Kronenberg, LeahMatz, Alicia M.2025-07-222025-07-222024https://hdl.handle.net/2144/507612024My dissertation examines the various ways in which representations of the goddess Diana reflect, comment upon, and constitute Augustan ideology. My approach unites literary, historical, and archaeological analysis: through close readings of Horace, Vergil, Ovid, and Grattius, along with material evidence from coins, inscriptions, buildings, sculptures, I show that we can piece together what the goddess Diana symbolized for Augustus, and that her importance to Augustus derived from more than just the fact that she is the sister of his “patron god” Apollo. My introduction aims to establish what Diana symbolized for Augustus through an exploration of numismatic evidence and the only officially commissioned work from the age, Horace’s Carmen Saeculare. I argue that Augustus utilized Diana as a patron goddess of his social legislation, as well as a symbol of the ‘Augustan peace,’ defined as the spread of Roman imperium in Italy and abroad and Augustus’ concomitant political and cultural reordering of Rome after the civil wars. My subsequent chapters explore how authors reflect or distort this ‘Augustan’ Diana. In my Vergil chapter, I use decolonial theory’s focus on indigenous experiences to argue that Vergil critiques Roman and Augustan imperialism by emphasizing Diana’s Italic background and deemphasizing her supposed support for Augustus. In my second chapter I argue that Ovid uses the rapes of Diana-like women as a way to critique the power hierarchies and abuse inherent in the Augustan moral legislation. In addition, I show how Ovid encourages audience identification with victims of Diana’s wrath to cast Diana and Augustus as cruel figures. Finally, in my last chapter I show how Grattius supports the ‘Augustan Diana’ by presenting her as the goddess of rational thought and associating her with the Augustan ideals of ‘civilizing’ through imperialism and moral reform, activities which Grattius represents allegorically as hunting.en-USClassical studiesAugustan literatureAugustusDianaThesis/Dissertation2025-07-220000-0002-5782-5711