“This is precisely the image which Augustus presented

when he wrote his Res Gestae:

he conveyed his achievements and not his feelings ...”

res gestae divi Augusti (things done of the deified Augustus)

The original text of the res gestae, now lost, was inscribed on two bronze tablets set up in front of Augustus’ tomb in Rome. Copies of the res gestae, in Latin and in an official Greek translation, were also inscribed on the walls of temples of Augustus (or of Rome and Augustus) in the eastern part of the Empire. The first of these copies to be discovered, and by far the most complete, was inscribed on the temple of Rome and Augustus at Ankara (Turkey), whence the text’s other name, the monumentum Ancyranum. For more information on the inscription click here.

Read the English translation of the res gestae divi Augusti in its entirety.