Livy’s Monumentum

(Lewis & Short)

mŏnŭmentum (mŏnĭm- ), i, n. [moneo),I. [select] that which preserves the remembrance

of any thing, a memorial, a monument; esp. of buildings, statues, galleries, tombs erected to perpetuate the remembrance of a person or thing; cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 139 Müll.

Ancient Authors use the term

• Varro (1st Cent B.C.): Physical reminders in the present day, of the past, which teach a lesson. His examples are graves and their inscriptions that advise the living. (Varro De Lingua Latina 6.49)

• Otherwise mentioned and discussed by Cato (fr. 83P), Suetonius (Tib.2.1-2), Pliny the Elder (NH 21.6), Ovid and Cicero.

Jaeger (1997):

A physical thing or delineated space, distinguished with the intent of carrying some message into the future. Monumenta are a “Janus-like” phenomena which look both into the past as well as the future; immortalizing past events and preserving an important Lesson or Value for the future. Monumenta have some common characteristics.

– An absent person or thing commemorated.– A present audience reminded.– A memory or an exhortation that is socially relevant– A meaning determined jointly by the reminder, its physical context and the circumstances of each

viewer.

Miles (1995):

Monuments were survivals from the past for which they provide evidence. Livy explicitly refers to them as incorruptus, but tacitly points admits that they are also susceptible distortion. His supposed unbroken link with the past available for inspection in three forms: (1)the intentional(2)the unintentional(3)the literary

Wiseman (1986)The foundations of aetiological stories, used as a physical

validation of the truth of historians writing. Monumenta spawn fabulae.

• These were especially important before the Samnite Wars.• Stories based off of interpreting monumenta, were not

necessarily true. Livy (38.56.2)

Bonfante (1998):

Monuments are the physical survival of memory. The visual/physical world of Rome is the embodiment of its traditions. Livy in specific sees monuments as large architectural objects, as well as literary works which are described metaphorically as architectural objects.

Past Future

What is a Monumentum?

{2/3

MONUMENTUM LIVII

Praef (6), Praef (10),1.12, 1.13,1 1.36, 1.45, 1.48, 1.55, 2.33, 2.40, 4.7, 4.10, 4.16, 4.24, 5.30, 5.52, 6.1, 6.20, 6.28, 6.29, 7.21, 7.3, 8.11, 8.40, 9.18, 10.15, 10.2, 23.20, 25.39, 26.24, 26.41, 29.37, 30.28, 31.30, 31.29, 37.6, 31.30, 31.29, 37.6, 38.56 (4x), 38.57, 38.53, 39.37, 39.40, 45.27

Type 1: The Constructed Monument• Non inviderunt laude sua mulieribus viri Romani—adeo

sine obtrectatione gloriae alienae vivebatur— [12] , monumentoque quod esset, templum Fortunae muliebri aedificatum dedicatumque est. (2.40.11-12)

“The Roman men did not begrudge the women due regard

– truly it survived without the detraction of foreign praise, so that it would be a reminder (literally a monument), a temple was built and dedicated to Lady Fortuna.”

• Other examples: 1.36, 1.55, 2.33, 2.40, 5.30

Type 2: Monumentalized Space

• [7] foedum inhumanumque inde traditur scelus, monumentoque locus est. Sceleratum vicum vocant. (1.48.7)

“The foul and inhuman crime from that place is related, and the location is a monument. They call it Crime Street.”

• Other Examples: 1.13, 4.16

Type 3: Monuments of Words• [10] hoc illud est praecipue in cognitione rerum

salubre ac frugiferum, omnis te exempli documenta in inlustri posita monumento intueri (praef. 10)

“This is especially fruitful and beneficial in recognition of events, that you consider every example set down in brilliant monument.”

Stories that aren’t written down are Fabulae

Other Examples: 4.7, 6.1

Final Thoughts• Monuments are Physical Things which remind

people of past events, both good and bad, and aren’t necessarily constructed.

• Is this so much different from how we look at the world today?

• Livy’s Monumenta – in a way is the an attempt to turn the entire city of Rome into a Monument.

• In many ways much like an artifact.

Works Cited: (The most useful works are bold font). Chaplin, Jane D. 2000. Livy’s Exemplary History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bonfante, Larissa. 1998. “Livy and the Monuments” in Meir Lubetski, Claire Gottlieb, Sharon R. Keller, ed., Boundaries of the Ancient Near Eastern World: A tribute to Cyrus H.Gordon. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Feldherr, Andrew. 1998. Spectacle and Society in Livy’s History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Jaegar, Mary. 1997. Livy’s written Rome. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Miles, Gary B. 1995. Livy, Reconstructing Early Rome. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Sailor, Dylan. 2006. “Dirty Linen, Fabrication , and the Authorities of Livy and Augustus.” In Transactions of the American Philological Association 136.2 (329-388).

Wiseman, T.P. 1986. “Monuments and the Roman annalists.” In I.S. Moxon, J.D. Smart, A.J. Woodman, ed., Past Perspectives: Studies in Greek and Roman Historical Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.