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I

This webpage reproduces a section of
The Res Gestae

of
Augustus

as published in the Loeb Classical Library,
1924

The text is in the public domain.

This text has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
If you find a mistake though, please let me know!

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III

Monumentum Ancyranum
(Res Gestae Divi Augusti)

Part II​a

8 1 Patriciórum numerum auxí consul quintum iussu populi et senátús. § Sena2 tum ter légi. Et​13 In consulátú sexto cénsum populi conlegá M. Agrippá égí. § 3 Lústrum post annum alterum et quadragensimum féci. § Quó lústro cívi4 um Románórum censa sunt capita quadragiens centum millia et sexa5 ginta tria millia. § Iterum consulari cum imperio lústrum 6 sólus féci C. Censorino et C. Asinio cos. § Quó lústro censa sunt 7 cívium Romanórum capita quadragiens centum millia et ducen8 ta triginta tria millia. Tertium consulári cum imperio  p358 lústrum 9 conlegá Tib. Caesare filio meo​14 feci § Sex. Pompeio et Sex. Appuleio cos. 10 Quó lústro censa sunt civium Románórum capitum quadragiens 11 centum millia et nongenta triginta et septem millia. § 12 Legibus novis latis complura​15 exempla maiorum exolescentia 13 iam ex nostro usu revocavi​16 et ipse multárum rérum exempla imi14 tanda posteris tradidi.

8 8  Τῶν πατρικίων τὸν ἀριθμὸν εὔξησα πέμπτον 9 ὑπατος ἐπιταγῆι τοῦ τε δήμου καὶ τῆς συνκλή10του. § Τὴν σύνκλητον τρὶς ἐπέλεξα. § Ἕκτον ὑπα11τος τὴν ἀποτείμησιν τοῦ δήμου συνάρχον12 τα ἔχων Μᾶρκον Ἀγρίππαν ἔλαβον, ἥτις ἀπο13 τείμησις μετὰ δύο καὶ τεσσαρακοστὸν ἐνιαυ14τὸν συνεκλείσθη. Ἐν ἧι ἀποτειμήσει Ῥωμαίων 15 ἐτειμήσαντο κεφαλαὶ τετρακόσιαι ἑξήκον16τα μυριάδες καὶ τρισχίλιαι. Δεύτερον ὑπατι17κῆι ἐξουσίαι μόνος Γαϊωι Κηνσωρίνωι καὶ 18 Γαϊωι Ἀσινίωι ὑπάτοις τὴν ἀποτείμησιν ἔλαβον· 19 ἐν ἧι ἀποτειμήσει ἐτειμήσαντο Ῥωμαί20 ων τετρακόσιαι εἴκοσι τρεῖς μυριάδες καὶ τρισ21 χίλιοι. Καὶ τρίτον ὑπατικῆι ἐξουσίαι τὰς ἀποτειμή22 σεις ἔλαβον, ἔχων συνάρχοντα Τιβέριον 23 Καίσαρα τὸν υἱόν μου Σέξτωι Πομπηίωι καὶ 1 Σέξτωι Ἀππουληίωι ὑπατοις· ἐν ἧι ἀποτειμήσει 2 ἐτειμήσαντο Ῥωμαίων τετρακόσιαι ἐνενήκοντα 3 τρεῖς μυριάδες καὶ ἑπτακισχείλιοι. § Εἰσαγαγὼν και4νοὺς νόμους πολλὰ ἤδη τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐθῶν κα5ταλυόμενα διωρθωσάμην καὶ αὺτὸς πολλῶν 6 πραγμάτων μείμημα ἐμαυτὸν τοῖς μετέρει7τα παρέδωκα.

