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Two Accounts of Augustus: The Ankara Inscription and Tacitus

Grade 6 ancient Rome: compare Augustus's own Res Gestae with Tacitus's Annals, check both against a historian's note and timeline, and trace Roman law, roads and the fall.

Grade 6Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toHIS.6.7

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10 questions
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Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students source and corroborate two disagreeing accounts of how Augustus turned the republic into an empire.
Students apply Roman ideas in law and engineering to new cases.
Students use a timeline to explain how Rome grew and why the Western Empire fell.

How to use

Read the sourcing note first and ask students to predict how each writer will describe Augustus; after the two accounts, use the historian's note to check which claims hold up.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

HIS.6.7

Explain how Rome grew from a republic to an empire, its achievements in law and engineering, and reasons for the fall of the Western Empire.

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Two Accounts of Augustus: The Ankara Inscription and Tacitus

Corroborate an emperor's own record with a senator's history, then trace Rome from republic to fall.

Two accounts that disagree

Read the sourcing note and the two accounts. Then answer the questions.

Sourcing note. Account A is adapted from the Res Gestae ("Things Done"), a list of deeds that Augustus wrote about his own life. After he died in 14 CE, it was set up on bronze pillars outside his tomb in Rome, and copies were carved on temples in the provinces. The most complete copy survives on the walls of a temple in Ankara, Turkey, where visitors can still read it. Account B is adapted from the Annals of Tacitus, a Roman senator who wrote in about 115 CE. Tacitus served under emperors, but he often wrote with regret about the power the senate had lost.

Account A: Augustus, Res Gestae (adapted)

1At the age of nineteen, on my own decision and at my own cost, I raised an army, and with it I set the republic free from the power of a faction.

2The dictatorship was offered to me by the people and by the senate, but I did not accept it.

3After I had ended the civil wars and brought peace, I handed the republic from my own power back to the control of the senate and the Roman people. After that time I stood above everyone in influence, but I held no more official power than the men who served with me in each office.

4I repaired the channels of the aqueducts, which in many places were falling apart from age, and I rebuilt the Flaminian Road from Rome to the coast.

Account B: Tacitus, Annals (adapted)

1Augustus won over the soldiers with gifts, the common people with cheap grain, and everyone with the sweetness of peace. Then, step by step, he took into his own hands the duties of the senate, the officials and the laws.

2No one opposed him. The boldest men had died in battle or had been killed in the proscriptions, lists of enemies marked for death, and the other nobles were rewarded with wealth and offices the more willingly they served him.

3At home all was calm, and the officials kept the same titles as before. But how few were still alive who had seen the republic!

Based on the sourcing note, why should a historian expect Account A to describe Augustus favorably?

A. Tacitus wrote it to praise the senate.
B. Augustus wrote it about himself for the public to read.
C. It was written about 100 years after he died.
D. It was carved in Ankara, far from Rome.

Use only the two accounts. Sort each claim: is it in both accounts, only Account A or only Account B?

Augustus brought peace to Rome.Augustus turned down the dictatorship.Augustus took over the duties of the senate.Augustus repaired aqueducts and a road.Nobles were rewarded for serving him.

Both accounts	Only Account A	Only Account B

Underline the sentence from Account B that best explains why no one stopped Augustus from gaining power.

At home all was calm, and the officials kept the same titles as before.The boldest men had died in battle or had been killed in the proscriptions, lists of enemies marked for death, and the other nobles were rewarded with wealth and offices the more willingly they served him.But how few were still alive who had seen the republic!

Which statement best describes a limit of Account B as evidence?

A. Tacitus wrote while Augustus was still a young man.
B. Tacitus copied his words from the walls in Ankara.
C. Tacitus wrote a century later and regretted the senate's lost power.
D. Tacitus was a soldier with no ties to the senate.

Check the accounts

Read the historian's note and the timeline. Use them to check the accounts.

A Historian's Note: From Republic to Empire to Fall

1Rome grew large while it was still a republic. By about 264 BCE it controlled most of Italy. In three wars with Carthage, called the Punic Wars, Rome won Sicily, Spain and North Africa, and in 146 BCE it also destroyed Corinth in Greece. Ruling so much land took large armies, and in the first century BCE generals whose soldiers were loyal to them more than to the senate fought civil wars.

2Augustus, called Octavian before 27 BCE, kept the senate, the consuls and elections. But he commanded most of the legions, governed the provinces where they were stationed, and held the powers of a tribune for life, which let him propose laws and block the acts of other officials. The emperors after him held these powers too.

3Roman roads, first built to move armies, came to stretch for tens of thousands of kilometers. Aqueducts carried fresh water into cities but needed constant repair. Roman legal writers held that the person who makes a charge must prove it, not the person who denies it, an idea behind today's rule that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty.

4In 376 CE, Goths fleeing the Huns crossed the Danube River into the empire, and in 378 they defeated a Roman army at Adrianople and killed the emperor Valens. Over the following decades the Western Empire relied more and more on Germanic soldiers. In 439 the Vandals captured Carthage, the center of rich farmlands that sent grain and taxes to Rome. In 476 a Germanic general removed the last western emperor, while the eastern half of the empire continued.

Rome from Republic to Fall
Date	Event
264–146 BCE	Punic Wars with Carthage
146 BCE	Rome destroys Carthage and Corinth
27 BCE	Octavian takes the name Augustus
14 CE	Augustus dies; Account A set up
About 115 CE	Tacitus writes Account B
376 CE	Goths cross the Danube
378 CE	Battle of Adrianople
439 CE	Vandals capture Carthage
476 CE	Last western emperor removed

Account A says Augustus held "no more official power" than the men who served with him. Which detail from the historian's note best challenges this claim?

A. He commanded most legions and held a tribune's powers for life.
B. He kept the senate, the consuls and elections.
C. Roman roads came to stretch for thousands of kilometers.
D. He was called Octavian before 27 BCE.

Use the timeline. Subtract the years.

Tacitus wrote Account B about years after Augustus died.

A classmate says Rome became large only after it had emperors. Which evidence best challenges this claim?

A. The Vandals captured Carthage in 439 CE.
B. Tacitus wrote about Augustus in about 115 CE.
C. Augustus repaired aqueducts across the city.
D. Rome won Sicily, Spain and North Africa by 146 BCE.

In a Roman court, Marcus says his neighbor Lucius stole his cart. Lucius denies it. Based on the historian's note, who must prove the case?

A. Marcus, the person who made the charge
B. Lucius, by showing he did not take the cart
C. Both men equally, by swearing oaths
D. The judge, by finding the cart himself

Which event on the timeline most directly cut the Western Empire off from food and money?

A. Goths cross the Danube
B. Vandals capture Carthage
C. Last western emperor removed
D. Battle of Adrianople

10.

Which account gives the more accurate picture of how Rome changed under Augustus? State your claim, give two pieces of evidence from the accounts, the historian's note or the timeline, and explain your reasoning.