see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Res_Gestae_Divi_Augusti for detail
This version of the Res Gestae Divi Augtusti (the achievements of the divine Augustus) appears as a series of panels on the building housing the Ara Pacis in Rome, itself built in honour of the Emperor Augustus during his lifetime. These panels, however, were put there by Mussolini in the 1930's to emphasize the connection between imperial Rome and his own goals for Fascist Italy.
Interestingly, the original Res Gestae, written by Augustus himself, were inscribed on brass columns in front of his mausoleum (adjacent to the current site of the Ara Pacis) and contain a record of his achievements. He justifies his actions in bringing to an end the civil wars which racked Rome and culminated in the assassination of Julius Caesar and ultimately, Augustus' defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium.
The visible text translates as
In my nineteenth year, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army with which I set free the state, which was oppressed by the domination of a faction. For that reason, the senate enrolled me in its order by laudatory resolutions, when Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius were consuls assigning me the place of a consul in the giving of opinions, and gave me the imperium. With me as propraetor, it ordered me, together with the consuls, to take care lest any detriment befall the state. But the people made me consul in the same year, when the consuls each perished in battle, and they made me a triumvir for the settling of the state.
I drove the men who slaughtered my father into exile with a legal order, punishing their crime, and afterwards, when they waged war on the state, I conquered them in two battles... and so on.
No false modesty then? Spin or what...
The full text can be found here
www.romansonline.com/Src_Frame.asp?DocID=aug_Bk01_01
