Deeds Of The Divine Augustus Analysis
Res Gestae Divi Augusti, or the “Deeds of the Divine Augustus,” is a first person document written in 14 AD by Rome’s first emperor Augustus. It consists of 35 short paragraphs detailing Augustus’ life and accomplishments with a quick introduction and a third person appendix added after his death. Augustus, or better known as Octavian by historians, was the founder of the Roman Empire in 27 BC until his death in 14 AD, at an impressive age of 76 years old.
In the first section of the document, Augustus writes about his political career, including how he raised an army to “free the state” and how he formed the Second Triumvirate with Marc Antony and Marcus Lepidus to defeat and punish Brutus and Cassius, the people that assassinated his adopted …show more content…
He mentions that in his thirteenth consulate around 2 BC, he wrote this text and was 76 years old.
The final section is the addendum written in third person after the death of Augustus, though unknown by whom exactly. It provides a summary of the rest of the text with the total amount of expenditures mentioned in the second section, such as the amount of money in donations and the public works projects he started and worked on in his reign.
Before the reign of Augustus, Rome was still a Republic and in a state of civil wars because of the doings of consuls and senators Gaias Marius and Lucius Sulla starting in 88 BC, when Marius made the movement for land ownership to not be a requirement to be in the Roman army. Although it was a good short term plan, it led to devastating consequences. After the urban poor males joined the army, the patricians decided that they did not want to pay taxes towards the army and decided to privatize them. Each commander was to be in charge of their part of the army and their payroll, which made those soldiers loyal to their commander, but not to Rome. After a series of civil wars, Sulla was installed as dictator and would have multiple descendants as successors until Augustus starts his reign in the
In the first section of the document, Augustus writes about his political career, including how he raised an army to “free the state” and how he formed the Second Triumvirate with Marc Antony and Marcus Lepidus to defeat and punish Brutus and Cassius, the people that assassinated his adopted …show more content…
He mentions that in his thirteenth consulate around 2 BC, he wrote this text and was 76 years old.
The final section is the addendum written in third person after the death of Augustus, though unknown by whom exactly. It provides a summary of the rest of the text with the total amount of expenditures mentioned in the second section, such as the amount of money in donations and the public works projects he started and worked on in his reign.
Before the reign of Augustus, Rome was still a Republic and in a state of civil wars because of the doings of consuls and senators Gaias Marius and Lucius Sulla starting in 88 BC, when Marius made the movement for land ownership to not be a requirement to be in the Roman army. Although it was a good short term plan, it led to devastating consequences. After the urban poor males joined the army, the patricians decided that they did not want to pay taxes towards the army and decided to privatize them. Each commander was to be in charge of their part of the army and their payroll, which made those soldiers loyal to their commander, but not to Rome. After a series of civil wars, Sulla was installed as dictator and would have multiple descendants as successors until Augustus starts his reign in the