8 As consul for the fifth time,​32 by order of the people and the senate I increased the number of the patricians. Three times I revised the roll of the senate.​33 In my sixth consul­ship, with Marcus Agrippa as my colleague, I made a census of the people.​34 I performed the lustrum35 after an interval of forty-one years. In this lustration 4,063,000 Roman citizens were entered on the census roll. A second time,​36 in the consul­ship of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius, I again performed the lustrum alone, with the consular imperium. In this lustrum 4,233,000 Roman citizens were entered on the census roll. A third time, with the consular imperium,  p359 and with my son Tiberius Caesar as my colleague, I performed the lustrum in the consul­ship of Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Apuleius.​37 In this lustrum 4,937,000 Roman citizens were entered on the census roll. By the passage of new laws I restored many traditions of our ancestors which were then falling into disuse, and I myself set precedents in many things for posterity to imitate.​38

9 15 Vota pro valetudine mea suscipi​17 per consulés et sacerdotes quinto 16 quoque anno senatus decrevit. Ex iis votís saepe fecerunt vívo 17 me ludos aliquotiens sacerdotum quattuor amplissima collé18 gia, aliquotiens consules. Privatim etiam et múnicipatim  p360 úniversi 19 cives uno animo continenter​18 apud omnia pulvínária pró vale20 tudine mea sacrificaverunt.º

9 8  Εὐχὰς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐμῆς σωτηρίας ἀναλαμβάνειν 9 διὰ τῶν ὑπάτων καὶ ἱερέων καθ’ ἑκάστην πεν10τετηρίδα ἐψηφίσατο ἡ σύνκλητος. Ἐκ τού11των τῶν εὐχῶν πλειστάκις ἐγένοντο θέαι, 12 τοτὲ μὲν ἐκ τῆς συναρχίας τῶν τεσσάρων ἱερέ13ων, τοτὲ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ὑπάτων. Καὶ κατ’ ἰδίαν δὲ καὶ 14 κατὰ πόλεις σύνπαντες οἱ πολεῖται ὁμοθυμα15δὸν συνεχῶς ἔθυσαν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐμῆς σωτηρίας.

9 The senate decreed that every fifth year​39 vows should be undertaken for my health by the consuls and the priests. In fulfilment of these vows games were often held in my lifetime, sometimes by the four chief colleges of priests, sometimes by the consuls.​40 In addition the entire body  p361 of citizens with one accord,​41 both individually and by municipalities, performed continued sacrifices for my health at all the couches of the gods.

10 21 Nomen meum senatus consulto inclusum est ín saliáre carmen et sacrosan22 ctus ut essem in perpetuum​19 et quoad víverem, tribúnicia potestás mihí 23 esset, per legem​20 sanctum est. Pontifex maximus ne fierem in víví conle24 gae locum, populo id sacerdotium deferente mihi, quod pater meus 25 habuerat,​21 recusavi.​22 Cepi id23 sacerdotium aliquod post annós eó mor26 tuo demum,​24 qui id tumultus occasione occupaverat §, cuncta ex Italia 27 ad comitia mea coeunte  p362 tanta multitudine, quanta Romae nunquam 28 ante fuisse narratur​25 § P. Sulpicio C. Valgio consulibus §.

10 16  Τὸ ὄνομά μου συνκλήτου δόγματι ἐνπεριελή17φθη εἰς τοὺς σαλίων ὑμνους. Καὶ ἴνα ἱερὸς ὣι 18 διὰ βίου τε τὴν δημαρχικὴν ἔχωι ἐξουσίαν, 19 νόμωι ἐκυρώθη. § Ἀρχιερωσύνην, ἣν ὁ πατήρ 20 μου ἐσχήκει, τοῦ δήμου μοι καταφέροντος 21 εἰς τὸν τοῦ ζῶντος τόπον, οὐ προσεδεξά22μην. § ν ἀρχιερατείαν μετά τινας ἐνιαυτοὺς 1 ἀποθανόντος τοῦ προκατειληφότος αὐ2τὴν ἐν πολειτικαῖς ταραχαῖς, ἀνείληφα, εἰς 3 τὰ ἐμὰ ἀρχαιρέσια ἐξ ὅλης τῆς Ἰταλίας τοσού4του πλήθους συνεληλυθότος, ὅσον οὐδεις 5 ἔνπροσθεν ἱστόρησεν ἐπὶ Ῥώμης γεγονέναι Πο6πλίωι Σουλπικίωι καὶ Γαϊωι Οὐαλγίωι ὑπάτοις.

