Below is a copy of the deeds of the divine Augustus, by which he subjected the whole world to the dominion of the Roman people, and of the amounts which he expended upon the commonwealth and the Roman people, as engraved upon two brazen columns which are set up at Rome.1

Below is a copy of the deeds of the divine Augustus, by which he subjected the whole world to the dominion of the Roman people, and of the amounts which he expended upon the commonwealth and the Roman people, as engraved upon two brazen columns which are set up at Rome.1

c. 1.

In my twentieth year,2 acting upon my own judgment3 and at my own expense,4 I raised an army5 by means of which I restored to liberty the commonwealth which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction.6 On account of this the senate by laudatory decrees admitted me to its order,7 in the consulship of Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, and at the same time gave me consular rank in the expression of opinion,8 and gave me the imperium.9 It also voted that I as propraetor,10 together with the consuls, should see to it that the commonwealth suffered no harm.11 In the same year, moreover, when both consuls had perished in war, the people made me consul,12 and triumvir for organizing the commonwealth.13

c. 2.

Those who killed my father14 I drove into exile by lawful judgments,15 avenging their crime, and afterwards, when they waged war against the commonwealth, I twice defeated them in battle.16

c. 3.

I undertook civil and foreign wars by land and sea throughout the whole world, and as victor I showed mercy to all surviving citizens.17 Foreign peoples, who could be pardoned with safety, I preferred to preserve rather than to destroy. About five hundred thousand Roman citizens took the military oath of allegiance to me.18 Of these I have settled in colonies or sent back to their municipia,19 upon the expiration of their terms of service,20 somewhat over three hundred thousand, and to all these I have given lands purchased by me, or money for farms,21 out of my own means. I have captured six hundred ships, besides those which were smaller than triremes.22

c. 4.

Twice I have triumphed in the ovation,23 and three times in the curule triumph,24 and I have been twenty-one times saluted as imperator.25

After that, when the senate decreed me many triumphs,26 I declined them. Likewise I often deposited the laurels in the Capitol27 in fulfilment of vows which I had also made in battle. On account of enterprises brought to a successful issue on land and sea by me, or by my lieutenants under my auspices, the senate fifty-five times decreed that there should be a thanksgiving to the immortal gods.28 The number of days, moreover, on which thanksgiving was rendered in accordance with the decree of the senate was eight hundred and ninety.29 In my triumphs there have been led before my chariot nine kings, or children of kings.30 When I wrote these words I had been thirteen times consul, and was in the thirty-seventh year of the tribunitial power.31

c. 5.

The dictatorship which was offered to me by the people and the senate, both when I was absent and when I was present, in the consulship of Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius, I did not accept.32 At a time of the greatest dearth of grain I did not refuse the charge of the food supply, which I so administered that in a few days, at my own expense, I freed the whole people from the anxiety and danger in which they then were.33 The annual and perpetual consulship offered to me at that time I did not accept.34

c. 6.

During the consulship of Marcus Vinucius and Quintus Lucretius, and afterwards in that of Publius and Cnaeus Lentulus, and a third time in that of Paullus Fabius Maximus and Quintus Tubero, by the consent of the senate and the Roman people I was voted the sole charge of the laws and of morals, with the fullest power;35 but I accepted the proffer of no office which was contrary to the customs of the country.36 The measures of which the senate at that time wished me to take charge, I accomplished in virtue of my possession of the tribunitial power.37 In this office I five times associated with myself a colleague, with the consent of the senate.38

c. 7.

For ten years in succession I was one of the triumvirs for organizing the commonwealth.39 Up to that day on which I write these words I have been princeps of the senate through forty years.40 I have been pontifex maximus,41 augur,42 a member of the quindecemviral college of the sacred rites,43 of the septemviral college of the banquets,44 an Arval Brother,45 a member of the Titian sodality,46 and a fetial.47

c. 8.

In my fifth consulship, by order of the people and the senate, I increased the number of the patricians.48 Three times I have revised the list of the senate.49 In my sixth consulship, with Marcus Agrippa as colleague, I made a census of the people. I performed the lustration after forty-one years. In this lustration the number of Roman citizens was four million and sixty-three thousand.50 Again assuming the consular power in the consulship of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius, I alone performed the lustration. At this census the number of Roman citizens was four million, two hundred and thirty thousand.51 A third time, assuming the consular power in the consulship of Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius, with Tiberius Cæsar as colleague, I performed the lustration. At this lustration the number of Roman citizens was four million, nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand.52 By new legislation I have restored many customs of our ancestors which had now begun to fall into disuse, and I have myself also committed to posterity many examples worthy of imitation.53

c. 9.

The senate decreed that every fifth year vows for my good health should be performed by the consuls and the priests. In accordance with these vows games have been often celebrated during my lifetime, sometimes by the four chief colleges, sometimes by the consuls.54 In private, also, and as municipalities, the whole body of citizens have constantly sacrificed at every shrine for my good health.55

c. 10.

By a decree of the senate my name has been included in the Salian hymn,56 and it has been enacted by law that I should be sacrosanct, and that as long as I live I should be invested with the tribunitial power.57 I refused to be made pontifex maximus in the place of a colleague still living, when the people tendered me that priesthood which my father held. I accepted that office after several years, when he was dead who had seized it during a time of civil disturbance; and at the comitia for my election, during the consulship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius, so great a multitude assembled as, it is said, had never before been in Rome.58

c. 11.

Close to the temples of Honor and Virtue, near the Capena gate, the senate consecrated in honor of my return an altar to Fortune the Restorer, and upon this altar it ordered that the pontifices and the Vestal virgins should offer sacrifice yearly on the anniversary of the day on which I returned into the city from Syria, in the consulship of Quintus Lucretius and Marcus Vinucius, and it called the day the Augustalia, from our cognomen.59

c. 12.

By a decree of the senate at the same time a part of the prætors and tribunes of the people with the consul Quintus Lucretius and leading citizens were sent into Campania to meet me, an honor which up to this time has been decreed to no one but me.60 When I returned from Spain and Gaul after successfully arranging the affairs of those provinces, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius, the senate voted that in honor of my return an altar of the Augustan Peace should be consecrated in the Campus Martius, and upon this altar it ordered the magistrates and priests and vestal virgins to offer sacrifices on each anniversary.61

c. 13.

Janus Quirinus, which it was the purpose of our fathers to close when there was peace won by victory62 throughout the whole empire of the Roman people on land and sea, and which, before I was born, from the foundation of the city, was reported to have been closed twice in all,63 the senate three times ordered to be closed while I was princeps.64

c. 14.

My sons, the Cæsars Gaius and Lucius, whom fortune snatched from me in their youth,65 the senate and Roman people, in order to do me honor, designated as consuls in the fifteenth year of each, with the intention that they should enter upon that magistracy after five years.66 And the senate decreed that from the day in which they were introduced into the forum they should share in the public counsels.67 Moreover the whole body of the Roman knights gave them the title, principes of the youth, and gave to each a silver buckler and spear.68

c. 15.

To each man of the Roman plebs I paid three hundred sesterces 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 constructed84 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 Vanquisher92 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 soldiers132 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