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Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Temple of Augustus and Roma in Ankara
The translation offered here, made by F.W. Shipley, was copied from LacusCurtius, where you can also find the Greek and Latin text.
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Embassies
were often sent to me from the kings of India,
a thing never seen before in the camp of any general of the Romans. 
Our
friendship was sought, through ambassadors, by the
Bastarnae and Scythians, and by the kings of the Sarmatians
who live on either side of the river Tanais,
and by the king of the Albani
and of the Hiberi and of
the Medes.Kings
of the Parthians,
Tiridates [I], and later Phraates, the son of King Phraates [IV], took
refuge with me as suppliants; of the Medes, Artavasdes; of the Adiabeni, Artaxares; of the Britons,
Dumnobellaunus and
Tim[...]; of the Sugambri,
Maelo; of the Marcomanni and Suebi [...]rus. Phraates
[IV],
son of Orodes [II],
king of the Parthians, sent all his sons and
grandsons to me in Italy, not because he had been conquered in war, but
rather seeking our friendship by means of his own children as pledges. 
And
a large number of other nations experienced the good faith of the
Roman people during my principate who never before had had any
interchange of embassies or of friendship with the Roman people.In
my sixth and seventh consulships
[28-27 BCE],
when I had extinguished the flames of civil war, after
receiving by
universal consent the absolute control of affairs,
I transferred the
republic from my own control to the will of the Senate
and the Roman
people. For
this service on my part I was given the title of Augustus
by decree of the Senate, and the doorposts of my house were covered
with laurels by public act, and a civic crown was fixed above my door, and a golden shield was placed
in the Curia
Julia
whose inscription testified that the senate and the Roman people gave
me this in recognition of my valour, my clemency, my justice, and my
piety. After
that time I took precedence of all in rank, but of power
I possessed no more than those who were my colleagues in any
magistracy.While I was administering my
thirteenth consulship the senate and the equestrian
order and the entire Roman people gave me the title of
Father of my Country,
and decreed that this title should be inscribed upon the vestibule of
my house and in the senate-house and in the Forum Augustum beneath the
quadriga erected in my honour by decree of the senate. At
the time of writing this I was in my seventy-sixth year.
Bust of Augustus (Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida)
Appendix
The
sum total of the money which he contributed to the treasury or to
the Roman plebs
or to discharged soldiers was 600,000,000 denarii. The
new works which he built were: the temple of Mars, of Jupiter
Tonans and Feretrius, of Apollo, of the Deified
Julius, of Quirinus, of
Minerva, of Juno the queen, of Jupiter Libertas, of the Lares, of the
Di Penates, of Youth, of the Mother of the gods, the Lupercal,
the
state box at the circus, the Senate-house
with the Chalcidicum, the
Augustan Forum, the Basilica Julia, the theater of Marcellus, [...] the
grove of the Caesars beyond the Tiber. He
restored the Capitol and sacred buildings to the number of
eighty-two, the theater of Pompey, the aqueducts, the Flaminian Way. 
The
expenditures provided for theatrical shows, gladiatorial sports,
for exhibitions of athletes, for hunts of wild beasts, and the naval
combat, and his gifts to colonies
in Italy, to cities in the provinces
which had been destroyed by earthquake or conflagration, or to
individual friends and senators, whose property he raised to the
required rating, are too numerous to be reckoned. Livius.Org, 2007
Revision: 18 February 2007
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