RAVENNA I N LAT E ANTI QY ITY

RJ\"!.'I1n'l w~s one of the mOST import :L111 cilies of laTe nnTiqllc Ellrope. Bel\\"~cn AD 400 ~nd 75[ , it """1$ The rt""s jden~""e ofwesrenJ H.Olll:m emperors, Ostrogothi" kinp;, and Rp:antine go\"~mo~ of Italr. whi le its hi~hop~ ,md archhishops ranked ~"eond only to Ih" IlOpt's. During this 35o.)"orTallCC to historialls and arT hisTOri:ln ~ of The hIt

RAVENNA IN LATE ANTIOlIITY

Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis

~CAMBRIDGE ~ UN IVERSITY PRESS

CAM BRIDGE U""VE RSlTY P ROSS umbridge. New York. ,\ 1dboomc, ,\1 od rid. up< T o,,'n. Sing.pore, SJo 1'. 010. Ddhi. Duboi. T ok)'o C ... mb";dg< Uni,..,"';'Y 1'", .. 3' A,..,nu. of the Americas. New York. ~y 1001 3'47J. c ..... ,,' ,,',.. . .,.", lwidg:1

CONTENTS

List of lllustrJtions

List of Tables ]' refilcc

CHAPHRONl INTROD UCTION luwenn. C.pltol? J I is",r,. of S

\"In

Th" Uty \ \ .11s of R,wn". The I\',torm"",," Th PoI:>r O,u",he'S

Chu"'h .... m th. Iionon.n I'e'iod G,l1. PI""idi,. eh"",h",

S.n Gim .. nni Fungcliil. Sonto Croce Th. - ,\ 10"-;01.",,, of G.II. Placid i.-

The Ri", of ,h~ Cln,,,,h of Ro> enn. The Coth.dr.1 The Onh"u.oI

CONTE NTS

CHArnR SIX RAVENNA'S EARLY BYZANTINE P[RIOD. AD .540600 Th. b,,'irolUl\em .nd 1",li'" l ro,ni>", lnc B)u,,' inc ~"""09u,,,' ,od 'he LO!nh,,,I~

Th~ E",,.l>I;,Ju,,em of. IIp,.ntine ,\d",;"i"r.l;on The ,,,,,hhi"',,,,, of R.nno.

'I'he C .. hcd,..,l ,nd the Fl'i'"'0I",1 -n"01l" Churl'h lIuildio!(

Church Iluildin)i: in 'he City of R",,rm. S.ma ,\hr;' ,\Ioggiar" San \'1>le S .. , .\ hchclc in ,\fric;""" Sc St"phcll Othe,. Clt ... rd""

Church lIuildin!( i" CI.ss. St. Pml,,". .nd the C.rolingi.n,

Appendix: Tables

Notes

References

Indel<

'0' >OJ

,,"

"" ":I

'" " , ,1>

"3 '50 ''is 156 . " "

'58 .. , "

'74

,l!J

"4 ,,.,,

,88

'91

'" HI

,

LIST OF ILLUSTRATION S

Plates

Ia. ",\ \,usolculll of G.Il. I)locidi ~ interior vicw looking towonl ,he ~.h

I h. ' j\ Iousolcum of G.Il. " Jacidia," Christ os .he Good Shepherd, north lunette Illosoic

lb. O rthodox B.priSlcry. stucco deconotion .( the window rone Ill>. Orthodox B'pti,tcry. mos,ics of the dome

IlIa. S.n!'Apoll in.re 1"uo,"o, mosoic of the north "",11, the Virgin .nd Child H.nked by .ngels, ,nd the three ,\logi

III h. Som 'Apollin.re Nuo.o, mosaic ofthe soulh w.l1, detail of St. f., !anin leading me pr"""",;on of m,le saints

IV . S. m'Apoll in.re N UO''', moso;c of the south w.n. R",CTUl' .nd its "p.lotium"

TVb. Ari.n B.ptistery, mos.;cs of {he dome V. CRP"'" ="""""., . "jew of {he ch.pe]'s v.ults

Via. Son Vit.le, the presbitcry .nd.pse VII>. Son Vit.lo, 1ll00';. of the south I'n,.hitcry won, Mcichisc

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

,. ,\ lop showing R,,'enno in the Rom.n imperi.1 period. co. AD .oo "

+ Funer .. y stele of l>Ub~us Longidienus, 0 ship builder (jam- "'n'a/is) of Cia"". first century BCI AD. ,\losco N. zion.le. R,,'enlUl .,

5' Reconstrt>Ction of the l'om Aure. embedded within the Iote .ntique .... ]], B

O. ,\ lap showing R,,eoo . Cia"", nd the Adri.tic coostline in the fifth, sinh nd ninth centuries

" ,. /l lap of 11."''''''''. Cl_ AD 480 " Gld soli~us of G. ll> I'I""iCtion diogro:rn of thc mosaics of the triumph.1 orch ond.psc

" ,+ The S.nto Croce complex. c.' AD 450 " , 5 "'\lousnleum of G.II. I'lllCidi . ... exterior ,;e ... from the snuthwest " '0. "/l I. usnl.um of G.II. 1'1..,;di.," plan., ground le"ci " , ,. "/l lausoleum "fG.II. 1'1..,;di.," W",t.no with, iun.'tW of d''''T

drinhng " , . ",\ I. usoieum of G.II . p l..,i,li .... St. l .... Tence. s"uth lunette mo,l>jc " ". "M.usnlelUn of G.II. p locidi.," m""ics of thc cCted pl.n", ground ievel, with c-urr.mt ,1"oT .nd font, .n,1 plan .. window I,,,''''

'" n. Orthodo. B.ptiery. view of the exterior from the southeast " , ,. Orthodo. B'p,iery. reco"stn>Cted cross senion showing the

origilUll .nd subsequent Aoor .nd roof lewis ,. ,+ Orthodo. ll'p,i"cry. ,i.w of the interior f..,ing so utheast

'J ". Orthodo~ B'p,i"ery. ,hrone in on",.tic .rchitccru ... 1 ""ClIC,

mos.ics of the middle .one " '0. OrthodoI Baptistery. c~nt ... 1 med.llion of the dome. depicting the

b'ptism of Christ " ". S.nt'Agotl Moggiore. reronsUUcted pl." .oj ,. M'I' of 11. .... ,,,,, "'. AD BO .0,

'. Gld 'riple solidus ofTheoderic (,he S"";g. lh. Med. llioo), gold, 3,3 em di.m . ,\ Iuseo N.zion.le. Rome .08 ,. Bronze dcanummiurn, ob"erse with bust of R,,,"en,, nd the

leg""d "Felix R,,'enn . " reverse with. monog ... ", of R,,-enn. surrollllded by wr~3th " 5

, ,. Pi.n of the pal..,e. os known from """" .. tions. "'. 516 , "

'" LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

p. ,\ ,",ble I'"nol depicting i-l cl'CIJics and the St.g of Cerinei., early sinh cemury, ,\ luseo ",.:cion.le, IU'-enn.

'" H- ,\ lo\lsoleum of Theodoric, view from rhe west "5 ".

,\ louwl.'.111l of Theodoric. ,-jew of the interior of rhe lower 1",-eI ,,' J5. ,\ l. usolou", of Theodoric, ent .. "c . lower le,-.I

'"

". ,\ 1ausoleum of Theoderic, pion O! ground 10,-01 shOl"ing th. structure .nd {he origin . l loc"iOll of the fence posts ,,'

". J\ lou",ISlk ... 1t the Last SUI'l"" 155

". s.",' Apollinorc Nuo,o, Ill""'ic "f the nonh w.lI, window 7.O]\e (f.r Idl sid~), IWO mal. flgum; hold;ng' scro ll ,nd. codex '!9

,.. S."" .o\l'0ll;n ..., Nuo'o, m"",ic of the soulh " .. II. deu;l of Ihe lefl side ofthe "l'.l .. iw" n 16;

!S. S.m'Al'0llin. re N oom, di'gr." " of Ihe ;m.gcs of Cl . sse .nd ,he R.n."nn, -p.IOI;u"," wilh the . ",os "'pl.""d ;n the ,60s sh.dcd 16)

". 5.", 'A I",U;n". Nuo,-o, m"",ic of the north w.ll. St,,- Gee;I ; . Eul,l i., Agnes (w;th Ihe I.mb), Agoth.,:ond I>dag;, ,0,

". S."" '\roU;n ..., 1"00' .... m"",ic frogmen! from Ihe west , ... 11. he.d ofJ ustin;.n '" , ,

