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The intention of this thesis is to attempt for the first time to explore the presence of Etruscan themes in the Augustan poets in all their facets and shades, in their political as well as cultural context, while also being mindful of the unique ways in which each individual poet engages with traditional tropes. The thesis examines the presence of Etruscan themes as they surface in Augustan poetry, by exploring the particular ways in which each subject takes shape and the different forms they assume, re-contextualising and re-appraising overly well-known material by framing narratives according to more unorthodox intra- and inter-textual connections. The investigation will be supplemented by ample recourse to material evidence, in an attempt to reconstruct each subject in its many ramifications and expressions. The intent is not to read the text as truthful substantiation of the archaeological evidence, of course, but as one of many pieces of a puzzle, all equally required to reveal the overall picture in its most complete form. Such an outlook will enable the reader to better discern the framework in which the emergence of Etruscan themes can be investigated and understood. Emphasis on the need to incorporate Etruria and the rest of Italy into the new Augustan political programme coexists with a resurgence in the cultural milieu of the late republic of a vigorous interest in Etruscan antiquities, amongst others. To these stimuli, poets respond either by forcefully seeking to legitimise the Etruscans' role in Rome's past or by maintaining a more traditional stance and offering conventional portrayals of Etruscan self-indulgence and treacherousness. The ambition of this work overall is thus to provide a comprehensive account of the ways in which Augustan poetry engages with Etruria and the Etruscan people at the twilight of their civilisation.

Despite the prevailing interest in authority in Ovidian studies, studies have often focussed on Ovid's response to political authority in his individual works rather than narrative authority, the means by which the poet claims authority to narrate and constructs a persona that his audience will find persuasive and believable. Evidence of Ovid's interest in authority can be found throughout his body of work, but it is particularly explicit in the Metamorphoses, Fasti, Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, whose contrasting genres, content and mood allow Ovid to entertain an exceptionally broad range of different perspectives on authority. The primary bases of narrative authority in Ovid's poetry are age and memory, references to tradition, the prophetic/poetic status of vates, and sight, all of which had acquired a strong cultural and literary currency in Augustan Rome. Ovid challenges his readers not to believe things simply because of the authority of their narrator, encouraging them instead to engage with narratives and to critically evaluate their authority. He thereby undermines the traditional perception of authority as monumental and unchanging. Ovidian authority is a far more fluid concept, which acknowledges the inherent flaws in narrative as a transmitted medium. Narrative authority can be undermined, destroyed, or transformed, and is always open to being questioned. As such, it is in a constant state of change, and the reader is an active participant in its negotiation.

This thesis is a literary study of how the life and works of Marcus Tullius Cicero were received in the century that followed his death. There are two ways of understanding the importance of such a study: the first is to think of it as a vital first step in assessing Cicero's impact on European thought and literature; the second is to see it as a study of how the people of early imperial Rome interacted with their Republican past. In order to provide a broad overview of this subject, I have chosen to focus on three separate areas of imperial literature which together provide a representative snapshot of Roman literary activity in this period. The period in question is essentially an extended Augustan age: beginning with Cicero's death ending in the reign of Tiberius. The first area of imperial literature under consideration is historiography. This section begins with a consideration of Sallust's decision to downplay Cicero's role in defeating the Catilinarian Conspiracy, ultimately concluding that this is authorial posturing on Sallust's part, a reflection of Cicero's importance in the years immediately following his death. This is followed by a chapter on the presence of Ciceronian allusions in Livy, arguing that they were a key means by which he enriched his narrative of the Hannibalic war. It concludes with two chapters on historiographical descriptions of Cicero's death, noting that these treatments become markedly more hagiographic the further one progresses into Tiberius' Principate. The second area under consideration is rhetoric, specifically focussing on the prominence of the declamation hall in this era. The three chapters in this section study the testimony of Valerius Maximus and Seneca the Elder, both of whom bear witness to Cicero's fundamental importance to this institution. The section concludes that the world of declamation was the prime motor for the hagiographic treatments of Cicero that was noted in the later historical accounts of his death. The third and final section considers the poetry of the Augustan era, demonstrating that a process of declining sophistication is not the whole story in Cicero's reception. By looking at Virgil and Ovid's intertextual relationships with Cicero, this section demonstrates that he was a rich source of inspiration for some of the ancient world's most erudite authors.