Statues, Roads, and Money

The differences between the narratives about Augustus’ silver statues in Cassius Dio, Augustus himself, and Suetonius are better explained in the context of gift-debt and gift-exchange rather than focusing on cult alone. Whereas Suetonius and Augustus emphasize Augustus’ correction of the statues as a pious act and a statement on imperial honors, Dio overlooks honors and gods, instead revealing how the statues funded road repairs. In his history, Dio adapts the narrative to underscore the gap between the reality and the appearance of events: here, the exchange of statues for monetary gifts in Augustan Rome. Augustus, treating the statues as a gift, transforms them into something greater for the people’s benefit. The connection between the statues, the roads, and the money appears elsewhere in the two earlier narratives, but Dio alone links the gift-exchange of statues for money to Augustus’ ‘gift’ of roads.