Res gestae divi Augusti

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The Res Gestae Divi Augusti (“The deeds of deified Augustus”) were the performance or accountability report of the first Roman emperor Augustus , a first-person account of his life, his merits and honors. According to the best preserved copy, found in Ankara , the work is also called Monumentum Ancyranum . Theodor Mommsen , who has also written a comment that is still important today, described the Res Gestae as the “Queen of ancient inscriptions”.

Transmission of the text

Fragment of the Res Gestae from the Monumentum Ancyranum
Porch of the Temple of Augustus and Roma in Ankara with the Latin text of the Monumentum Ancyranum

According to Augustus' testament, the original of the Res Gestae was erected on two bronze pillars in front of the Augustus mausoleum in Rome , but these have not been preserved. The text is known from three inscribed copies in different cities of the Roman Empire :

Monumentum Ancyranum
This inscription was placed on the walls of the temple dedicated to Augustus and Roma in Ancyra (now Ankara , Turkey), the capital of the province of Galatia . This copy is the most important, as the original Latin version with a Greek translation has survived almost completely (therefore the term Monumentum Ancyranum is often used generally for the Res Gestae Divi Augusti ). The Monumentum Ancyranum was discovered in 1555 by an envoy of the German emperor, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq . In 1847 an edition by August Wilhelm Zumpt appeared . The text design was checked on the basis of archaeological-epigraphic studies in the 19th and 20th centuries (Theodor Mommsen, Martin Schede , Wilhelm Weber ).
Monumentum Apolloniense
This very fragmentary inscription comes from the city of Apollonia in Pisidia and contains only a Greek version of the text. It was discovered in 1821, further larger fragments in 1930, and comes from a base on which there were statues of Augustus, Tiberius , Livia , Germanicus and the younger Drusus .
Monumentum Antiochenum
This inscription, which is also very fragmentary, was discovered in 1914 in the city of Antioch , also in Pisidia, and further parts in 1926. It only contains the Latin version of the text. The original location of the inscription is unclear (statue base or gate).

The epigrapher PJ Thoneman recognized another fragment in an inscription find from Sardis. The fragment is irrelevant for the text design; but its significance lies in the fact that at least one copy has now also been found outside the province of Galatia, from which the other text documents come.

All texts together make it possible to reconstruct the lost original almost completely.

Origin of the text

Augustus himself states at the end of the work (35) that he wrote it in the age of 76, i.e. shortly before his death in the year 14. Presumably the text, or at least some parts of it, was written years earlier and has only been updated over time. Augustus left the text together with his will, which he concluded on April 3, 13 AD, which instructed the Senate to have the inscriptions made.

Content and meaning

The first part of the Res Gestae begins with the transfer of power to Augustus by the Senate and describes the various honors that were bestowed upon him, whereby Augustus emphasizes that he did not ask ambitiously about these honors. The second part describes Augustus' gifts to the Roman people in the form of money, games and buildings. The third part is about the expansion of the empire, peace and friendship with the rest of the world during his reign. An appendix (in the third person, apparently only created for the provincial copies) summarizes the text again, lists the various buildings that Augustus had created, and states that he donated 600 million denarii from his own assets during his reign .

The Res Gestae show obvious propaganda traits. They tend to gloss over the events between the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar and Augustus' victory over Mark Antony and Sextus Pompey : the two opponents in the civil war are not named; Antonius is only "the one I waged the war against", Pompey is portrayed as a pirate.

In other sections, the Res Gestae do not give an objective description of history, but rather the official view of Augustus. In an oft-treated formulation, he stated how he saw his position in the formally restored republic:

“Post id tempus auctoritate omnibus praestiti, potestatis autem nihilo amplius habui quam ceteri, qui mihi quoque in magistratu conlegae fuerunt.”

"After this time (after 27 BC) I surpassed everyone in terms of reputation / influence, but I had no more formal violence than the others who were my colleagues in office."

- Augustus : Res gestae 34

At the same time, the inscription is proof that Augustus allowed the divine veneration of his person in connection with the dea Roma during his lifetime in the eastern provinces, where this was also a tradition , while he refused it in Rome.

Text output

  • Theodor Mommsen (Ed.): Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Ex monumentis Ancyrano et Apolloniensi. 2nd Edition. Weidmann, Berolini 1883 (still basic scientific edition).
  • Hans Volkmann (Ed.): Res Gestae Divi Augusti. The Monumentum Ancyranum (= small texts for lectures and exercises. Vol. 29/30, ZDB -ID 520652-2 ). 3rd, revised edition. de Gruyter, Berlin 1969 (study edition, Latin / Greek).
  • Jean Gagé (Ed.): Res gestae divi Augusti. 3rd edition, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1977 (contains text, French translation, commentary).
  • Ekkehard Weber (Ed.): Res Gestae Divi Augusti. After the Monumentum Ancyranum, Apolloniense and Antiochenum. = My actions. Study edition. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7608-1378-X (Latin-Greek-German edition with commentary).
  • John Scheid (Ed.): Res gestae divi Avgvsti. = Hauts faits du divin Auguste (= Collection des universités de France. Série latine. Vol. 386). Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-251-01446-3 (current scientific edition with French translation and commentary).
  • Klaus Bringmann , Dirk Wiegandt (eds.): Augustus. Writings, speeches and sayings (= texts on research. Vol. 91). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-534-19028-7 , No. 233, pp. 229-281 (contains text, translation, commentary).

literature

  • Manfred G. Schmidt : Introduction to Latin epigraphy. 2nd, reviewed and bibliographically updated edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-23642-8 .
  • Peter James Thonemann: A Copy of Augustus' Res gestae at Sardis, Historia 61.3, 2012, 282–288.

Web links