886.
II. DISCUSSIONS OF THE MONUMENTUM.
=Bormann, Ernest: Bemerkungen zum Schriftliche Nachlasse des
Kaisers Augustus.= Marburg, 1884. Universitäts Einladung. pp. 1-46.
=Bormann, Ernest: Verhandlungen der dreiundvierzigsten Versammlung
Deutschen Philologen in Köln=, 1895. pp. 180-191. Leipzig, 1896.
=Geppert, Paul: Zum Monumentum Ancyranum. Gymnasiums Programm.=
pp. 1-18. Berlin, 1887.
=Hirschfeld, Otto: Wiener Studien=, 1885. pp. 170-174.
=Mommsen, Theodor: Historische Zeitschrift, Neue Folge=, XXI.
pp. 385-397
=Nissen, H.: Rheinisches Museum=, XLI. 1886. pp. 481-499.
=Plew, J.: Quellenuntersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers
Hadrian, nebst einem Anhang über das Monumentum Ancyranum.=
Strassburg, 1890. pp. 98-121.
=Schiller, H.: Bursians Jahresbericht=, XLIV, 85-86.
=Schmidt, Johannes: Philologus=, XLIV, 1885. pp. 442-470; XLV,
1886. pp. 393-410; XLVI, 1887. pp. 70-86.
=Seeck, Otto: Wochenschrift für Klassische Philologie=, 19 Nov.,
1884. Col. 1473-1481.
=v. Wilamowitz, Ulrich: Hermes=, XXI, 1886. pp. 623-627.
=Wölfflin, E.: Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen
und historischen Klasse der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu
München=, 1886. pp. 253-282.
III. WORKS OF REFERENCE MOST FREQUENTLY CITED.