DIANA, in Roman mythology, an Italian goddess in later times identified with the Greek Artemis (q.v.). That she was originally an independent Italian deity is shown by the presence of her cult at Nemi, which shows no foreign influence. This was in a grove beside the lake of (Nemus) Nemi, near Aricia (whence her title of Nemorensis). Here she was worshipped side by side with an obscure male deity, Virbius (q.v.) . Her priest, called Rex Nemorensis, who was a runaway slave, was obliged to qualify for office by slaying his predecessor in single combat (Strabo v. 239; Suetonius, Caligula, 35). This led to the iden tification of Diana with the Tauric Artemis, whose image was said to have been removed by Orestes to the grove of Aricia (see