I Saved the Republic! Augustus, Res Gestae, 1-2

Augustus composed (or had composed?) his public accomplishments before his death and they were published on his mausoleum and temples soon thereafter. We have Latin and Greek versions from  the Temple to Rome and Augustus in Ancyra (Modern Turkey).

(The Full text in Greek, English and Latin from the 1924 Loeb is made available by Lacus Curtius. A simpler Latin text is on The Latin Library.)

“1 When I was nineteen I raised an army on my own counsel and at my own expense, with which I restored the republic, then best by the oppression of a faction, to freedom. In recognition of this, the senate enrolled me in its order with honorific decrees during the consulship of Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, granting me as well the consular place in the declaration of opinion and they also gave me military command [imperium]. The senate ordered me, along with the consuls, to ensure that the Republic suffer no injury. When, in the same year, both consuls died in war, the People elected me consul and a triumvir, because I preserved the state.

2 I drove the men who murdered my father [Julius Caesar] into exile as a punishment for their crime according to legitimate legal judgments. And later when they waged war on the Republic, I defeated them twice.”

[1] Annos undeviginti natus exercitum privato consilio et privata impensa comparavi, per quem rem publicam a dominatione factionis oppressam in libertatem vindicavi. [Ob quae] senatus decretis honorificis in ordinem suum me adlegit, C. Pansa et A. Hirtio consulibus, consularem locum sententiae dicendae tribuens, et imperium mihi dedit. Res publica ne quid detrimenti caperet, me propraetore simul cum consulibus providere iussit. Populus autem eodem anno me consulem, cum cos. uterque bello cecidisset, et triumvirum rei publicae constituendae creavit.

Qui parentem meum trucidaverunt, eos in exilium expuli iudiciis legitimis ultus eorum facinus, et postea bellum inferentis rei publicae vici bis acie

1 Ἐτῶν δεκαεννέα ὢν τὸ στράτευμα ἐμῆι γνώμηι καὶ ἐμοῖς ἀναλώμασιν ἡτοίμασα, δι᾽ οὗ τὰ κοινὰ πράγματα ἐκ τῆς τῶν συνομοσαμένων δουλήας ἠλευθέρωσα. Ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἡ σύνκλητος ἐπαινέσασά  με ψηφίσμασι προκατέλεξε τῆι βουλῆι Γαϊωι Πάνσᾳ  Αὔλωι Ἱρτίωι ὑπάτοις, ἐν τῆι τάξει τῶν ὑπατικῶν 7 ἅμα τὸ συμβουλεύειν δοῦσα, ῥάβδους τ᾽ ἐμοὶ ἔδωκεν. Περὶ τὰ δημόσια πράγματα μή τι βλαβῆι, ἐμοὶ μετὰ τῶν ὑπάτων προνοεῖν ἐπέτρεψεν ἀντὶ στρατηγοῦ ὄντι. § Ὀδὲ δῆμος τῶι αὐτῶι ἐνιαυτῶι, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ὑπάτων πολέωι πεπτωκότων, ἐμὲ ὕπατον ἀπέδειξεν καὶ τὴν τῶν τριῶν ἀνδρῶν ἔχοντα ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ τῆι καταστάσει τῶν δημοσίων πρα γμάτων εἵλατο.

2 Τοὺς τὸν πατέρα τὸν ἐμὸν φονεύσαντας ἐξώρισα κρίσεσιν ἐνδίκοις τειμωρησάμενος αὐτῶν τὸ 17 ἀσέβημα καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα αὐτοὺς πόλεμον ἐπιφέροντας τῆι πατρίδι δὶς ἐνείκησα παρατάξει.

Differences Between Kingship and Tyranny: Aelian, 2.20

“They say that Antigonus the king was popular and mild. It is possible for anyone who has the time to study about him to examine the very sources about the man. He will discover there that he was altogether kind and inoffensive, as I am about to explain. Antigonus, when he saw his son treating their subjects rather violently and rashly, said “Don’t you know, child, that our kingdom is merely a glorified slavery?” This word from Antigonos to his child was rather kind and humane. To whomever this is not the case, he seems to me to know neither what is kingly or political, but rather to have lived under a tyranny”

