He Could Boast That He Received

Suetonius records this boast in The Lives of the Caesars (Divus Augustus, Chapter 28), and Cassius Dio preserves a related version in his Roman History (Book LVI). Suetonius interprets the claim literally — Augustus transformed Rome's architecture by quarrying Carrara marble and erecting temples, forums, and public monuments on a vast scale. Cassius Dio applies it metaphorically, as a claim to have stabilized Roman government from a fragile city-state into a durable empire. Both meanings are apt: Augustus's 41-year reign (27 BCE–14 CE) reshaped both Rome's skyline and its constitutional order.