Augustus, Res Gestae Divi Augusti To Serve Rome with Courage, Clemency, Justice and Piety

At the age of nineteen on my own responsibility and at my own expense I raised an army, with which I successfully championed the liberty of the republic when it was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction [Antony and his army]. On that account the senate passed decrees in my honour enrolling me in its order in the consulship of Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, assigning me to the right ordered me as a proprietor to provide in concert with the consuls that the republic should come to no harm. In the same year, when both consuls had fallen in battle, the people appointed me consul and triumvir for the organization of the republic. I drove into exile the murderers of my father, avenging their crime through tribunals established by law; and afterwards, when they made war on the republic, I twice defeated them in battle. I undertook many civil and foreign wars by land and sea throughout the world, and as victor I spared the lives of all citizens who asked for mercy. When foreign peoples could safely be pardoned I preferred to preserve rather than to exterminate them. . . . On my return from Spain and Gaul in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintillius after successfully arranging affairs in those provinces, the Senate resolved that an altar of the Augustan Peace should be consecrated next to the Campus Martius in honour of my return, and ordered that he magistrates, priests and Vestal virgins should perform an annual sacrifice there. It was the will of our ancestors that the gateway of Janus Quirinus should be shut when victories had secured peace by land and sea throughout the whole empire of the Roman people; from the foundation of the city down to my birth, tradition records that it was shut on three occasions. . . . I extended the territory of all those provinces of the Roman people on whose borders lay peoples not subject to our government. I brought peace to the Gallic and Spanish provinces as well as to Germany, throughout the area bordering the Ocean from Cadiz to the mouth of the Elba. I secured the pacification of the Alps from the district nearest the Adriatic to the Tuscan sea, yet without waging an unjust war on any people. My fleet sailed through the Ocean eastwards from the mouth of the Rhine in the territory of the

Cimbri, a country which no Roman had visited before either by land or sea, and the Chimbri, Charydes, Semones and other German peoples of that region sent ambassadors and sought my friendship and that of the Roman people. At my command and under my auspices two armies were led almost at the same time into Ethiopia and Arab Felix; vast enemy forces of both peoples were cut down in battle and major towns captured. Ethiopia was penetrated as far as the town of Nabat which adjoins Meroe; in Arabia the army advanced into the territory of the Sabaeans to the town of Mariba. I added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people. . . . By victories over enemies I recovered in Spain and in Gaul, and from the Dalmatians several standards lost by other commanders. I compelled the Parthians to restore to me the spoils and standards of three Roman armies and I asked as suppliants for the friendship of the Roman people. Those standards I deposited in the innermost shrine of the temple of Mars the Avenger. In my sixth and seventh consulships, after I had extinguished civil wars, and at a time when with universal consent I was in complete control of affairs, I transferred the republic from my power to the dominion of the senate and people of Rome. For this service of mine I was named Ausustus by decree of the Senate, and the door-posts of my house were publicly wreathed with bay leaves and a civic crown was fixed over my door and a golden shield was set in the Curia Julia, which, as attested by the inscription thereon was given me by the senate and people of Rome on account of my courage, clemency, justice, and piety. After this time I excelled all in influence, although I possessed no more official power than others who were my colleagues in several magistracies. In my thirteenth consulship the senate, the equestrian order and the whole people of Rome game me the title Father of the Country, and resolved that this should be inscribed in the porch of my house and in the Curia Julia and in the Forum Augustum below the chariot which had been set there in my honour by decree of the senate. At the time of writing I am in my seventy-sixth year.

THE EMPIRE The Roman empire was created by Augustus (63 B.C. – A.D. 14), who after his military victory against Antony and Cleopatra, claimed that he wanted to establish the best civilian government possible. The system of government which he devised endured with no major changes for the next three centuries. Augustus was originally named Gaius Octavius, or Octavian. He was only seventeen when Caesar, his great-uncle, was assassinated. By Caesar’s will, Octavian, whose natural father had died when he was four years old, was named as Caesar’s heir and son. Although he was opposed by much more powerful and influential men, Octavian was determined to avenge Caesar and to claim his inheritance. He fought and defeated Antony in Mutina in northern Italy in 43 B.C. Shortly afterward he joined forces with Antony and Antony’s ally, Lepidus, to form the Second Triumvirate. In 42 B.C. Octavian and Antony won the battle against Philippi against Caesar’s assassins, Brutus and Cassius. Antony took control of the eastern provinces of the Roman state and Octavian of the western provinces. Octavian was then able to use Antony’s entanglement with Cleopatra as a pretext for arousing public opinion and for declaring war on his rival. After the defeat of Antony in the naval battle of Actium, Octavian became the sole ruler of the Roman world. In 27 B.C., he assumed the title Augustus. During the next forty-four years of his rule, Augustus exercised unprecedented powers, while preserving, in form, the republican institutions of government. He died universally respected and admired. His body was burned, and the ashes placed in a mausoleum by the Tiber, the river that runs through Rome. By a decree of the Senate, Augustus was named one of the gods to be worshipped by the Romans. An important source of information about Augustus’ life is his autobiography, rex Gestae Divi Augusti, written the year before his death. The Res Gestae was inscribed on two bronze tablets on Augustus’ mausoleum and on stone tablets throughout the empire. The document details the public honors awarded Augustus, such as the dedication by the Senate of the Ara Pacis Augustae in recognition of his role in establishing peace. It also describes his victorious military campaign s and successful foreign negotiations, such as the return of the Roman spoils and standards lost by Crassus and Antony in their unsuccessful campaigns against the Parthians of Asia in 53, 40, and 36 B.C. The relief carved on Augustus’ breastplate in the emperor’s portrait, Augustus of Primaporta, records the same event. Augustus concluded his autobiography by acknowledging his undisputed authority in the imperial government and by simultaneously expressing his respect for republican liberty. A selection from the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, “To Serve Rome with Courage, Clemency, Justice and Piety,” is presented here.