". S .. "o Spirito. ,i.w of Ihe interior 17)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

S9- Th. Ari . n C.rnedr,1 (tod'r s.nto Spirito) .nd Ihptis,.ry, reconstructed pion sho"'ing oct.gon .nd now-lost ,urrounding 'poc,," (sh . ded) 177

60. Ari.n B'pt;,t.I). exterior vicw 1;9 6 T. Ari.n B'pt;,tOI). cemr.l",ed.,lIion depicting the b.ptislll of Ch ri.t 1112 61. Ari.n B.pti.t.I). Sts. Pet.r.nd P.ul H.nking. throne 1 ~3 63' PI.n of R .. O",lOS episoop. 1 comple .. including the " .. hed ... l,

b'ptistery, ' n,1 ,,ri ... ,lS I,uildings ( the 'piSc/Jf'illm I R

LIST 01; IllU STRATI O NS

Illlinare in Cbs..'ic, St. Apollinaris al1li (left to right) BishollS Ecclesius, Sf. SeveTlL

LIST OF TABLES

I. Rum,m empcroN ~. Kings of 1t3J~ J . X.lfchs (WiUllltTCSICd titles) ..J . LO!1lb:lrd kings 5. Bishops of Ran!nna 6. Popcs 7. Dimensions of R;lvenna's basilicas

png~ .lUI 30~

JO' JOJ 30' 30 5 JO'

PREFACE

I ,,'liS first introducd the contract for this hook, I had twO children; when the manuscri pI was completed, I had three - it has b~'Cn a very busy three years! Spending time with my sons,AJex, Harry, and Simun, has meant that I have not traveled, especially to Jraly, as much as r might ha,e. The boys may not

~vii

xvii i PREFACE

quitc uo(lerstJtH\ their mother's intcrest in thc late antique world, out onc day .... 'e will all gO to Ravenna and they wi\! underStan(\ my enthusiasm. My husband, Constantine, has seen and understood; he has supported my career from irs beginning with love, patience, and pranicality, and I dedicate this book whim.

ABBREVlATlONS

CARR HL U' LPN. MGH I'L JUS

Cm"So Ji mlwrll m/fllrlr R,I, Lih('1' pum ijir"fi$ ud,'.rltlr NII1:t'JIWlli.,' I\lQIIIIIII

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Ravenna Capi(al?

Thc city of Ra,cnna in northeaStcrn ICI ly lvntains somc of the mOSt spec-tacular works of art and architecture to have survive.:! from late antiquity. These monuments were created between AD 400 and 600, at a time when Ravenna was one o f the roost imporClrrt cities in the Mediterl":lnean world. After 600 Ravenna experienced both economic and political downrurns, but the artistic and architectural monumems remained as a teSClmem to the splendor of the Christian RotHan Empire in its early cemuries. and as an inspiration both to later generations of the city's inhabitants and to visitors. In the absence of an e:({ensivc body of writtcn sources for the late antique city, the art and architecrnre have bl'COme the main source for our understanding of Ravenna 's role in ltolly and the Mediterranean.

Sincc the ninth cenrury, Ravenna has been considered the "capital of the lare antique west." This is what Ravenna 's own ninth-ccntury historian Agncllus called it; it is the title of the four-volume history of the city by F. \V. Deichmann, Rllt'mnll, Hauptsrlldt drs f/liitantikrn AbrnJlonJes ( I g-89), and it was thc title of a conference held in !OO4 in Spolcto, subse-quently publishl-d as Ravmnll; do cilpitllir imprrialr 11 capitllir mmalr. The word "capital" (Hauptsradt, capitolr) refers to the city's political function as the residencc of tile western Roman emperors after 400, of the Ostrogothic kings from 493- 540, and of the rulers of the Byzantine province of centr:ll Ita ly from 54'>"""75 I . These rulers, along with the bishops of Ra"enna, made a determined effort to create a city that would provide a WOrtlly setting for (he rimals that demonstrated their authority. But did la te antique rulers wam the city to be regarded as a capitoll, and if so, did they suC'Ces~fully convince their contemporaries?

In urder to addrc~s th is question, wc muSt fir~t dcfinc whJt a capit.l w.s in the fifth and sixth centurics. The word as it is used today, defined as a city

,

, INTRODUCTION

serving as a seat of government, has no exacr correlare in late antique Latin or Greek. E. Chrysos has recently noted that in latc antique sources {he word capul is used only for Rome and Constantinople, and carries symholic connotations, whereas the term mks imptritJlis, referring to the location of the emperor and administration, really corresponds better to what we would consider a capital city. ' Tnisambiguity - the fact that Romecould be a cilpuf without hous; ng a central gO\!crmnent - "'liS the result of the p01itical circumstances of the R0Il13n Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. For 300 years the city of Rome had been the ~-enter of imperial administr.ltion and the showplace of the empire's glory. However, Rome's 10000tion was not I", rticularly convenient for admi nistering the affairs of an empire that extended east to Persia and nort h to Scotland. The military emlICrors of the third century spent less and less of their time in Rome, and other cities rose to prominence as places where an emperor (or a would-he emperor) might reside.' Aftcr a century of political diS;J rray, the emperor Dioclcti an (!84- 305) took the momentous step of dividing the empire into western and eastcrn halves ruled bycocmlICrors (augusri), caeh of whom had a junior colleague ({ICSar). These four rulers and their administrations were oos(:cl in different cities: iuitially tileS!' were Nioomedia and M ilan (fur the augum) and T hessalonike and Trier (for the cllcSIIm). After 314 Constantinople, founded hy the emperor Constantine, replaced N icomedia as the eastern imperia l capital. Rome was conspicuously omitted from thc list of new lopitlls, prooobly largely for strategic reasons, but it is also possible that Diocletian hoped TO brcak away from Roman m1ditions that he felt had [,,":en deleteriou> to the empi re in the pR-vious centllry, ancl in particular that hc wished w minimize the threat of revolt hy powcrful military units stationed in Rome)

Although mostof these cities had been important adminisrrativc centers in the Roman pcriod (with the exception of Constantinople), none of thcrn had pennanent stl"Ul"tUreS for housing the imperial court. After Diocletian designated them imperial sears of government, each city began to build facilities that would acoormnooate the imperial ccremonia l and the admin-isrration that would now be situated there.'; All of tht'SC new capitals looked to Rome for inspiration, while at the same ti me reAe

RAVINNA CAPITAL?

situation of political V"~riabiliry.6 The Roman Empire in the founh to sixth centuries was extremely unstable, and while wnstantinople achieved last-ing success, most of the other new COIpitals enjoyed relati"ely brief building booms.) Ravenna, on the other hand, had a tenuous cxist~"Ilce in its first century as a lllpital, but managed to hold on to its role as a political center for a serond century and beyond. This enabled it to have not just one but scwral phases of commemorative monuments, cumlliatiwly reinforcing the scnse that Ravenna was a traditional seat of go,cnl1ncnt.

Rivalry with Rome is a l>trsistent theme in the politil,,1 and ecdesiastil"31 history ofRavcnna. Emperors had not livcd in Romc since z84, but the city remained the showplace of the Roman republic and empire, the repository of its history, and the home of the Senate, the group of powerful Jtalian landowners whose authority waxed and waned in the course of Rome's imperial history. Rome ".,.s the caput orbis, the "head of the worldt l'Ven ,,hen political power was no longer ccntered in it.8 Milan had been viewt"

INTRODUCTION

western cities in the period from 400 to 600. Ravenna's period of pros-perity coincides with ~ time in " 'hich cities throughout the Roman "'OTld werC undergoing dramatic tTllll.\formations. 9 ' Ineeityo f the Roman Empire had been a center of secular administration, with a dense urban fabric that included public amenities such as {heaters and baths, aqueducts and >ewers, clabonltc Roman-style houses for the elite , and evidence of long-distance trade. By the year 6oomanyofthose features had disappeared from w(.."Stcm Europe, replaced by towns centered on the church, with the bishop as the main authurity figure, a mu

HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP ON RAVINNA

to ha ,'e convinced cantemporariesof glory a r prestige. The process of cre-ati ng a co"'~ncing capital city took zoo years, and the m0l1 umentali7,.atian that we admire was completed JUSt in time far the {."Qnamic and JXllitical decline that was to spell the cnd of Ravenna 's dominance. It was not until the ninth cenrory that viewers could admire Ravenna as a glorious lllpital: l{avcnna was not commemorated in literary sources until Agncllus wrote a history of the episcopal see in the R30!i, a century after the city had ceased to be a scat of anything but local and episcopal government. O nly in the con-ttxt of the Carolingian renaissance, as Ital ians began to dcvd op a renewetl sense of urban consciousness that included pride in their Roman and late antique heri tagc, " could Ravtnna's staros as a former capital of the west be fully appreciated. \ Vhen we ta lk about Ravenna as a capital, then, we must remember that we are doing SO in historical hindsight.

