Holy Men: Hagnon and Augustus in Grattius’ Cynegetica

This paper investigates the figure of Hagnon in Grattius’ Cynegetica as an allegorical representation of Augustus. The first part explores the similarities in the semantics between the names ‘Hagnon’ and ‘Augustus’, as well as the importance of the religious connotations these names evoke for each of these men. The second part compares the praise of Hagnon at 249–52 to other praise poetry of Augustus in terms of the person of the verbs, the number of carmina , military diction and legal diction to argue that these lines represent praise of Augustus rather than a statement of the poet’s immortality through their song.