Inscriptional Intermediality in Livy
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Morgan E. Palmer
Morgan E. Palmer pax Augusta : The Robigalia in Ovid’s Fasti” (2018), reflects these interests, as does her forthcoming article entitled “Inscriptions on the Capitoline: Epigraphy and Cultural Memory in Livy” (Cambridge University Press 2020). She is also currently working on the monographInscribing Rome: Memory and Monuments in Livy’s History .
Abstract
The term monumentum is used in Latin literature to describe a range of monuments across media, including temples, literary works, statues, and inscriptions. This article surveys the variety of monumenta in Livy’s Ab urbe condita, which range from the text itself to victory inscriptions and bronze sculptures meant to commemorate military as well as political achievements. The borders between historiography and physical artefacts are often blurred by Livy through inscriptional intermediality, a phenomenon defined as the mixing of visual and textual media. By outlining how Livy achieves this combination, and demonstrating how the specific ratio of literary, linguistic, and topographical features in his ekphrases generate unique impressions of real-world monuments, this chapter re-reads Livy’s history from the perspective of intermedial theory. This process not only advances our understanding of the Ab urbe condita as a literary work, but also thrusts individual aspects of Livy’s narrative technique – including visuality and unique formulae such as the introductory formula tabula … cum indice hoc posita est (Livy 41.28.8) – into the spotlight.
About the author
Morgan E. Palmer is Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In her research, she engages primarily with the intersections between Latin literature, epigraphy, and Roman history and religion. Her recent publication, “A Blight on the pax Augusta: The Robigalia in Ovid’s Fasti” (2018), reflects these interests, as does her forthcoming article entitled “Inscriptions on the Capitoline: Epigraphy and Cultural Memory in Livy” (Cambridge University Press 2020). She is also currently working on the monograph Inscribing Rome: Memory and Monuments in Livy’s History.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- Sensorial Intermedialities in Roman Letters: Cicero, Horace, and Ovid
- Quotations in Roman Prose as Intermedial Phenomena
- Monumental Absences in Ancient Historiography
- Inscriptional Intermediality in Livy
- Intermediality in the Metamorphoses
- The Touch and Taste of War in Latin Battle Narrative
- Stories from the Frontier: Bridging Past and Present at Hadrian’s Wall
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index Rerum
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- Sensorial Intermedialities in Roman Letters: Cicero, Horace, and Ovid
- Quotations in Roman Prose as Intermedial Phenomena
- Monumental Absences in Ancient Historiography
- Inscriptional Intermediality in Livy
- Intermediality in the Metamorphoses
- The Touch and Taste of War in Latin Battle Narrative
- Stories from the Frontier: Bridging Past and Present at Hadrian’s Wall
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index Rerum