10 By decree of the senate my name was included in the Salian hymn,​42 and it was enacted by law that my person should be sacred in perpetuity and that so long as I lived I should hold the tribunician power.​43 I declined to be made Pontifex Maximus in succession to a colleague still living, when the people tendered me that priesthood which my father had held. Several years later I accepted that sacred office when he at last was dead who, taking advantage of a time of civil disturbance, had seized it for himself, such a multitude from all Italy  p363 assembling for my election, in the consul­ship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius, as is never recorded to have been in Rome before.​44

11 29 Aram Fortunae Reducis​26 iuxta aedés Honoris et Virtutis ad portam 30 Capenam pro reditu meo senátus consacravit, in qua ponti31 fices et virgines Vestales anniversárium sacrificium facere 32 iussit eo​27 die, quo consulibus Q. Lucretio et M. Vinucio in urbem ex 33 Syria redi, et diem Augustalia ex cognomine nostro appellavit.

11 7  Βωμὸν Τύχης Σωτηρίου ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐμῆς ἐπανόδου 8 πρὸς τῆι Καπῆνηι πύληι ἡ σύνκλητος ἀφιέρωσεν· 9 πρὸς ὧι τοὺς ἱερεῖς καὶ τὰς ἱερείας ἐνιαύσιον θυ10σίαν ποιεῖν ἐκέλευσεν ἐν ἐκείνηι τῆι ἡμέραι, 11 ἐν ἧι ὑπάτοις Κοίντωι Λουκρητίωι καὶ Μάρκωι 12 Οὐινουκίωι ἐκ Συρίας εἰς Ῥώμην ἐπανεληλύ13θειν, τήν τε ἡμέραν ἐκ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐπωνυ14μίας προσηγόρευσεν Αὐγουστάλια.

11 The Senate consecrated in honour of my return an altar to Fortuna Redux at the Porta Capena, near the temple of Honour and Virtue, on which it ordered the pontiffs and the Vestal virgins to perform a yearly sacrifice on the anniversary of the day on which I returned to the city from Syria, in the consul­ship of Quintusº Lucretius and Marcus Vinucius, and named the day, after my cognomen, the Augustalia.​45

12 34 Senatus consulto eodem tempore pars praetorum et tribunorum 35 plebis cum consule Q. Lucretio et principibus viris obviam mihi 36 missa est in Campaniam, qui honos ad hoc tempus nemini  p364 prae37 ter me est decretus. Cum ex Hispaniá Galliaque, rebus in his provincís prospe38 re gestis, Romam redi Ti. Nerone P. Quintilio consulibus §, áram 39 Pacis Augustae senatus pro reditú meó consacrari censuit ad cam40 pum Martium, in qua magistratús et sacerdotes et virgines Vestáles 41 anniversarium sacrificium facere iussit.

12 15  Δόγματι συνκλήτου οἱ τὰς μεγίστας ἀρχὰς ἄρ16χαντες σὺν μέρει στρατηγῶν καὶ δημάρχων 17 μετὰ ὑπάτου Κοίντου Λουκρητίου ἐπέμφθη18σάν μοι ὑπαντήσοντες μέχρι Καμπανίας, ἥτις 19 τειμὴ μέχρι τούτου οὐδὲ ἑνὶ εἰ μὴ ἐμοὶ ἐψηφίσ20θη. § Ὅτε ἐξ Ἱσπανίας καὶ Γαλατίας, τῶν ἐν ταύ21ταις ταῖς ἐπαρχείαις πραγμάτων κατὰ τὰς εὐ22χὰς τελεσθέντων, εἰς Ῥώμην ἐπανῆλθον § 23 Τιβερίωι Νέρωνι καὶ Ποπλίωι Κοιντιλίωι ὑπάτοις, 1 βωμὸν Εἰρήνης Σεβαστῆς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐμῆς ἐπ2ανόδου ἀφιερωθῆναι ἐψηφίσατο ἡ σύνκλητος ἐν πε3δίωι Ἄρεως, πρὸς ὧι τούς τε ἐν ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ τοὺς 4 ἱερεῖς τάς τε ἱερείας ἐνιαυσίους θυσίας ἐκέλευσε ποιεῖν.