History of Scholarship on Ravenna

T hrough the cenrories, Ravenna's history has UtlOlctl-rl the anention of a v;!riety of authors and scholars. Stlrting with Agnellus in the ninth century, medieval authors wrote saints' lives, sermons, and chronicles that document specific mo ments in the lity's history. From the fifteenth century, local his-torians and antiquarians produced ever-more-learned historical texts, as well as publishing the primary SOUK CS on which these histories werc based. \ Vi th the development of the disciplines of archaeology and art history in the ninl"!eenth century, Ravenna began to occupy an ever-larger place in the historical consciousness nat just of its own inhabitants, but al so of outsiders. And with the recent growth of interest in late antiquity as a his-torica l period , scholarly inteT

INTRODUCTION

reference to what he had to sayan the subject. Cerrainly he is the person who construct~~ a past for the city on the Oasis of its splendid monuments. Agnellus is Our source o f chmnologi~'31 infonnation for many of the Sur-

\~ving buildings as well as our only source for the many buildings that no longer SUM"C, J\'iorl'Over, his preSCflution o f figures such as Galla Placidia, Thooderic, and Archbishop Maximian has influcnced all subsequent ideas about them. Although his text was not widely LTlown outside of Rawnna unti l the nineteenth cencury, we can trace its influence from the tenth cen-rury on in texts wrinen by Ravennate authors, or by authors who camc to Ra,'cnna and consulted its archive . ' i

There is no external evidence for Agnellus's existence; everything we know about him comes from the llassages in his &ok ofPontiffi 6fth. Church of Rtn'.,mll (Uber p

HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP ON RAVINNA

that lIishop Ursus built the cathedral; thaI Galla Placidia, Theoderic, and Arch bishop Ma,imian monumenlali,,~-d the city; and that the struggle with the popes consumed the seventh and eighth centuries. Since Agnellus's staR1nents match the r~1nains of churches and \\'ails, they continue 10 pro-vidt tht basic outline for Rawnna 's hi,wry. Agnellus him>clf us~'(1 as wurccs a chronide or annal attributed to Archbishop Maximian, the semlOns of Bishop Peter Chrywlogus, and a few documents; he otherwise looked at bui ldings and inscriptions (many of which arc now lost), and rdk-d on hcarj.ay current in the ninth century. Although today we have infonnation from archaeology and bener access 10 more historical te~ts., we do not know much more than Agncllus did,

After Agndlus, little else was writlen about the city of Ravenna until the thirtlocnth cenrnry. j 7 Biographies of wme indi,'idual bishops and saints were produced starting in the tenth century, often taken more or less exaerly from the Ll'R; there was an increase in production of these biographies in tht thirteenth ("

8 INTRODUCTION

between !lIO and 1205. After 1205, the enoies become more frequent, but are concerned now with the seculaT poUtiol history of the city, although 9:lme major building acti\~ties are descrihed, such as the reconstruction o f the nave of the Ursiana cathedral in 13 r 4- It is thus not possible to rcron-stroct from the Cb~o"ic,. much infonnation about the condition of the city in this period, as could Oe done for the nimh century.

From the fift~'enth cenrury on, antiquarian historians of Italy began to include infonnation about Ravenna in thcirworks. About 1413 the LPR was l"Op;ed, alung with mOSt of the other historical texts, into one volume, which today is housed in the Bibliotcca Estensc in Modena; all earlier manuscripts ufthe tc:t:l"alne (>vident. G. G. Ciampini 's V" rrl1 mCilimmru of ,690-9 include.:! drawings of many of

HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP ON RAVINNA

!{a,'enna 's mosaics, im'3.lua ble evidence of their lIre restoration state . Anto-nio Zirardini, a Ra"ennate lawyer and historian, published a work entitkd Drgli Ilnticbi rdijizii profllni di RITVfflnll in 1762; he also wrote a compan-ion volume, Dr Ilntiqllis w;1'"is Rllvfflnllr ardifiriis, which was published only in 1908. '{be papyrus docu mcnts surviving in Ra\'Cn na 's archive were fi rst published in 1805 by G. Marini, in an l'(]ition that is sti ll used as a refer-ence today, although it was largely SUpersl-ded by H. O . T jader's edition of the '95S. Count lo. larco Fantuzzi, also of Ravenna and a student and colleague of Z ira rdi ni and "brini, published his six-volume wurk Munu-mfflli rllvnmali dr' uroli Ifi 711= p" {a maggiflT" partr hwfiti, containing the tem of ml-dil-val doaunl-nts in the arch episcopal archive, during the pe riod ISo 1-+ Finally, the eighteenth century saw attempts at restoration in se"eral of the city's surviving monuments, most notllbly at San Vita lc and Sant'A]Xlll inare in Clas.

,. INTRODUCTION

tOe bu;l ding> formerly bdonging to the atvtw. G"roI. 0\.."...'" I"'blkltioo of th. """Its of many of the>< pro;.ru duro ing , I\< 1>lIogyl .nJ the 'iof>r\n,rn.Jen .. ps of the: Univ.,.iti. di ~. begin to j>I.y p>'ini, prof....,.. ofChristi,n .. ,-It~., boSOn "'","""", , n ,n" .,1 "",roten, the c ....

1-1 [STO RY 0 1: SC H O LARSHIP ON RAVENNA

di Culturil mll'Arte RIIV("I/{If~ t 8bl/lfillil (C4RB), which brought together archaeologists, art historians, and historians from Italy and abroad . The proceedings of each conference were published in volumes of the same name; the last conference took place in 1998 (vol. 44). Bovini fonl1(led and was tbe director of the Istituto di Amichit~ Ra\'"ennati e Bizamine, asso-ciated with the university but housed in the Casa Traversa ri in Ra\'enna, which continues to serve as a c('mer for researchers studying Ravenna.

reli:r: Rm)(llllll and C1RB published numerous important studies of Ravenna's history an (1 monuments, I.lUt there were no syntheses of the ma-terial, except in books a iJlled at tou rist~ and popular audiences. The task of producing a scholarly history of late antique Ravenna was undertaken oy Friedrich nTilhelm Deidunann, a German scholar based at the Deutsches Archaologisc.hes Institut in Rome. In 1958 he published a collee.rion o f photographs o f art, architecture, and sculpture that he caned Friibcbristlitbr Bllllft'll f/lld IHosllik;:ll VOlt RflVt'"llll(l . The accompanying oook, R(fv emlll, HfluptSffldt ,lei .. piilflmiJ.'ell .41'clldlfllldes, Ges,bifb,c lmd i\1(JlIflllImtc ( 1969), COJlt

. __ ..... , ,?-

,. C....-cnt

SOME AIl.C HAEOLOGICAl CONSIDEIl.AT IO NS

collaborative stUitiCS on the "mausoleum of Galla Placidia" (1996), San Vi tale (1997), and San Michele iI/ Ajri(im) (W07). Fina lly, the Fon(lnione Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Mediocvo at Spoleto held a confe rence on late anti(,

These [VIO Jlrocesses, along with the continu()u~ occupation, destructioll, spoliation, and rebuildi ng o f the dty. h;l\Ie produced ;\ sl'f'Jtigra phy in which

'3

'. INTRODUCTI ON

material from the Roman rcpuu1ic:ln period is found 4-f! 111 below the CUT-rent grounillevei, Roman imperial materi~l is 3- 6 m below current ground k'vcI, and fifth- to sixth -ccnturr material is 2-4 III below current ground lerel. with grcatvari~hil i ty fr0111 place to place within the cityY Morl'{wcr, Ravenna has aI ways had a watery environment. Although the swamps of the Roman period aTe no longer much in evidence, the level of groundwater is relatively high. Even Agnellus noted cases ill which things buried in previ-ous eras were covered in water, and today most featun:s that li e morc than a few meters below the ground surface a;c envelopel] in grou!1l[watcr. ,lj As a result, pre-Roman and Roman remains 3rc sparse ill the archaeological remrd and hard to excavne, and some sites, especially chosc excavate

