Lampas - Volume 52, Issue 3, 2019

This paper demonstrates the importance of viewing the Res Gestae not just as a document intended for an audience at Rome, but as a text that was adapted for display in different provincial urban contexts, via its incorporation into different monumental settings at Ancyra, Apollonia, and Antioch, via the addition of a translation in Greek that modified the original emphases of the Res Gestae, and via the addition of an Appendix at the end of the main text.

For a long time the text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti was studied mainly as a political or historical document. Yet recent criticism has capitalized on its primary function, that of an inscription on bronze slabs adjoining the entrance of Augustus� Mausoleum on the Field of Mars in Rome. The present article continues the exploration of the text's functioning in that original position, interpreting it in the light of its monumental context and vice versa. In particular, the hypothesis that a bronze exemplar of the Augustus of Prima Porta was the statue that topped Augustus� Mausoleum is considered from this perspective.

This article places the Res Gestae of Augustus against the background of political autobiographies written during the civil wars of the Late Republic. I will look in particular at (fragments) of the autobiographical writings of Sulla, Cicero, Caesar and Augustus himself, in order to get a better grip on the specific characteristics of the Res Gestae.

Word order and lexical cohesion are the main devices by means of which the coherence of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti is made explicit. Word order is used to structure the text as a whole, while lexical cohesion functions as a cohesion device on the level of the caput; on this level, the particle autem is used as well. In brief asides, usually relative clauses, the author evaluates his deeds. An analysis of tense usage (both quantitative and in close reading) shows that the text type of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti is non-narrative, with an important role for the perfect tense. At the sentence level epistolary tense usage creates the effect of a temporal standpoint after the death of Augustus. Together, these Latin cohesion devices enhance the objective and factual tone of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti.

This article examines the rhetorical style of Augustus' Res Gestae. Ancient sources, including Suetonius (Life of Augustus 86), describe Augustus' style in terms of elegantia and temperantia. These qualities are indeed characteristic of the style of the emperor's private letters (of which some fragments survive) and the Res Gestae. Augustus' style was influenced by his great uncle Julius Caesar and his Greek teacher of rhetoric Apollodorus of Pergamon. There are striking parallels between the ancient descriptions of Augustus' style and the theories of style in Greek rhetorical treatises of Augustan Rome. In adopting a sober style, Augustus aimed at presenting himself with the authority of a moderate man, who was to be admired throughout the empire.

This paper discusses a number of linguistic and interpretative aspects of the Greek translation of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Linguistically, the text gives a good idea of the development of Koine Greek at the beginning of the 1^st century. Even though the translation is clearly aimed at rendering the Latin original as faithful as possible, there are still a considerable number of deviations from the Latin version which enable us to get a glimpse of the translator, the intended audience and their world views. A number of deviations can be explained as attempts by the translator to tailor the text to the knowledge and attitudes of a Greek-speaking eastern audience. Occasional errors in the translation seem to reveal that the translator was not fully acquainted with Roman institutions, which may be an indication that he was based in the Greek East rather than in Rome. A third group of deviations, finally, appear to point to a different, provincial Greek, attitude toward Roman imperialism and Augustus’ status as monarch.

The present article compares Augustus’ portrayal of the beginning of his political career, in Res Gestae 1-2, with what is otherwise known of the events mentioned or suppressed by the princeps in these chapters. He rewrote the story of his remarkable political acrobatics in 44-43 BCE so as to fit in with the ideology of the principate: a leadership embedded in constitutional legality and based on a consensus rooted in recognition of his extraordinary merits as alleged saviour of the res publica. In turning history into ideology, he profited in no small measure from the support he had received from Cicero during the earliest stage of his career.

This article describes a tour along noteworthy Augustean sites and monuments on the campus Martius in Rome. It starts at Piazza Monte Citorio where now the obelisk stands which was once part of Augustus’ Horologium. From there the walk goes 200 meters northwards to the original site of the obelisk/Horologium which is marked by an inscription, and then onward to the original site of the Ara Pacis. From there the tour continues to the Piazza Augusto Imperatore with Augustus’ Mausoleum and the museum of the Ara Pacis housing the restored altar. The piazza as it appears nowadays was designed and constructed under Mussolini as part of the fascist ideology of Romanità as well as Mussolini’s association with the successful regime of Augustus. The contemporary architecture with its reliefs and inscriptions encircling the piazza express this fascist ideology in straightforward manner.