᾿Αντίγονόν φασι τὸν βασιλέα δημοτικὸν καὶ πρᾶον γενέσθαι. καὶ ὅτῳ μὲν σχολὴ τὰ κατ’ αὐτὸν εἰδέναι καὶ αὐτὰ ἕκαστα ἐξετάζειν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀνδρός, εἴσεταιἑτέρωθεν• εἰρήσεται δ’ οὖν αὐτοῦ καὶ πάνυ πρᾶον καὶ ἄτυφον ὃ μέλλω λέγειν. ὁ ᾿Αντίγονος οὗτος ὁρῶν τὸν υἱὸν τοῖς ὑπηκόοις χρώμενον βιαιότερόν τε καὶ θρασύτερον ‘οὐκ οἶσθα’ εἶπεν, ‘ὦ παῖ, τὴν βασιλείαν ἡμῶν ἔνδοξον εἶναι δουλείαν;’ καὶ τὰ μὲν τοῦ
᾿Αντιγόνου πρὸς τὸν παῖδα πάνυ ἡμέρως ἔχει καὶ φιλανθρώπως• ὅτῳ δὲ οὐ δοκεῖ ταύτῃ, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνός γε οὐ δοκεῖ μοι βασιλικὸν ἄνδρα εἰδέναι οὐδὲ πολιτικόν, τυραννικῷ δὲ συμβιῶσαι μᾶλλον.

Aeschylus, Eumenides 696-7: On Middle Grounds in Politics

 

“I advise the citizens to revere
Neither anarchy nor despotism
And never to cast fear out of the city completely.”

 

τὸ μήτ’ ἄναρχον μήτε δεσποτούμενον
ἀστοῖς περιστέλλουσι βουλεύω σέβειν,
καὶ μὴ τὸ δεινὸν πᾶν πόλεως ἔξω βαλεῖν.

Sunday with Theognis: Overthrowing Tyranny, Hope, Drinking and Friendship

Saturday’s symposia wear you out? Here’s a little dose of Theognis for what ails you:

 

 

Theogonis, 1181-1182: On Overthrowing Tyrants

 

“Bring down a people-eating tyrant however you want

No criticism for this comes from the gods”

 

δημοφάγον δὲ τύραννον ὅπως ἐθέλεις κατακλῖναι

οὐ νέμεσις πρὸς θεῶν γίνεται οὐδεμία.

 

 

Theognis, 1135-6: On Hope

 

“Hope is the only good god present among men

The rest abandoned us and went to Olympos.”

 

᾿Ελπὶς ἐν ἀνθρώποισι μόνη θεὸς ἐσθλὴ ἔνεστιν,

ἄλλοι δ’ Οὔλυμπόν<δ’> ἐκπρολιπόντες ἔβαν·

 

 

 

Theognis 989-990: On Concealing Your Feelings when Drinking

 

Drink whenever they drink but when you are heartsick, may no man learn you’re burdened [or drunk]

 

Πῖν’ ὁπόταν πίνωσιν· ὅταν δέ τι θυμὸν ἀσηθῆις,

μηδεὶς ἀνθρώπων γνῶι σε βαρυνόμενον.

 

 

 

Theogonis, 1181-1182

 

Bring down a people-eating tyrant however you desire

No criticism for this comes from the gods

 

δημοφάγον δὲ τύραννον ὅπως ἐθέλεις κατακλῖναι

οὐ νέμεσις πρὸς θεῶν γίνεται οὐδεμία.

 

 

Theognis, 1135-6

 

Hope is the only good god present among men

The rest abandoned us and went to Olympos

 

 

᾿Ελπὶς ἐν ἀνθρώποισι μόνη θεὸς ἐσθλὴ ἔνεστιν,

ἄλλοι δ’ Οὔλυμπόν<δ’> ἐκπρολιπόντες ἔβαν·

 

 

 

Theognis 1079-80

 

I’ll fault no enemy when he is noble, nor will I praise a friend when he is wicked

 

Οὐδένα τῶν ἐχθρῶν μωμήσομαι ἐσθλὸν ἐόντα,

οὐδὲ μὲν αἰνήσω δειλὸν ἐόντα φίλον.

 

 

Theognis 989-990

 

Drink whenever they drink but when you are heartsick, may no man learn you’re burdened

 

Πῖν’ ὁπόταν πίνωσιν· ὅταν δέ τι θυμὸν ἀσηθῆις,

μηδεὶς ἀνθρώπων γνῶι σε βαρυνόμενον.

 

 

Theognis, 979-980: On Friendship

 

“May a man be friend not in speech but in deed too.”

 

‘Μή μοι ἀνὴρ εἴη γλώσσηι φίλος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔργωι.’