20 Augustus Testament

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Extracts of the things done by the Divine Augustus, the things by which he subjected the
orb of the lands to the Imperium of the People of Rome, and of the money which for the Res
Publica and the People of Rome he spent - the (original) is incised upon two bronze   _
pillars set up at Rome - a copy (of his own account) follows.
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At nineteen years of age I prepared an army by (my own) personal plan and at (my own)
personal expense, through which I reclaimed the Res Publica from the domination of the
faction oppressing it, and set it free. In the name of that deed the Senate, by honorific   _
decrees, into its own rank elected me (C. Pansa and A. Hirtius were consuls) , at the same
time giving me a consular place for giving my opinion , and it gave imperium to me. The
Res Publica ordered me as a praetor, along with the consuls, to see to it that it suffered   _
nothing detrimental to itself. The People, moreover, in the same year made me consul, when
the consuls both had fallen in war, and Triumvir for the purpose of constituting the Res
Publica.
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Those who had killed my parent I drove out into exile through the legitimate courts, as
the avenger of their crime; and afterwards when they were bringing war against the Res
Publica I conquered them in two battles .   _

Wars by land and by sea, civil and foreign, over the whole orb of the lands I often
waged; and as victor I spared all who sought pardon as citizens. The foreign nations -   _
those which in safety I was able to forgive - I preferred to preserve rather than to kill.
Of Roman citizens bound by a (military) sacrament to me there were about 500,000; out of
these I led out into colonies or sent back into their own municipalities - when they had   _
earned a year's wages - somewhat more than 300,000, and to them all I assigned arable land
or else I gave money as a reward for military service. I captured 600 ships, beyond those
which were smaller than triremes.
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Twice I had triumphal ovations, and three times curule triumphs; and I was called,
twenty-two times, Imperator. When, however, the Senate decreed more triumphs, I sat out
from them. The bay leaves from my fasces I deposited in the Capitol when my vows, which in   _
each war I had pronounced, were fulfilled. On account of things by land and by sea
successfully done by me or by my delegates under my auspices, 55 times the Senate decreed
that prayers be made to the immortal gods. Of days, moreover, on which by the Senate's   _
decree (these) prayers were made, there were 890. In triumphs of mine there were led
before my chariot, of kings or king's children, nine. I had been consul 13 times, when I
wrote this , and was in the 37th year of my tribunician power.
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Dictatorship, offered to me both when I was absent and when I was present by both the
People and the Senate when M. Marcellus and L. Arruntius were consuls , I did not accept.
I did not beg off, when there was a great shortage of grain, from the management of its   _
supply, which I so administered that within a few days from its immediate fear and danger
I freed the entire state at my own expense and by my own care. Consulship, annual and also
perpetual, at that time offered to me, I did not accept .   _