RAV EN NA AND LATE ANTI Q1.I E ART AND ARCH ITE CTU RE

the Istituto was reorganized as parr of the Diparrimcnto di Archcologia, with a specific unit ba sed at Ravenna, the Fac(Jiti di Conservazione ,lei Beni cultura li (Serle di Ran'nna ). Its director, Andrea Augenti, has initiated a new Sl.'ries of excavations in t:ollaiJorat10n with thc Soprintcnclcnz~.~'

A series of residents of Ra\'enna with historical and archaeological expertise have worked alongside, and often in collaboration with , the Soprintendenza and the University. In partiC1Jlar, many of the excan tions of Ravenna's churches halle been conducted by these scholar$. Mario Mazzotti, a Ravennate priest, ht,'came involved with archaeological cxca-vation in the late 193os. He obtained a degree in Christian Archaeology, and served as thl.' diret:ror of the archiepiscopal archive and museum in Ravenna from the 1950S until his death in 1983' Nlazzotd excavated and published extensively on Ravenna's history al1(l monuments, most notably Sant'Apollinare in Ciasse, the Arian llaptistery, and Solll Frant:esco. In the 19605 and 1975 Giuseppe Cortesi (head orthe Bibliot1;.'t:

. 6 INTRODUCTI ON

were inAucnccd by a vcry wide ran ge of styles. Ravenna thus occupies all impOrtant place in I::vtry chronoll)gic~l narrative I)f medieval and Byzan-tine art, and R,\I'cnna's monuments arc cited in analyses of style. technique, iconogra phy, viewer rccl,'ption, colo r th(..'Ory. 311{\ mally other su blccts of art historical interest. Questions raised by the study of the art and architecture -about construction tech niques: building layout; architecnlral, sculptural, anti artistic style; and iconography - also shed light Oil late antique eco-nomics, communication, theology. (..'(;dcsiastical organiza tion, litu rgy, and power politics. \Ve call usc them t() enlarge emf picture of life in late antique R;1 \'Cnna.

In this book, the lil.lrviving mon\lments wi ll be trcned individually in the context of the hislOriC:

RAVENN,\ AND LATE AN TI Q1l E ART ,\ N D ARCHITECTURE

~hool," which borrowed from a variety of traditions and remained influ-ential for centuries."s Nevertheless, the contrast between East and \.vest has continued to playa role in art historical discussion of Ravenna (lawn to the present': Dddunanll was more inclined to emphasize Eastern models with ~Wesrern" modificadons, while Eugenio Russo has argued in favor of a greater n.'Cognition of western motlds, but insists that the major J ustinianic buildings arc the product of a master bu ildcr frOIll Constantinoplc ."~

The

.8 INTRODUC TI ON

so L'Ollsistcntl)' in later ccnturics.5' Uh:wisc, most of Ravenna's churches had apses that wen: polygonal on the extl::ri(Jf anll semicir(:ular on the inte-rior, ~nothcr feature known from Constantinople and the eastern l\Icditcr-ram'an in rhe fifth ccnnlTY, but rare in Italy. On the other hanll , IllOSt of the domes and half domes in Ral'enna 's churches wefe cOlIsrrucred using fllbi jitfili, or hollow ceramic tubes approximately 0 .10 111 long that we(e imerlinket! all(1 arranged in eOllccntric rings. held together with cement (Fig. 2). This tC,.'f,;hniquc was widely used in Roman architecture of Italy and the west, hut dill not spread to the eastern Mcditcrr3tlCan.,'l

Taken together, these three features arc seen as typically Ravenna!c. But what do!.'s this combination of feanlres Ill!.'an? Cl!.'arly, a variety of architectural ideas were being combined ill llew ways. T his could mean thnt e"J,tern nrchitects and/or craftsmen were brought to Ravenna to ouilll the great churches of the lIew imperial capital, either be('au~e such crafts-men did not exist in Ravenna, or to lend Constal1til1opolitanlu~tcr to the Ravcnnatc structures, These maSters then would have adopted somc local technill oes. Or were the illll)Ost blocks and polygonal apses foreign tcch-niques adapted by loc~1 masters, and if so, why? In the case of Illarbh: sculpture, it can be shown nO[ only that sculptur3l techniques and styles were derived from Constantinople, but that the marble itselF originated in the eastern Mediterrnnean , which proves that there was an intel"t~st in Ravenna in high-status art from the east. :4 ArchaeolQgica l evidence shows that Ravenna's ports carri('d on a busy trade in wine, oil, and other goods with both North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean , so clearly the city was fairly cosmopolitan, At the same time, links with Rome, Aljuileia, and espocially .M ilan were stroog, aod there arc many similarities of architccru.tal form and IledicatiUtl between these cities abo. \Voultl these featu res have impressed pt.-op!e as being typically eastern or western? Did p

RAV ENNA AND LATE AN TI Q1.I E ART AND ARC HITECTU RE

mon:.'Over, Ravenna's walls and churches were usually built of reused brick. Scholars {Iis~gret: over whether the uSt: (If these JPoli11 was r;ymlNlic (triumph O\'er Roman paganism, for example) or whether thcir usc simplr had to do with the availability and e:,.:pense of material s. In other words, was their use meaningfu l, or practical, or both? Did it demonstrate rhe power of the emperors to control construction of pl'eexisting build ings, or the power of the church to demolish them? Or, by the time Ravenna 's buildings were tonstructed , were Roman ,fpO/ifl simply considered de 7'ig lleur for impressive public huildings?

The beaut)' ami com plexity of Raven n,l 'S sculpture and mosaics ha\'c Icc! scholars to attempt to elucidate the meaning o f the images presentl.'{l there, a study known as iconography. Frequently, studies of individual monuments havt: arguell fo r one "real" iconogra phic nH:an,ing, presumably the meaning th at was intell/led by its creators or patrons. More recently, scholars have recogni7,ed that in late antique art, images may not have been intended to mean just one thing, but may have been intended to evokc multiple mean-ings and associations. As H enry NTagu ire has pointed out, early ChriStian I.'xegesis was based on the (..'oncept that any given Biblical passage might be interpreted in several different ways. If Christian exegetes understOOti the \Vor

'0 INT RODUC TI O N

all of the scholarship on them w~s not practical, given the scale and focus of this book. Rather> the monuments ~re pre~ented as tangillJe sources of information about the city in which they were created, whose history they hoth n.th.-ct and hdpcd to shape. Through thei r 1>C211ty and complexity WI.' can still todar experience Ravenna , ifonly in fragments, as did its inhabitants 1,;00 years ago.

CII A PTE R Two

ROMAN RAVENNA

The Origins of Ravenna

The main feature that determined the hi~tory of Ra"cnn~ in antiquity was its changing hydrological situation. 1 T ooay Rave nna lics 9 km in lallrl from the sea, but in the prehistoric and Roman periods itW;1S located directly on the Adriatic coast, at the southern edge of the delta of the Po river. The Po (in Latin, f>(I(IIlr) is the longest river tn Italy, Howing west to east through a river basin that contains many of northern Italy's m OSt important cities. The water

RO MAN RAVENNA

Ravenna, c. AD 200

":......:,ro:::... ____ ...::;5!Xl m

3. Mopshow-ing lb"cnn3 in thcRom3n iml""riol p"riod. "",.AD,oo

lighthouse? Adriatic Sea

I port ? ,

(cemeteri!tS)

Harbor I lagoon Classe

in the prehistoric and early Roman periods, the site of Ravenna consisted of larger ancl smal ler pieces of laml surroumlec] by water, and separated from thc seacoast by a lineoflargc, sandy, coastal dunes.

Small groups of people und oubtedly inhabited this region far back into prehistory, bur pre-Roman arehacologieal evidence is very fragmentary.i Bits and picccs or Etruscan objccts dating back perhaps to thc sixth or fifth century Be have been discovered in Ravenna, as well as pottery from Greece and from ncighboring parts: of Italy dating betwecn thc fifth and

TH E O RIGINS 0 1: ]l.AVENNA

the third Centuries BC~ From thc fi fth ccnUJry Be on, there were proba bly settlements among the ri\-ers and cana ls of the area, perhaps even by peoples of di fferent ethnic origins.'}

\"'hat we know alxnlt the early history of northeast Iral" collles from sc.'Htered references [Q the region by Greek and Roman authors, and from archaeology. I As far back as the mid-~ nd millenniu m BC. inhabitallfs of Greece hegan traIling with those of the Adriatic coast in Italy. Classical authors gave a variel)' of rather nonspc-cific names to these Italian peo-ples, who do not emerge from historical ouscurity until the sixth century He, when the Etruscans, Venctians, and Um brians developcd into ordered political and ('uIOlraI111lits that were recognizahle to Greek authors. Celts from north of the Alpsalso began to settle in Italy north of the Po in the la te nfth century BC, leading the Romans to label the region Cisalpine Gau l ("Gaul on this side of the Alps").

