#res gestae

Ancient Worlds - BBC Two

Episode 6 “City of Man, City of God”

TheRes Gestae Divi Augusti, (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) is the political testament, official autobiography and funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD

The text, written by Augustus himself, gives a first-person record of his life and accomplishments and tell us us how he wanted to be remembered. The work is very impersonal and selective; he doesn’t mention his failures, only his achievements. He wrote it as an Elogium (formal funerary oration) and as propaganda. Augustus may have intended it to be read out in the Senate after his death. In accordance with his wishes, it was inscribed on two bronze pillars in front of his mausoleum in Rome.

The achievements of the Divine Augustus were copied and inscribed on monuments throughout the empire. The best preserved version is on the Temple of Rome and Augustus in Ancyra, Galatia (modern Ankara, Turkey), known as the Monumentum Ancyranum.

Monumentum Ancyranum, Ankara, Turkey