12 At the same time, by decree of the senate, part of the praetors and of the tribunes of the people, together with the consul Quintus Lucretius​46 and the leading men of the state, were sent to Campania to meet me, an honour which up to the  p365 present time has been decreed to no one except myself. When I returned from Spain and Gaul, in the consul­ship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius, after successful operations in those provinces, the senate voted in honour of my return the consecration of an altar to Pax Augusta in the Campus Martius, and on this altar it ordered the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins to make annual sacrifice.​47

13 42 Ianum Quirinum, quem claussum esse maiores nostri voluerunt, 43 cum per totum imperium populi Romani terra marique esset parta vic44 toriis pax, cum prius, quam náscerer, a condita urbe bis omnino clausum 45 fuisse prodátur memoriae, ter me principe senatus claudendum esse censuit.

13 5  Πύλην Ἐνυάλιον, ἣν κεκλῖσθαι οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἠθέ6λησαν εἰρηνευομένης τῆς ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις πάσης γῆς τε 7 καὶ θαλάσσης, πρὸ μὲν ἐμοῦ, ἐξ οὗ ἡ πόλις ἐκτίσθη, 8 τῶι παντὶ αἰῶνι δὶς μόνον κεκλεῖσθαι ὁμολογεῖ9ται, ἐπὶ δὲ ἐμοῦ ἡγεμόνος τρὶς ἡ σύνκλητος ἐψη10φίσατο κλεισθῆναι.

13 Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors ordered to be closed whenever there was peace, secured by victory, throughout the whole domain of the Roman people on land and sea, and which, before my birth is recorded to have been closed but twice in all since the foundation of the city, the senate ordered to be closed thrice while I was princeps.​48


The Editor's Notes:

Critical Notes:

13 Et deleted by Mommsen.

14 meo not in Mommsen.

15 complura, Ramsay, fills the space better than the multa of Mommsen.

16 reduxi Mommsen.

17 suscipi Mommsen, supported by Ramsay. The Greek would seem to demand suscipere.

18 cives . . . continenter Wirtz. Mommsen's cives sacrificaverunt semper did not translate the ὁμοθυμαδὸν συνεχῶς of the Greek.

19 in perpetuum Bergk.

20 per legem Ramsay, Mon. Ant., lege Mommsen.

21 habuerat Bormann, confirmed by Ramsay, Mon. Ant., habuit Mommsen.

22 recusavi Mommsen, confirmed by Mon. Ant.

23 Cepi id Mommsen, Quod Bormann.

24 demum Ramsay, Mon. Ant. Bormann had conjectured suscepi , but the fragment of the Mon. Ant. shows that the letter after mortuo was not S but probably D.

25 coeunte . . . narratur is based upon the conjecture of Seeck.

26 reduci Mommsen.

27 eo inserted by Bormann.


Explanatory Notes:

32 29 B.C.

33 The three revisions of which he speaks apparently correspond to the taking of the census in 28 and 8 B.C., and in A.D. 14, but the Senate was also revised in 18 B.C. and A.D. 4, that is to say, about every ten years. See Gardthausen, ii.311. The first of these revisions is described by Dio, LII.42; Suet. Aug. 35. At that time the Senate had reached the unwieldy number of 1000, and contained many undesirables.

34 28 B.C.

35 The lustrum was the expiatory sacrifice made at the close of the census; in the sentences which follow it is synonymous with the census. The census had not been taken since 69 B.C. At that time the number of citizens of military age was only 450,000. The increase in the census of 28 B.C. is probably due to the exact enumeration of citizens throughout the empire.

36B.C.