The origins of Ravenna were a mystery even to the Greeks and Roman s, and our earliest textual Stmn:cs for the city (late only to the first century BC." CI;lssical authors disagreed about Ravenna's o ri gins: according to the first ccnUlry AD historian Strabo, who was usi ng Greek ethnogr

'. RO MA N RAVEN NA

ideas about the defense of italy, Jnd after the Romans fina lly dcfc:ncd the Carthaginians, they extenJc(\ their hegemony all the way along the Allriatic coastline, founding the city of Aquilcia in dll Be.

At the same rime, the cconomit" network ~ Iong thl,' Adriatic emst was also changing. Spina had been founded brGreeks in the later sixth celHury Be and since then it had served as t he maior Adriatic port for the Po rivcr hasin .'iI Diffit-ult political circumstances, first in Greece in the fourth century Be and then in italy, partially disruptc(\ Spina's trading networks, but it was prohably the silting up of its harbor in the mid-third century Be th:n led to Spin:l 's ultim:ltc decline. '9 Ravenna in the third century had riverine 3('CCSS to the Po, a brgc naOl r~ 1 harooron thl,' Ad ri~tic, and dry land on which to build a city. These were the right conditions for a cOlllmerci~1 port, and thcy led to thc construction of the first fo rti lied settlcmCll{ at Ravenna.'"

The Republican City

R~venn~ 's late antique w~lls follow an irregular plan, but the southwest corner incorporatcs three sides of a rt:Ctanglt:. Scholars havc long assumed that the rectangular cornel' reproduced the outl ine of the original Roman cit)' (Fig. 3), since a rectangular plan sueh as this, with a street gri(\ aligned with two main rOJds intersecting in the center. was commonly used in newly fou nded Roman colonies and etti es!' The city, usually referren to as tht: QPpidllm or as Rm'Wl/fl Ijllfld/'!l({/, until recently was thought to h.we been fou nded in the first century Be by the emperor Augustus.::

In 1980, archaeologisr.~ working at the '--'OnStruCtlon site of the Banca POllOlan: (sec Fig. I), along the eastern line of the rectangle, revealed the J'emains of a city wall that was mlleh earlier than anyone hall thought, with pottery dating to the second half of the third century BC.'> The wall's remains werc found 7.50-+75 meters below the current ground le\'el, and consisted of a stretch of w

TH E REPUBLI CAN C ITY

whether the Padenna ;In(1 the jillmisdlullf LII1Jl1/lle 1"0r111e\1 the boundary on this side, Or whether there was a waU on one Or other side of the water-courses. " ~ These two waterways played an im(lOrtant role in the definition of th!.' sir!.', and by the first n~nmry Be they were sllppk'rncnted by a new canal, thefo.I:J11 LII"';SII, which emered the oppiduw from the west and also Rowed into the Padenna. 'Q

"\Ill}' was this city wall ouilr, an(1 by whom: Unfortunately, in the absence of any textual sources, we can only hypothesite about what was going on in the area at this time. Ravenna seems to have lain just outsi(le the ag" Glllli"'fconqucred by Rome in 295; in 206 the Umbrians ofSarsina allied themselves with Rome, and it has been suggesterl that the scnl!.'ment of Ravenna became at this poilU an all ied city (rr.liws forJrmtll )YJ Another suggestion is that the settlenH!Il[ was fortified in the context of 1-lalUlibal's invasion of Italy in ! 18 Be y v. Manzdli n()[es that it is likely by this time that R;l\'ellna was becoming an important c0ll1t1H'rd~1 center that llccde(1 to be protccted from pirates)' F. Rcbecchi reads Strabo's statement that

~Rimi l1i , like Ravcnna , is an ancient colony of the Umbri, but both of thcm have n .'Ceived also Roman (;010nie5," to mean that Ravenna was founded by colonisrs from Rimini. H Rimini. which h;ld been fou nded ill 168 BC was linked di rectly to Rome b}, the construction of [he ViII Fillmillin , and in the 180s BC Rimini was linke{1 to Other Roman colonies of Piacenz.a and Cremona by the Vi,1 /Im/ili'l. Ravl!nna wa~ not dir l!ctiy on any of the main roads, although thl're was a roadway that cOllnected the city to the Viii 1I

,6 RO MA N RAVEN NA

h3VC oecn cormfUl:tcd OUt of loca l materials, often perishable, like rce(ls and wood, which have left few traces, but also I)ut of locally availal!Je stonc. J\I Other fragmentary objects from the Roman republican period have heen tound to the cast of the oppidlllll, in the area of the lan.'r "Palace of Theoderic," suggesting that buildings, perhaps even a temple, were also COllstructed in this sector nearer the sea. ~ o It has Ilot been possible to deter-mine whether an eaStern settlemenr existed earlier than the constrllction of the oppidmJl, or (.X)[1tcmporary with ttY

Ravenna first appears in Roman historical sources in the (:ontC;\1" of the Social anti Civil warS of the first centu ry BCi' Plutarch mentions that a marhle st~nJC of Gaim i\oJarius still e.xisted in the first century AD in

Ravelllla.~~ The Roman orator C icero in 56 BC described one Publius Caesiu5 as having bL"Cn , before the end offhe Social War in 90 BC, " ... a Ravennate from the federated people:'+! 'fhe implication is that Ravenna was an allied city before 90 BC, and tha r even in Cicero's day Ravenna held federate stan IS, although the city would be raised to the rank of a ROmll1l7!l1l11ici{li/l1Jl sometime after 49 BC.~ j Julius Cacsar famously stayed at Ravenna thl.' night before he took his a rmy across the R\lbicon to start th" Civil \Nar in 49 BC..;tI Suetollius repom that during the course of that day, Caesar had gom: to the theater and inspecte(1 the site of a proposed gladi:no-rial school.47 Those references represent the extent of u'ritten information that we have about Ravenna in tht: repuolican period: a city that stoo(1 on the fringes of the Roman world, integrated culturally ami politically into the Roman sphere of influence.

Classe: The Roman Imperial Harbor and Fleet

Roman authors ttll us that Ocravian, 13tcr known 3S AUbruStllS, dt:cidell to establish a permanent navy for the Roman state. Two bases for this new navy were chos"n, one for the western !vlediterranean at Misenum on th"

B~r of Naples, and the other, for the east, at Ravenna.! T he re~~ns for this decision seem clear: Octavian had been involved ill two major military campaigns that involved naval action, one against the pirate-Beet of Sextus Pompe)', which culminated in the Battle of Naulochus in 36 BC, and one against Mark Anthony that conchllied with the Batde of Actium in 31 Be. Scholars Iichate the date of the fleet's foundation, hut it happened sometime between 35 and 11 BC.~? For the next 300 years Ravenna would house on" of Rome's main naval bases, which would have imporramconst:ljuences for the city.