• What does Augustus “champion”? • How does Augustus view his role as described by the Senate? • How does Augustus rule foreign lands? • What role do the doors of the temple of Janus Quirinus play? • Why does this show Augustus’ greatness? • Why did Augustus think the people followed him?

Ovid, Metamorphoses We Cannot Think Him Mortal, Our Augustus We cannot think him mortal, our Augustus, Therefore our Julius must be made a god To justify his son. And golden Venus Saw this, and saw, as well, the murder plotted Against her priest, the assassins, in their armour, And she grew pale with fear. “Behold,” she cried To all the gods in turn, “Behold, what treason Threatens me with its heavy weight, what ambush Is set to take Iulus’ last descendant!” . . . Then Venus beat Her breast with both her hands, and tried to hide him, Her Caesar, in a cloud, as she had rescued Paris1 from Menelaus, as Aeneas2 Fled Diomedes’ sword. And Jove spoke to her: “My daughter, do you think your power alone Can move the fates no power can ever conquer? Enter the home of the Three Sisters3: there You will see the records, on bronze and solid iron, Wrought with tremendous effort, and no crashing Of sky, no wrath of lightning, no destruction Shall make them crumble. They are safe, forever. There you will find engraved on adamant The destinies of the race, unchangeable. I have read them, and remembered; I will tell you So you may know the future. He has finished The time allotted him, this son you grieve for; His debt to earth is paid. But he will enter The Heaven as a god, and have his temples On earth as well: this you will see fulfilled,

1 The Trojan prince, the son of Priam and Hecuba, whose abduction of Helen caused the Trojan War. He was rescued by Aphrodite (Venus) from a duel with Menelaus. 2 A Trojan who escaped the fall of Troy and eventually came to Italy, where his descendants founded the city of Rome. He was also rescued by Aphrodite in a battle with the Greek hero/king Diomedes. His story is told in Virgil’s Aeneid. 3 The Three Fates who govern the lives of humans from birth to death.

Will bring about, you and his son together. He shall inherit both the name of Caesar And the great burden, and we both shall help him Avenge his father’s murder. Under him Mutina’s conquered walls will sue for mercy, Pharsalia know his power, and Philippi Run red with blood again, and one more Pompey Go down to death in Sicilian waters. A Roman general’s Egyptian woman4 Foolish to trust that liaison, will perish For all her threats that our own capitol Would serve Canopus5. Need I bring to mind Barbarian lands that border either ocean? Whatever lands men live on, the world over, Shall all be his to rule, and the seas also. And when peace comes to the world, his mind Will turn to law and order, civil justice, And men will learn from his sublime example, And he, still looking forward toward the future, The coming generations, will give order That his good wife’s young son should take his name, His duty when he lays the burden down, Though he will live as long as ancient Nestor Before he comes to Heaven to greet his kinsmen. Now, in the meantime, from the murdered body Raise up the spirit, set the soul of Julius As a new star in Heaven, to watch over Our market place, our Capitol.”

4 Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt 5 Egyptian water god who was worshipped as the conqueror of fire.

Ovid Reading Questions: Answer the following questions using passages from the text, We Cannot Think Him Mortal, Our Augustus, as evidence in your responses. 1. Why does Julius Caesar become a god? 2. How is Venus’ connection to the family shown in the statue of Augustus of Primaporta? 3. What evidence is there of the philosophy of stoicism? 4. How do we know Jove’s hands are tied? 5. What is the result of Julius’ entering heaven as a god? 6. What is Jove & Venus’ role in Augustus’ coming to power? 7. What purpose does Ovid’s history lesson serve? 8. What particularly Roman concern is the result of Augustus’ reign 9. What is on his breastplate? 10. How would a Roman have “read” this statue?