Inscriptional Intermediality in Livy

Abstract

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.