When Augustus was nearing his end, he wrote out a lengthy text of his deeds, the Res Gestae, literally, The Things Done. He then had this text inscribed throughout the empire in Latin and Greek. It is a long and unimaginative list of the temples he restored, his generosity towards the people, his conquests, and the ensuing peace. Although the Res Gestae contains many facts, and certainly other Romans had tomb inscriptions, nonetheless it is an inscription only an autocrat could write. In its opening lines, Augustus describes himself as a second Brutus the Liberator, boasting that he freed the Republic from the domination of a faction. He goes on to claim that following the civil wars, he restored the Republic to the senate and people of Rome. Previously, Augustus had promised to restore the Republic upon Antony's return from the east; for this gesture, the people rewarded him with the office of tribune of the plebs for life. Suetonius writes that he intended to restore the Republic after he defeated Antony and then again once when he was terribly sick; neither time did he follow through. Augustus also professed to have restored Rome through its buildings, claiming to have restored over 80 temples, but even this restoration was wrapped up in revolution, for Augustus claimed to have found Rome, a city of brick but left it a city of marble.

Historians have debated what he meant by this claim and what he actually handed back that could count as restoring a republic to its people. Centuries ago, Tacitus presented the truth when he wrote that Augustus had taken everything under his power. Despite Augustus's claims to have restored the Republic, he was actually a revolutionary. Once he was fully ensconced in power, he portrayed himself as a tolerant, benevolent leader, merely the first citizen (princeps). He could afford to be such a leader because he had seen to the death of many of his enemies; he had the money to seduce those willing to serve his interests; and most of all he had the legions. Augustus's approach was brilliant; unlike Caesar who made clear his power by having himself named dictator for life, a thoroughly radical and un-Republican position, Augustus merely used the veneer of the Republic to cloak his power.