The inscription (1938) can be read along the base of the Museum of the Ara Pacis, on its external wall facing the Mausoleum of Augustus (Via di Ripetta 180–190). It is the longest inscription that was carved during the ventennio fascista.

The inscription is in Roman square capitals, made of bronze letters inserted into the travertine wall of the pavilion designed by Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo (1890–1966) for the remains of the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace). While the remains of the altar had originally been excavated in the area of the Palazzo Peretti in Via in Lucina, they were reassembled on the western side of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, the square dedicated to the first Roman emperor, which was then still under construction. The transfer of the altar’s archaeological remains to the newly constructed square was decreed by Mussolini and Giuseppe Bottai (Rossini 2007: 113).

The inscription reproduces the text of the Res gestae divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus), Augustus’ autobiographical account of his achievements, originally inscribed on bronze tables that stood in front of the mausoleum (Suet. Aug. 101.4). Copies of the text were erected in cities all over the empire. The text is mostly known thanks to the copy found in Ankara, known as ‘Monumentum Ancyranum’. The idea to reproduce the Res gestae on the pavilion of the Ara Pacis was probably suggested by the archaeologist Antonio Muñoz (Rossini 2007: 106), whereas Morpurgo initially planned to place the inscription at the entrance of the mausoleum as in antiquity (Morpurgo 1937: 158; Kostof 1978: 295). 

Morpurgo designed the layout of the inscription drawing inspiration from the Monumentum Ancyranum. The inscription follows the text edited by Concetta Barini in 1937 for the prestigious collection Scriptores Graeci et Latini, published under the auspices of the Accademia dei Lincei (Rossini 2007: 106–07). However, errors such as substitutions, omissions, and insertions of letters can be noticed throughout the inscription; they are due to its unusual dimensions and complexity, as well as the rush of its execution. Furthermore, the lacuna that Barini’s scholarly edition indicates in chapter 32 (line VII 3: Sueboru[m…..rus. Ad me rex]) was silently edited out of the text, so that the inscription shows a nonsensical RVS right after SVEBORVM as if it concerned a self-standing name.

The pavilion of the Ara Pacis was inaugurated on 23 September 1938, that is, towards the end of the celebrations for the bimillenary anniversary of Augustus’s birth. At the time of the inauguration, the inscription had only been carved but not yet completed with bronze letters due to delays in the execution of the work (Rossini 2007: 107).  

When Morpurgo’s pavilion was replaced by a new museum designed by the American architect Richard Meier (inaugurated on 21 April 2006), the wall with the inscribed Res gestae was the only part of Morpurgo’s building that was preserved because of its artistic and historical value (Rossini 2007: 119–20).

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Antonino Nastasi