When the consuls were M. Vinicius and Q. Lucretius , and afterwards when they were P. and
Cn. Lentulus , and a third time when they were Paullus Fabius Maximus and Q. Tubero , even   _
with the Senate and the Roman People consenting that I should be made sole curator of laws
and public morals with imperium, I accepted no magistracy offered contrary to the custom
of our ancestors. The things which at that time the Senate wanted done through me, I   _
accomplished through my tribunician power; and a colleague in that power I myself, of my
own accord, five times demanded from the Senate and received.
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I was Triumvir for the constituting of the Res Publica throughout ten continual years .
I was Princeps of the Senate, up to the day on which I wrote this, throughout 40 years. I
was Pontifex Maximus, an Augur, one of the Fifteen for making sacrifices, one of the Seven   _
for religious feasts, an Arval brother, a Titian fellow, and a Fetial.
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The Patricians' numbers I increased, as consul for the fifth time, at the bidding of the
People and the Senate . Three times I revised the membership of the Senate and in my sixth
consulship I held a census of the people, with M. Agrippa as my colleague. I conducted a   _
lustrum after (a lapse of) 41 years; in that lustrum of Roman citizens there were counted
4,063,000 heads. Then again, with consular imperium, alone I conducted a lustrum when C.
Censorinus and C. Asinius were consuls ; in that lustrum were counted, of Roman citizens,   _
4,233,000 heads. And a third time with consular imperium I conducted a lustrum, with, as
colleague, Tiberius Caesar my son ; in that lustrum were counted, of Roman citizens'
heads, 4,937,000. Through new laws brought forward at my instigation I reintroduced many   _
salutary practices established by our ancestors - things that at that time were beginning
to disappear from our age; and I myself handed on examples of many things which ought to
be imitated by those who come after.
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That prayers for my health be undertaken by the consuls and priests every fifth year,
the Senate decreed. Along with these prayers, they often held games while I was living,
sometimes the four most important colleges of priests, sometimes the consuls. Also, both   _
privately and municipally the entire body of citizens, unanimously and continuously at all
the altars, for my health made supplication.
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My name by the Senate's decree was included in the Saliar Hymn; and it was legislated
that I be sacrosanct in perpetuity and, while I lived, that the tribunician power be given
me . I refused to be made Pontifex Maximus in the place of my colleague while he lived,   _
when the people offered me that priesthood which my father had held; that priesthood some
years later, upon the death at last of that man who had used the occasion of civil tumult
to get it, with all Italy pouring together for my election in a multitude such as had   _
never been reported at Rome before that time, I accepted (P. Sulpicius and C. Valgius were
consuls ).
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An altar of Fortune the Bringer-back before the shrines of Honor and Virtue at the
Capene Gate, on behalf of my return, was by the Senate consecrated; in it the priests and
Vestal Virgins were ordered to make anniversary sacrifice on the day on which (when Q.   _
Lucretius and M. Vinicius were consuls ) I came back to the city from Syria, and the day
was named the Augustalia from my cognomen.
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By the Senate's decree at the same time a part of the praetors and of the tribunes of the
plebs, with the consul Q. Lucretius and the principal men (of the Senate) were sent to
meet me in Campania - an honor which up to that time no one except me had been decreed.   _
When from Spain and Gaul - matters in those provinces having been successfully managed - I
came back to Rome , an altar of August ("holy, majestic") Peace, by the Senate, in honor
of my return, was ordered to be consecrated on the Field of Mars; in it the magistrates   _
and priests and Vestal Virgins were ordered to make anniversary sacrifices.
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As for the Gates of Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors wanted closed whenever through
the whole area of the imperium of the Roman People, by land and by sea, peace had been
secured by victories - although before I was born from the founding of the city only twice   _
in all it had been closed according to tradition - three times while I was Princeps the
Senate ordered them closed.
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My sons, who as youths were snatched from me by Fortune - Gaius and Lucius Caesar - for
my honor's sake were by the Senate and People of Rome, when they were each fourteen, made
consuls-designate, on the condition that they enter that magistracy after five years; and   _
the Senate decreed that from the day on which they were led into the Forum they should be
present at public councils. The Equites of Rome, moreover, universally named each of them
Princeps of the Youth and presented them with shield and spears of silver.
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For the plebs of Rome, man by man, I counted out 300 sesterces (each) from the will of
my father , and in my own name 400 each out of the spoils of war I gave in my fifth
consulship ; again moreover in my tenth consulship from my own patrimony I counted out as   _
a gift 400 sesterces man by man; in my eleventh consulship I measured out twelve rations
of grain privately bought; in the twelfth year of my tribunician power I gave 400
sesterces for the third time, man by man. These gifts of mine never came through to fewer   _
than 250,000 men. In the eighteenth year of my tribunician power, in my twelfth consulship
, I gave 240 sesterces, man by man, to 320,000 members of the urban plebs. And to the
colonists chosen from my soldiers in my fifth consulship I gave out of war-spoils 1,000   _
sesterces each; in the colonies about 12,000 men received this gift during my triumph. In
my thirteenth consulship I gave 60 denarii to the plebs who then were receiving grain
rations; they were a few more than 200,000 men.
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For the lands which in my fourth consulship and afterwards when M. Crassus and Cn.
Lentulus the Augur were consuls I assigned to the soldiers, I paid money to the
municipalities; this sum was about 600,000,000 sesterces which I counted out for the   _
war-spoils in Italy and about 260,000,000 which I paid for land in the provinces....

Four times from my own money I helped out the Public Treasury....   _

I built the Curia and the Chalcidicum which adjoins it, the temple of Apollo on the
Palatine with its porticoes, the temple of the Divine Julius, the Lupercal, the portico   _
near the Flaminian Circus (which I suffered to be named the Octavian Portico, after the
man who had built the earlier one at that same site), the shrine near the Circus Maximus,
the temples of Jupiter Feretrius and Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitoline, the temple   _
of Quirinus, the temples of Minerva and of Queen Juno and of Jupiter of Liberty on the
Aventine, the temple of the Lares at the top of the Sacred Way, the temple of the Divine
Penates in the Velian district, the temple of Youth, the temple of the Great Mother on the   _
Palatine.
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At great expense I rebuilt both the Capitoline temple and the theater of Pompey, without
inscribing my name on either. In many areas I repaired water channels which had fallen
into disrepair with age, and I doubled the output of the Marcian aqueduct by introducing a   _
new water source to its channel. I completed the Julian forum and the Julian basilica -
the one between the temple of Castor and the temple of Saturn - both of which were begun
and nearly completed by my father, and when this same basilica was destroyed by fire I   _
enlarged its foundations and began to rebuild it in the name of my sons, with commands
that, should I not have lived to complete the work, it should be completed by my heirs. In
my sixth consulship , on the authority of the senate, I rebuilt 82 temples of the gods in   _
the city, with none omitted which at that time were in need of repair. In my seventh
consulship I rebuilt the Flaminian Way from the city to Arminum and all the bridges with
the exception of the Mulvian and Minucian bridges.
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On private ground I built the temple of Mars the Avenger and the Forum of Augustus , out
of war-spoils....
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Three gladiatorial games I gave in my own name and five in my sons' or grandsons' names;
in these games there fought around 10,000 men.... I gave hunts of beasts from Africa in my
name or in that of my sons or grandsons in the circus or forum or amphitheater 26 times;   _
in these were used up around 3,500 beasts.

I gave the spectacle of a naval battle to the People, across the Tiber in the place where   _
now is the Grove of the Caesars, having excavated a piece of ground 1,800 feet in length
and 1,200 in width; in this 30 beaked triremes or biremes and even more smaller ships
fought amongst themselves; in these fleets fought - besides the rowers - around 3,000 men.   _