Caesar Augustus Facets

The Res Gestae contains three canonical themes: (i) the honors bestowed on Augustus which he emphasizes represented a broad consensus of the communities which do up the Roman empire; (ii) his generosity out of his backstage purse to discordant groups in society, especially veterans and the plebeian class, and his expenditures for the erection of temples, shrines and other public edifices and works; and (iii) his military and political whole works on behalf of the State. The unifying concept is his claim to have have and to have exercised during his to a greater extent than 50 years in advocate of supreme moral authorization or auctoritas, culminating in his existence accorded by the Roman people in B.C. 2 the ennoble of p bens patriae or Father of his country.

Relatively brief, the Res Gestae is noticeable for its pellucidity of expression, what Brunt & Moore call "a cool record of fact . . . on occasion dry to the point of tedium." Many aspects of his reign are omitted, including many of his legislative and administrative accomplishments and the names of his principal adversaries and enemies. exotic policy is treated superficially. He co'ers some military campaigns, and omits others. noticeable by its absence is any reference to the crushing surpass suffered by the Roman legions under Quinctulius Varus at the hands of Teutonic tribes at the Battle of Teutenborg Forest in A.D. 9.

The one-sided nature of Augustus' banknote was not, according to Hornblower and Spawforth inconsisten

Augustus' account leaves out any discussion of the machinations of him and his third wife, Livia Drusilla, in their family life, including various forced marriages and scandals and rumors that Livia murdered intimately of his blood kin to turn back that he would be succeeded, as in fact he was, by her son, Tiberius. Those omissions are hardly surprising.

After his victory everywhere Mark Antony at Actium and his conquest of Egypt in B.C. 30, Augustus was the undisputed noble of Rome. In his account, he recites the many honors bestowed upon and the triumphs and ovations, etc. staged on his behalf by a grateful nation, yet he skips all over the details of the intact settlement of B.C. 27. He merely says in para.

34 that "I transferred the republic from my own control to the depart of the senate and the Roman people." Essentially, Scarre says "Octavian went through the pantomine of giving up cater to the Senate, and receiving most of it back again." He reinstated the magistrates, the senate and popular bodies in their old constitutional role. In return, he had himself named consul, a power which was renewed each year down to B.C. 23, retained untrammeled consular authority over a number of provinces, including Spain, Gaul, Egypt, Syria and others, which Brunt & Moore say "he administered virtually as a private estate." He took the title of Augustus, which had various meanings, mostly of a sacred nature. As he notes in his account, he resisted at all times, formally in B.C. 23, any offers of dictatorship, but he did accept the designation of imperator or emperor, which ensured him command authority over the army and, according to Brunt & Moore, "a discretionary power to do what the interests of the state required," except insofar as specifically limited by law.

Augustus begins his account with a beguilingly straightforward statement, which contains more than a grain of truth, but is nevertheless a double-dyed(a) oversimplification. He says in para. 1 that "at the age of ninetee
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