20 Augustus Testament
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Parag. 15
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In the temples of all the cities of the province of Asia I as victor put back the
ornaments which, when he had despoiled the temples, the one against whom I waged the war
had possessed privately. Statues of myself - on foot, on horse, or in chariots - silver
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ones, stood in the city, around 80 of them; these I myself took up, and from that money I
put golden gifts in the temple of Apollo in my own name and in the names of those who had
done me the honor of the statues.
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The sea I pacified, (freeing it) from pirates. In that war of the slaves who had fled
their masters and against the Res Publica had taken up arms, I captured about 30,000 and
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gave them to their masters for punishment. There swore allegiance to me all of Italy of
its own will, and demanded me as leader of the war in which I was victor at Actium; the
Gallic Provinces and the Spanish ones, and Africa, Sicily and Sardinia swore the same
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allegiance. Of those who under my standards then campaigned there were more than 700
Senators, among whom those who either before or later became consuls were 83, and (those
who became) priests were around 170.
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Of all of the provinces of the People of Rome on whose borders were races which did not
obey our imperium, I extended the borders. The Gallic and Spanish provinces, and also
Germany - the part which Ocean encloses from Cadiz to the north of the Elbe river - I
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pacified. The Alps, from the region which is nearest to the Adriatic Sea to the Tuscan one
I pacified - to no race bringing a war through an unjust cause. My fleet through Ocean
from the mouth of the Rhine to the region of the rising sun, to the borders of the Cimbri,
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sailed; to a place where neither by land nor by sea any Roman before that time had gone.
And the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and the other Germanic peoples of that area
through delegates sought my friendship and that of the Roman People. At my order and under
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my auspices two armies were led at almost the same time into Ethiopia and into the part of
Arabia called the Blessed; and great forces of the enemy of both races were cut down on
the battle-field, and many towns were captured. Into Ethiopia as far as the town of Nabata
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went through - to the place nearest to Meroe; into Arabia so far within the borders of the
Sabaeans proceeded the army as to the town of Mariba.
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Egypt to the imperium of the Roman People I added. As for Greater Armenia, when its
king, Artaxes, had been killed, although I could have made it a province I preferred -
following our ancestors' example - to give over that kingdom to Tigranes, king Artavasdes'
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son and grandson moreover of Tigranes the king, through (the agency of) Tiberius Nero, who
was then my stepson. And when then that same race after withdrawing and rebelling had been
tamed through Gaius my son, I gave it over to king Ariobarzanes, son of Artabazus king of
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the Medes, for him to rule, and after his death to his son Artavasdes; when he was killed
I sent Tigranes, who was of the royal house of the Armenians born, into that kingdom. The
provinces, all those across the Adriatic Sea which verge on the East, and Cyrenae - at
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that time the greater part of them was possessed by kings - and before that Sicily and
Sardinia when they were occupied during the slave war, I recovered.
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Colonies in Africa, Sicily, Macedonia, both Spains, Achaia, Asia, Syria, Gallia
Narbonensis and Psidia, out of my soldiers I founded. Italy also has 28 colonies which in
my lifetime were very densely populated and which under my authority were founded.
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Several standards, by other leaders lost, when the enemies were conquered I recovered -
out of Spain and Gaul and from the Dalmatians. I compelled the Parthians to give back the
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spoils and the standards of three Roman armies to me, and as suppliants to beg the
friendship of the Roman People. Those standards moreover in the innermost shrine which is
in the temple of Mars the Avenger I deposited.
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The Pannonian races, which before I was Princeps an army of the Roman People had never
gone to, were conquered through (the agency of) Tiberius Nero, who was then my stepson and
delegate; to the imperium of the Roman People I subjected them, and I carried forward the
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borders of Illyricum to the banks of the river Danube. To our side of that river a Dacian
army crossed - under my auspices it was defeated and routed, and afterwards my army was
led across the Danube and compelled the Dacian races to submit to the imperium of the
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Roman People.
To me from India's kings delegates often were sent, men not seen before that time in
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attendance on any Roman leader....
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In my sixth and seventh consulships , after I had extinguished the civil wars, being by
universal consent in control of all affairs, I transferred the Res Publica out of my power
and (put it) under the judgment of the Senate and People of Rome. In return for this
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deserving act of mine, by the Senate's decree I was named "Augustus" and with bay leaves
the door-posts of my dwelling were wreathed, publicly; a civic crown over my door was
fixed, and a golden shield put in the Curia Julia, which the Senate and People of Rome
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gave to me for the sake of my courage, clemency, justice and piety, as witnessed by that
shield's inscription. After that time in authority before all men I stood, but of actual
power I had no more than did the others who were my colleagues in each magistracy.
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While I held my thirteenth consulship the Senate and the Equestrian class and the People
of Rome universally named me Father of our Fatherland, and resolved that this should in
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the porch of my dwelling be inscribed and in the Curia Julia and in the Forum of Augustus
under the chariot which for me by the Senate's decree had been placed there.
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When I wrote this my age was seventy-six.