First an(1 most important, Ravenna's harbor had to be developed into a facility that could hold, repair, and provision the ships of the fleet. Ravenna 's

TH E ROMAN IMPERIAL H ARBOR AN D ]:LE ET

harbor faci lit ies must have been delclope{] already in rhe republican period; the historian Appian says that in 39 Be Octavian "hrought war-ships from Ravenna and an army from Gaul" and "ordered the building of new triremes at Rome and Ravenna ," implying that Ravenn a was already a nava l sratiQn Y' Octavian recognized tha l Raven na was ideally situated to l'OlHrol piracy in the Adriatic, which \\'as a threat to O ctll\'ia n's imperia l peace, and that the lagoon CQuid h~ developed into a facility capable of holding the entire Adri-nic fleet Y Thus, utH\er O ctal'ian, the harbor was enlarged and stahilized. Pliny the Elder in the first centllfY AD Ilescribcs the large canal, known as the jQ.wI ;!lIgm'flf, wh ich joined the Po river to the harbor:"

Tllt;re is no ril'er ]the Pol known to receil'e a 1art.~r im;rt,jse thm this in so shon a sp~ce; so 111llch so indeed th~t it is impelled onwards by tllis I' ast body of wate r, anJ. in,'a,ling the lanll, flHln s ,Ieep lOhannds in its ('oun;c: henn' it is that, although a portion of its stream is Jr:lwn olT uy river.; anJ can"ls lxtween Ral'elllu, ;)nJ Ahinum, fo r u space of I ~ o miles. still, 31 the SIXH where it d.isc:h"l'gcs the \'3st body of its "''' tel'S, it is s~ id to form scven Sl:ns. By the Augllsmn C:1l1aIIAlIglls/" fOSSIl i til(' 1'0 is carried [0 Ravenn", at which phlCC it is called Ihe PaJusa. b,wing runner!)' oorne tbe name of MeSSOlniclIS. ' l1,e nearest momb to this spot fonlls the

, 8 RO MA N RAVEN NA

by ma,sivc cement allil Illasonry embanktllcnts;5~ 3([jaccnr to rhe IJPpidlllfl the Padenna was 50-65 m wide. A paved r()ad 9 m wide, identinell uy the CXC31'ators as the viti PQpi1i{l , fan along the western bank of this canal to the north of the ciry.5s At ~ poi nt ~ I{lng the casn:m side ofthc fossa IIlIgMffl, now occupied by the Venetian fortress calted the Rocca Brancaieone, a second port was developed. open to the sea and fed by the canal, which remained in use until the fifth century AD or later.w Pliny the EI(ler nOtes that Ravetllla had a famous lighthouse, similar to that of Ncxandria in Egypt, which is thought to have heen located to the northeast of the oppidlllll, since Agnc1lus in the nimh century refers to this location as ~at the lighthouse." In that case (he lighthouse would have functio ned as a be~con tor the northeastern harbor rather than the sou thern one.60

Tht: mnin hnrbor of Rnl'enna was located just to the south and the west of the oppidll1l1, perhaps as little ~s 200 III south of the oppidlflJl's southel'll wall.6' Vef)' little is known of its dimensions, Of o f the Illany buildings that must have been erected all around it,6' hut a fa ir amount is known about the structures built at the mouth of the l)(lrt. A channcllecl from th ... Ad riatic into th ... harbor; the channel was 80 m long, and it widened all the ilHerior, flowing around at least two sInal! islands.G) The channel's banks wt:re strengtht:nt:d with qua}'s and with piles of ouilding ru bble. T he mouth leading to the sea was fol'tifie{1 with very Strong moles, ma{[e of cement, extending to the south and pl'esumably to the north . To the north the coastline on either side was then provi(lcd with ccment barrier walls, +5-5 m wide and 40 m long, to prevenr erosion. Th is canalled into the harbor where the jQSSI1 A IIgllS1I1 entered from the north, with the Padenna's lllouth slightly la rthcr to the west. One section of tbe harbor extended to the west, south of the city of Ravenna, while another strt'tchell to the south. Portions of the quays have been found in the excavations on Via S. Alberto in Cla~se: the earliest constructions of the Augustan port were made of large oal beams, strengthcned in the firs t century AD by large numbers of ceramic fragments, and then finally replaced wi th brick in the second century.Got

'We halle only onc piece of evidence for the size of Ravenna's imperial fleet : JOHlanes ill the sixth century quotes a tt!..'"'- hy the early thi rd-century historian Cassius Dio, now lost. that says there were 2 50 ships .6 ~ Because the Roman navy is much less well dC)cllmt:nted than rhe army, even for the imperial period, the main sources of information are funerary inscriptions thnt mention the deceased 's ship, wh ich have provided names and types of some vessels haseti at Ravenna (Fig. -{ ).66 The commallller of the Ravenna fleet held the t itle p,.,lt!f~dll," t/iw;i.,, and was subordinate to the f/l'lIrfrnllS of the Beet at Misellum.6~ T he tourth-century Notititl DigllltllttWI men-tions the "prefeCt of the Rallennatc nCCt, with responsibili ty for that cit)' of

HI E ROMAN IMPERIALII ARBOR AN D FLEET

Ravenna "; this has been interpreted as meaning that the prefect of the Reef was the ci\'ilian head of government in Ra\'enn3, althOllgh such an imer-pretation is controversial, because we do not know how much earlier th is siruatioll may have applied.Ok F ragrncnts of inscriptions from the first and second centuries, found both in Ravenna ami dsewhere in Italy, seem rather to indicate that Ravenna in lh e imperial period had a regular town council with magistrates. 61lgi -,jic""s,,, ship builder (fobrr "";,,Ii~) "febsse.

fir~1 ~'('nrury BCJAD. ,\lusco N,r>;;ollalc, R.:.'cnM (coor_ 1",,1' SOI,riolen. d" llZa pcr i IJ;.>"j .-\rchircllonici c I'ncs:tggisrid di R~"cnnn 1,\liBAC-ITALIAI CL:8.13 loI 95- 1 R:)

,0 ROMAN RAVENNA

Pannonian:;, who received Roman dti~cllShip upon their discharge afrer twenty-six years of service':) One single inscription from the st:

TH E C ITY OF RAVENNA IN TH E RO MAN EMP IRE

larger-scale operation, producing grain and wine, with facilit ies for storage and brge-scale production, presumably for sale to the navy.P

The City of Ravenna in the Roman Empire

In the first century AD , Ravenna as a city finally begins to appear in wri tten sourc(.'S.s, In historical works by authors such as T:lcirus :lntl Suetonius, Raven na is the hase ofthe fl eet 3nll its commanller, and is occasion ally I1sell as a place o f exile Or refuge . ~' The satirist Martial and others complain about thl.' Hies. frogs, ball wa ter, and other \1n pleasant fearures of the tity, while others commend the vegetables, especially asparagus, grown in me area .S; Finally, some authors commet)t on the nature of the city itsel f, ami recanl its reputation in the Roman world.

The most not:lble feature of Ravenna for Rom an authors W:lS its watcry location.H.! T he early fi rst-century AD author Straho, in his GCQgrnpbJ', devotes II considerahle amount of space to the city, which he describes as

follows;~'

Sitnated in the m:lr~h"s is th .. great f

RO MA N RAVEN NA

In describing {IifTerellt kitHls of timber to Dc used for construction, Vitruvius SIXaks of piles of alderwood usell as the substructure of buihl-ings in marshy areas: ;

THE CITY OF RAVENNA IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the Porta Aurea to the northeast. Tnis street nad been repaved several times starting in the republican period, first in brick and then in stone.~ Beneath [he street ran :I sewer system

RO MA N RAVEN NA

Ravenna's increasing importance and its associated population expan-sion in the second century led to the further development of its infras-tructure, and particu larly its supply of fresh water. '''f An aqueduct was built, reportedly hy the emperor T rajan (98-11 7 AD), to hring in water from [he somhwest. ;

A TH I RD- AN D FOURTH -CENTURY CRISIS?

central Italy were a[so brought to Ravenna to be filled with wine from the region, " 'hich was thcn exported to places throughout the Mediterranean in the first to third centuries AD. ' 'J From the seeond cenrury, Ravennate workshops were producing marble sarcophagi and other sculpted works.' ,6

Ravenna also imported a variety of products from throughout the Mediterranean, particu[uly from the east. Remains of vessels containing products such as wine from the Dalmatian coast and Rhodes, along with some evidence for oli"e oil from Spain, have been found at Ravenna, ' '1 as has a mid-scoond l'entury tombstone with an inSCTil'tion in Greek com-memorating "Titus Julius Nico

,6 RO MA N RAVEN NA

and internal political insta bility. Italy was lx!set by external enemies; the Alamanni invaded in z 54 anti a!f: Sep-timius Severus seized the Ra\'enna fleet on his way to Rome in 193, ':;] and it seems w have been used for various purposes In the early third cenfUry, from transporting troops to battling pirates, but in the later parr of the century it collapsed, or, at least, there is no mention of any fleet from Italy being involved in any of the invasiuns, raids, ur fighting that was happening all over the cmpire in thesc rea rs. Significantly, inscriptions with Il

ATHIRD- AND FOURTH -CE NTURY CRISIS?

The (led ine of the Ileer had an impact on R;l\'enna's wan:n'ourses also, It is likely that in the thinl century, either be

,. RO MA N RAVEN NA

tratling patterns changed in lb\'cnna in the thinl and fourrh tClUlirics, trade did not come to a halt. Connectiom with the Aegean remained imp(JTtlllt, and the ceramic evidence shows a dramatic increase in imports from North Africa. loW

Thus, in the fourth century there was still sollle life in rhe Ravenna area, and perhaps even a certain level of administrati,'e and commercial wealth, hut rhe dty was a shell ()f what it hat! been at its height in the second century. The Gallic author Ausonius, writing around 385.

