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I drove into exile the murderers of my father
[Julius Caesar], avenging their crime through
tribunals established by law; and afterwards,
when they made war on the republic, I twice
defeated them in battle.
I undertook many civil and foreign wars by
land and sea throughout the world, and as
victor I spared the lives of all citizens who asked
for mercy. When foreign peoples could safely be
pardoned I preferred to preserve rather than to
exterminate them. The Roman citizens who
took the soldier's oath of obedience to me
numbered about 500,000. I settled rather more than
300,000 of these in colonies or sent them back
to their home towns after their period of
service; to all these I assigned lands or gave money
as rewards for their military service....
The dictatorship was offered to me by both
senate and people in my absence and when I
was at Rome in the consulship of Marcus
Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius, but I refused it. I
did not decline in the great dearth of corn to
undertake the charge of the corn-supply, which
I so administered that within a few days I
delivered the whole city from apprehension and
immediate danger at my own cost and by my
own efforts.... The senate and people of
Rome agreed that I should be appointed
supervisor of laws and morals without a colleague
and with supreme power, but I would not
accept any office inconsistent with the custom of
our ancestors. The measures that the senate
then desired me to take I carried out in virtue
of my tribunician power....
To each member of the Roman plebs
I paid under my father's will
300 sesterces, and in my own name I gave
them 400 each from the booty of war in my
fifth consulship, and once again in my tenth
consulship I paid out 400 sesterces as a largesse
to each man from my own patrimony, and in
my eleventh consulship I bought grain with
my own money and distributed twelve rations
apiece, and in the twelfth year of my
tribunician power I gave every man 400 sesterces for
the third time. These largesses of mine never
reached fewer than 250,000 persons....
... I paid monetary rewards to soldiers
whom I settled in their home towns after
completion of their service, and on this account
I expended about 400,000,000 sesterces.
Four times I assisted the treasury with
my own money, so that I transferred to the
administrators of the treasury 150,000,000
sesterces....
I restored the Capitol and the theatre
of Pompey, both works at great expense without
inscribing my own name on either. I restored
the channels of the aqueducts, which in several
places were falling into disrepair through age,
and I brought water from a new spring into the
aqueduct called Marcia, doubling the supply.
I completed the Forum Julium and the
basilica between the temples of Castor and Saturn,
works begun and almost finished by my
father....
I gave three gladiatorial games in my own
name and five in that of my sons or grandsons;
at these games some 10,000 men took part
in combat. Twice in my own name and a
third time in that of my grandson I presented
to the people displays by athletes summoned
from all parts. I produced shows in my own
name four times and in place of other
magistrates twenty-three times....
I gave beasthunts of African beasts in my own name or in
that of my sons and grandsons in the circus or
forum or amphitheatre on twenty-six occasions,
on which about 3,500 beasts were destroyed.
I made the sea peaceful and freed it of pirates.
In that war I captured about 30,000 slaves who
had escaped from their masters and taken up
arms against the republic, and I handed them
over to their masters for punishment.
I extended the territory of all those provinces
of the Roman people on whose borders lay
peoples not subject to our government. I brought
peace to the Gallic and Spanish provinces as
well as to Germany, throughout the area
bordering on the [Atlantic] Ocean from Cadiz
to the mouth of the Elbe. I secured the pacification of
the Alps.... The Pannonian peoples
... were conquered through the
agency of Tiberius Nero who was then my
stepson and legate; I brought them into the empire
of the Roman people, and extended the frontier
of Illyricum to the banks of the Danube....
In my sixth and seventh consulships, after I
had extinguished civil wars, and at a time when
with universal consent I was in complete
control of affairs, I transferred the republic from
my power to the dominion of the senate and
people of Rome. For this service of mine I was
named Augustus by decree of the senate, and
the door-posts of my house were publicly
wreathed with bay leaves and a civic crown
was fixed over my door and a golden shield
was set in the Curia Julia, which, as attested
by the inscription thereon, was given me by the
senate and people of Rome on account of my
courage, clemency, justice and piety. After this
time I excelled all in influence, although I
possessed no more official power than others who
were my colleagues in the several magistracies.
In my thirteenth consulship the senate, the
equestrian order and the whole people of Rome
gave me the title of Father of my Country....