37 A.D. 14, three months before the death of Augustus. The gain in the number of citizens in the twenty-two years since the census of 8 B.C. was 704,000.

38 Cf. Suetonius, Aug. 34 and 89. Among such laws Suetonius specifically mentions the sumptuary law, the law concerning adultery and chastity, the law concerning bribery, and that concerning the marriage of the orders.

39 That is to say "every four years."

40 According to Suetonius, Suet. Aug. 81, Augustus suffered from chronic ill-health. The divinity invoked in these vows was the Actian Apollo. These games were held for the first time in 28 B.C., and celebrated thereafter at four-year intervals. Dio (liii.4) states that they were in charge of the following four priesthoods in succession: the pontiffs, the augurs, the septemviri epulonum, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis.

41 An interesting coin, struck by L. Mescinius Rufus IIIvir, has on the reverse a cippus or altar with the words IMP · CAES · AUGU · COMM · CONS · (Imperatori Caesari Augusto communi consensu), and on the obverse, with initial abbreviations, the following legend: Iovi Optimo Maximo Senatus Populusque Romanus votum susceptum pro salute Imperatoris Caesaris quod per eum respublica in ampliore atque tranquilliore statu est.

42 Mentioned by Dio, LI.20: "When the letter came concerning the Parthians (29 B.C.), they further arranged that his name should be included in their hymns equally with gods."

43 On the overthrow of Lepidus in 36 B.C., the tribunician power was given to Octavian, as it had been to Julius, for life. One of the privileges of the tribunate was that the person of the tribune should be inviolate. In 23 B.C. it was made annual as well as perpetual, and from that time on the years of his principate were reckoned by it.

44 M. Lepidus (like Antony never mentioned by name in the Mon. Anc.) had seized upon the office of pontifex maximus at Caesar's death, (Livy, Epit. cxvii); Vell. II.63. Lepidus died in 13 B.C. and Caesar's election, as we are informed by the fasti Praenestini, took place March 6, 12 B.C.

45 On the return of Augustus in 19 B.C. after settling the affairs of Sicily, Greece, Asia, and Syria, many honours, according to Dio, LIV.10, were decreed to Augustus, but he accepted none except those here mentioned. The Altar of Fortuna Redux was dedicated October 12, and its dedication was celebrated on coins struck in that year. The Porta Capena is the gate by which Augustus entered the city, coming from the south by the Appian Way.

Thayer's Note: For full details on these monuments, see the articles Fortuna Redux and Porta Capena in Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome; the latter includes a recent photograph of the remains of the gate. For the Augustalia, see the article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

46 Quintus Lucretius Vespillo was not consul when he started out with the deputation. The year had been one of tumults in the consular comitia and the second consul had not been elected, Dio, LIV.10. One of the purposes of the deputation was to ask Augustus either to accept the consul­ship, or to name some one to it. His choice fell upon Lucretius, who was one of the delegates.

47 Augustus was absent for three years in Spain and Gaul, 16 to 13 B.C. The altar was built on the Via Flaminia, by which Augustus returned to the city, and formally dedicated on January 30, 9 B.C. The site was systematically excavated in 1903. For the now famous sculptures see Strong, Rom. Sculpture, pp39‑58.

Thayer's Note: For full details on the Ara Pacis, see the article Ara Pacis in Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome; for many photographs, see my site linked there, which in turn links to a list of other Ara Pacis websites.

48 Tradition records that the Arch of Janus was closed for the first time under Numa. It was closed again after the First Punic War in 235. It was closed again by Augustus after the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., again in 25 B.C. after the Cantabrian War. The year of the third closing of the arch is not known. It stood on the Forum where the Argiletum entered it. See Virg. Aen. VII.607, xii.198.

Thayer's Note: For full details on the Temple of Janus, of which no trace remains, see the article Janus Geminus in Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome.


Thayer's Note:

a A fairly readable photograph of the Latin block of the Monumentum Ancyranum of paragraphs VIII thru X, with a transcription and a critical apparatus, plus a Spanish translation, may be found here.


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