RAV EN N A'S ct-!RISTIAN O RIGINS

~ r st performed baptism," that originally the bishop of Ravenna was basell in Classe rather than in the city of Ra\Cenna itself. '5-1 T his often-repeated hypothesis C3nnot be sustained on the basis of Agnel1us's statements, espe-cially si nce thl.'Te were two ch11rches de(hcated to St. Eu phemia, ami the one called lid IJriarll1 was in dIe oppidlllll itself. A Christian focus in Classe is cer-tainly possible, howe\'er, givell the state of Ravenna and C lasse in the thlrd ;11111 fourth centuries. ISS Attempts to establish (Iates for the eleven hishops who, according to Agncllus, preceded Severus arc speculative; it is likely that some of the bishops in the series lis ted hy Agnellus were invented, perhaps in the sixth century when the episcopa l chronology was bcing established, or perhaps by AgnclIus himself. 'l't'>

\ >\I)lile we are told by Agnellus (almost our only source) that Christians were living in Ravenna ill the Roman period, he does nor descri he ;lny church construction there until the early fifth century. The first Structure that he memions is the chapel ofSt. Pullo, ~not far fmm the gate which is called the parta NOlin," bui lt ahom thc YC3r 400. Il'" The large house CXC3" vated at the north side of the Via D'Azcgl io site, richly redecorated in the third and fourth ccnnlril.'S with mosaics that could ('onta in Christian sym-bolism, lies JUS t to the south of the location of the church of St. Euphemia, perhaps the one identilied hy Agndlus as lid Arirtelll and said to be the location of Apollinaris 's first baptisms in Ravenna. J. Baldini Lippolis nOtes that there might be some kernel of truth to the idea that an ea rly Chri~tian place of worship in the city was located hcrc. ' j ~ But other th~n Sc\'crus, we k.now nothing about the bishops or other personali ties of the church of Ravenna before the arrival of the imperial Court in 40;.

39

6. Map sha"';ng 1U'~n"" . CI:tIS

CIIAPTE R THRH

RAVENNA AND THE WESTERN EMPERORS, AD 400-489

Shordy after th~ yenr 400, the western Roman em]>erors moved their base of orcrati()n~ from Milan TO Ravenna. An imperia l residence was cst~blished there, new walls were huilt to surrounll an essentia lly new dry, a mint was established, and infrastructure ;lIld insti tutions were created in order to make them comlllensurate with th ... city's new statlls. The bishop ofR

~ 7 "',," __

, . M~ l' o f Ra'~"n3. 1:;>. AD 480

Ravenna, c. AD 480

(~

.III.~I'. --

.......

....... eFTs .. ~_" d - ,,~

-.~,. -,.,

..

Ell .-

\ \ .... 0': .... 0."1" "

-

.-.

TH E LAST CENTURY OF TH E WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE

In 394 the emperor Theodosius I, who had reunited the empire under his sole command, established his son Honorius as emperor in Milan, and his older son Arcadius in Constaminople. T heodosius dicd in 395, leaving Bononus, age eight, under the guidance of Theodosius's military com-mandtr (mngirtffmilirum) and trusttd friend Stili cho. The following yens were difficult ones filr the western empire; the Visigoths, an immigrant group who had Ix .. en senkHonorius is usual ly portrayed as wcak, indecisive, unsuccessful at nego-tiating with harbarians, and inAuencc

R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489

of her day. subject of both andellt ;lIld modern romantic legend. The OU[-lines of her life come from fifth-century chroniclers' who alSQ offer intrigu-ing glimpses into the personality of Galla. although these probably tel l us morc about (heif ;lmhofs than abollt the empress herself. '

Ae)ia Galla Placidia was born sometime oerween 388 and 393, [he daugh-ter of' ]'heooosius I and his second wife Galla; she was thus the halfsister of Honorius aud Arc;lliius.J She seems to have spent her youth ill Italy UI}(ler the care of Serena, her cousin and lhe wife ofStiJicho. \Vhcn Stilicho was mllfdcrcd in 408, Serena 311 (1 Galla Placi dia were living in Rome; when the Visigoths first attacked th e city in 409, Serena was acrusco of conspiring with the enemy and was I!xenm~d with Galla P lacirli~'sconsent,ac

TH E LAST C ENTURY 0 1: HI E WESTERN !tO MAN EMPIR E

was ccleurated ~rst H Constlllltinople and then at Rome in 43 7, after which he tOok control of the empire in his own right. After 43 7 Galla fades from written SOurces, although it is assumed that she was still innuelltial until her death in 45 0.

By the late 4405, the IIuns h~d emerged as a new threat to the empire. 'rhe Ihms had occupied the Hunga"ian plain in central Europe since the late fourth century, a[1

,6 R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489

Ricimcr, Gundobad, Orestes, and Qdoaccr. In the meantime, llooncoould pay much attenti(>n to the Vandals Or the Visigoths, nor to the ropuiati(m ofTt'aly, which was all that was left of the empire. After a complex series of event!; in 474-6, the general Odoaccr took control of Italy, bm. rather thm choosing a Roman to be emperor, he returned the imperial regalia w the emperor Zena. He proclaimed himsel f king and pnfl'icills of the west, and Zena tacitly accepted his claim. O(loacer set about stll>ilizillg the regions around Ita I}'; he reconquered Sicily from the Vandals by 477, took Dalmatia in 480, defeated the Rugialls of Norlcfon:; hut God then rendered thut passablc which had hitherto been impussuhk. H aving therefore CT=d the lake, ;IS if going

O\'~r dry ground. tlI~r fOllnd th.:: ipt.::s of th .:: city Opell, ano o,erpow.::red ti l':: uSIlrf>t'r.

ACl'()rding to Socrates it was Ra\'elllla's hIIJIIIl, or marshy bke, dlat gave it an almoSt impregnable defense, 'S The defcnsible nature of Ravenna

MOVI NG THE CAIJITAL TO RAVE N NA

was mentioned in writings by the sixth-century histOrians j onlancs anll ProtOpius. Jonlanes, descri bing the faly !>ecause the mar~hes were not as 1efensible as they were pcrccive1 to be. 's

Sever;!l scholars have argued that Ravenna was chosen for reasons more complex than a dubious strategic :ldv:lntage. F. VV. Deichrnann observed that the development of Ravellna ~ftcr 4-0 2 came SOOI) ~fter the esta blish -mentofConstantinople as the permanent residence of the eastern emperors under T heodosius I and Arcadius, rendering sea contact between July lilld the eastern Mel]iterranean more desirable. 'Q Impel'ial couriers traveling from Rome to Constantinople \ja Brind isi coulrlll1ake the journey in twenty days, bllt to be able to depart directly from Ravenna would have rc1uccd me journey tirne. 'o Communication with the east was particularly impor-milt during the reigns or Honorius and Valentinian III, whereas after 455 the emperur~ wefe instead depemlent on the support of the western army ;Hld Rome's Senatc. and communic;ation with the C;lSt became less signifi -clnt. Ravenna offered the addi tional advantage of l>eing ea~ily provisioned, because it was an important part of thc maritimc nctwork. " Alternately, V. Neri has notc1lhat while Milan and Aquilcia had Ucen strategically impor-[;1m in the second an(l third centuries, by the late fourth century the rivalry Uctween Romc a nd i\lilan had increasc1, an1 RaVClllla may have been cho-;;en to promote Rome at the opense of Milan, while Aquileia wa~ rejectell as tOO cxposed to attacks from the north and cast. "

.7

,8 R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489

A tilll}1 rca~otl for the choice ofRavct1na may have been the ~ta tc of the city in the year 40J . A!i n()ted in the previ()us (>hapter, an:hae(llogy has shown that by thc thi rd century the city seems to have been mostly abandoned in fa \'or of the porr city of Clas5c to thc south. V. Mam:dli has called what was left a "palimsest" on which the imperia l administrators could build an emirely new imperial city, full of relev3llt public buildings including churches.' J In this, perhap~, Ravenna may have heen rather like Byz;lmiuln before Constantine transformed it. Und er Theodosius I, Christianity was strongly promoted as the official religion of the empire, and puhl ic pagan religious practices were banned. It has been ,lrguecl that at Constantinople, Constantine eonstnlctcd a ~pccifically C hristian capital city, with a ("athc-

dr~1 ~nd palace in close proximity ~t the dty's core. ' + IIonorius may have seen Ravenna in the same way, strategically useful and without a strong pagan core, a blank slate on which a new Christian clpi tal could he built. \Vc havc no evidence for pag-Jn telllpics at Ravenna, except for a Story that St. Apollin3ris destroyed onc by his prayers, ~n(l that is a fopOJ of hagiog-raph)' rather than necessarily a memory of a historical el'ent. '5 But we do know that in the new impcri31 Ravl.'nna, thl.'cathcdral and the palace formed the two foci of the city. ,(.

