Augustus, born Gaius Octavius Thurinus and prior to 27 BC, known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus after adoption, was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, who ruled from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.

Suetonius (Aug. 101.4) and Dio (56.33.1) tell us that one of the documents which Augustus deposited with the Vestal Virgins together with his will and which were read out in the senate after his death was, in Suetonius' words, 'a catalogue of his achievements, which he wished to be inscribed on bronze tablets and set up in front of his Mausoleum' (on the senate meetings of September, AD 14, see Tacitus Ann. 1.8.1-5). The original has not survived, but three copies are known, all from the province of Galatia in central Asia Minor. The document is now normally known as Res Gestae Divi Augusti ('The Achievements of the Deified Augustus'), a modern title derived from Suetonius' reference, from the preface of the document.