Augustus's epitaph is a prime example, writ large, of the formulae that typically appeared on Roman tombstones. The style is prosaic and clipped, and the confidence that it exudes is unabashed.

At the age of nineteen on my own responsibility and at my own expense I raised an army, with which I successfully championed the liberty of the republic when it was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. . . . I drove into exile the murderers of my father, avenging their crime through tribunals established by law; and afterwards, when they made war on the republic, I twice defeated them in battle. . . . When foreign peoples could safely be pardoned I preferred to preserve rather than to exterminate them. . . . I captured 600 ships, not counting ships smaller than triremes. . . . In my triumphs nine kings or children of kings were led before my chariot. At...