Page 161 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

The Achievements of Augustus
This excerpt is taken from a text written by Augustus and inscribed on a bronze tablet at Rome. Copies of the text were displayed in stone in many provincial capitals. Called “the most famous ancient inscription,” the Res Gestae (RAYS GES-ty or REEZ JES-tee) of Augustus summarizes his accomplishments in three major areas: his offices, his private expenditures on behalf of the state, and his exploits in war and peace. Though factual in approach, it is a highly subjective account.
Augustus, Res Gestae
Below is a copy of the accomplishments of the deified Augustus by which he brought the whole world under the empire of the Roman people, and of the moneys expended by him on the state and the Roman people, as inscribed on two bronze pillars set up in Rome.
1. At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I liberated the republic, which was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction [Mark Ant- ony and his supporters]. . . .
2. Those who assassinated my father [Julius Caesar, his adoptive father] I drove into exile, avenging their crime by due process of law; and afterwards when they waged war against the state, I con- quered them twice on the battlefield.
3. I waged many wars throughout the whole world by land and by sea, both civil and foreign, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sought pardon. . . .
5. The dictatorship offered to me . . . by the people and the senate, both in my absence and in my presence, I refused to accept.
17. Four times I came to the assistance of the treasury with my own money, transferring to those in
charge of the treasury 150,000,000 sesterces. And in the consulship of Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius I transferred out of my own patrimony 170,000,000 sesterces to the soldiers’ bonus fund, which was established on my advice for the pur- pose of providing bonuses for soldiers who had completed twenty or more years of service. . . .
25. I brought peace to the sea by suppressing the pirates. In that war I turned over to their masters for punishment nearly 30,000 slaves who had run away from their owners and taken up arms against the state. . . .
26. I extended the frontiers of all the provinces of the Roman people on whose boundaries were peoples not subject to our empire. . . .
27. I added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people. . . .
28. I established colonies of soldiers in Africa, Sicily, Macedonia, in both Spanish provinces, in Achaea, Asia, Syria, Narbonese Gaul, and Pisidia. Italy, moreover, has twenty-eight colonies established by me, which in my lifetime have grown to be fa- mous and populous. . . .
35. When I held my thirteenth consulship, the senate, the equestrian order, and the entire Roman people gave me the title of “father of the country.” . . . At the time I wrote this document I was in my seventy-sixth year.
Q What were the achievements of Augustus? To what extent did these accomplishments create the “job” of being emperor? In what sense could this document be called a piece of propaganda?
Source: From Roman Civilization, Vol. I, Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Renhold. Copyright a 1955 Columbia University Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
difficulties had convinced him that “the empire should not be extended beyond its present fron- tiers.”3 His defeats in Germany taught Augustus that Rome’s power was not unlimited. They also left him devastated; for months afterward he would beat his head against a door, shouting “Varus, give me back my legions!”
Augustan Society
Society in the early Roman Empire was characterized by a system of social stratification, inherited from the republic, in which Roman citizens were divided into three basic classes: the senatorial, equestrian, and lower classes. Augustus had accepted the senatorial order as a
The Age of Augustus (31 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) 123
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.