Ravenna as a Capital

The iclt:a that Ravenna became the capital of the western Roman Empirt: really only hegins wi th Agnellus, who says that Valentinian III (4 l5-55) ..... ordered and decreed that Raven n,1 should be tbe head of Ita ly (Cllplll ItlllitlL' ) in place of Rome. "'7 Agnellus's accoullts of the buii(!ing activities of I-lonorius, Galla Placi{iia, and Valeminian Ul promolcd a legend th~t has affected views of Ran:nna down to the present. Recently, A. Gillett has presented a detailed analysis of the known residence of emperors in thl: early fifth cent1.1f)' in order to show that despite imperial activity in Ra\'enn;l, it W;lS Rome that was viewell by almost everyone as the true cen-ter of the empirl:. The panegyrist Claudian e,xtols Rome as the emperor's "true" home, but no contemjl

RAV EN NA AS A SEDES IMPERII

where emperors mighl live and govern. l lllleed, at rhe end o f rhe cen-tury Pope Gelasius, addn:ssing the (Iutstion of whether the hishop of a H?gia r:/lIifll.f ("regal city") should hal'e

so R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400- 489

"'here is no clear conSellSus about where a II these pcopl c lived and worked in the fifth century. It is sometimes stated that the entire ~dministrati(m traveled with the emperor in this Jlcriocl .J6 On the other hand, it seems clear that at ll,';lst after 395. or even arrer Constantine, the eastern adminis-tration senled down in tbe palace at Consraminople,17 and it is sometimes assumeo that II simi lar establishment of adminisrration in the \Vest took place at Ravenna, although on ;I less grandiose scale)~ You can't put a I .Sco-person uurc:llK'3CY in a place that docs not have buildi ngs to actolll-modate them; and since, in the case of Ravenna, this ac

RAV EN NA AS A SEDES IMPERII

compare!1 with the layout of orher similarly ranked dries of the late third and fourth centuries, most notably Comtaminople and Milan:!S In Con-stantine's new capital, the main governmental buildings were constructed adjacent to the cathedral and the imperial palace, which was also flanked by a large circus, the I Iippodrome. Colonnaded streets connected this core area with the rest ofrhe city, punctuated by fora, baths, and monuments:l~ Protecte(1 on three siMs hy water, the city's land limit was walled by Con-stantine, and new walls endosing a much la rger area were built during the reign ofThcodosius II. Milan h3113 similar layout: originally 3 provinci31 capital and prospcrous trading ccnter, with the arrival of the imperial court new walls, palaces, and other structures were built. "I 'he late tourrh--ccnUlry poet Ausonius, who compiled a series of poems in honor of the great cities of the empire, lists lor Milnn wnlis, a circus, a theater, temples, a pal nee, a mint, haths, porticoes, and statues .~' Churches, although IlOt mentionell by Ausonius, were a 11lnjor component of both Mila n 's and Constantino-ple's topography. These features were fo und in various I.:Ombin3tions also in other imperial cities of the: period,

Inside Ravenna's new walls, at least 50111e of these fa6lities must have been constructed in the first half of the fi fth centu ry. The rransiormation did not hnppen o\'(!rnight, and its chronology is unclear. Nlany surviva ls are fragmenta l), and without context, for example a sculpted torso made of porphy'')', part of a statue of an emperor im ported from COIlstantinople, whose original location is unL:nowll . .;.S Agnc-1 lus implies that most of thc work was carried om under Valentinian III and perhaps especially during the regency of Galla Placiclia,4'J and this information is repeated in most cuncnt histories of im perial Ravenna. This docs oat realJy make SCIl5C, given that HOllorius is said to have lived in the city for almost twent~' years; certainly SOllle, el'en much, of the construction that turned Ravenna into an imperial city must have been begun during his reign .5" The main dements for which we have textual, archaeological , ami archi tectural evidence Jrc fhe city walls. the palace(s), the mint, and churches, and we will consider each of these in rum.

It is often observed that in Ravenna the em perors were particularly inspired by the cilY of COllstantinople. 'Ne will examine individual pieces of c\ic.lcnce for this, lmt here it shou ld bc pointed out that ;Ilmost all of our written evidence (lares to after 550, Con~ra ntinople remained a model for Ravcnna's leaders for two centuries, and we cannot say precisely whcn mo~t of the Constanrinopoliun epithets were appl ied. 'i' Moreover, although many features in Ravenna are assumed to imitate lost Constantinopoli-{an originals, we must also recognize that Ravenna was not simply a pale imitatioll of [he eastern capital, hut a place in which new ideas aud clementS were introduced illto [hc imperial repertoire.

S'

S' R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489

The City Willis oj R"vemul

Th(' urban topogr.\phy of Ravenna froll) till' late antique period to the present has been defined by a set of walls that werc lmilt someti me in thl,' fourth or fifth century (Fig. 7).5' The republican walls of Ravenna had enclosed II rectangular space of appJ'Oximarely 33 hectares, although in the

fir~t ;lnti second centuries AD habitation had spread beyond these limirs and the walls themselves wcre ruined, at least in plac('s.H The new walls, many parts of which arc still pn:scnrcI] today, form a circuit 4.5 km long llnd enclose an arca of [66 hectar('S. 51 The construction of thi5 wall was an extraordinary CVI,'n( for this period in northern haly. In c\'cry other casl,' that we know, cities were shrinking; Ravcnn;l is theonlydty in which a new wal l circuit endost:J a much larger an:a than its prcJL"Ccssor. )~ Agnellus tells us of Valentini an Ilp 6

. . . here :lIld there on e:(eh side he ,(domed the streets of the city with g rt';\t w"lls, ~nd he Or(krcd iron b~T1i to be e!\do~d in the bowels of the w,til. Alid so grcH " 'as his cart dla( (he iron h,u, not only appeared ornamenral, but ~ I,;o if at some ame some orner people should Wal}[ to thn: ~ t en this ~ir)'. ~nd if not 'IS llI~n~' we'lpons l'oulJ l>e found ~s wert: needed, from these loars arrows ,mil bIKes ,mIl even swurds l"

RAV ENNA AS A SEDES IMPERII

imperial defenses stood 9 meter high and were approximately 1.~ meter thick, which woulll make them lower than the walls ofVeron~, Mi lan , anll Rome at th is lime. Thecircuit included several towerS, fourteen main g"Jtes, and more than thir ty posterns inclnding openings tor waterways, ~Il '-milt as pan of the origiml plall. t'.o In the course of this new work, Claudius's arch was flan ked by round rowers and incorporated into the wall system, al111 waS suhsequently known as the Porta Aurea, or "Gol(len Gate.""'; ' T he walls were made mostl}' of reltSeo I:orkks,~' not surprising given that the city's l3nliscapc wa s littered with rnins /'!

Vlh:u remains a mystery is exactly when these w:llls were built: were they built because rhe co urt had moved thl.'re, or did the court move there because the walls were already bui lt? Christie accepts Agnellus's attribu tion ofthe walls to the reign ofVnlenrillian [II (42 ;-55)' One rcason he gives for this d ating is the silnilari ty of the bricks in the wall to those used to mIl-struct Sa n Giovan ni E\'angcii st

R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPER.O RS. AD 400 - 489

walls? At the least, we can s~y that rhese eaStern authors wcre \isualizing a city surruunlled hy w31l~ when des.tribing these strategically important events, and r wou ld argue that the scattered bits of tell.1:ua l evidence do sllggest that the "imperial" walls existed by rhe very early lifth ccnnll'yJ o

\-Vhen we rum to archaeology, we encounter funher conrradictions ami dilferences of interpretation. V. ManzeUi shows that archaeology reveals little activity outsitle of the oppiJulII in the fourth century,~ ' although Classe was being developed in this perio

RAV EN NA AS A SEDES IMPERII

the Sl'C'OIHiil:tter, Sidonius describes Ravenna's Ales and frogs, a city where "the walls fall, the waters stmd , the tOwers sink, the ships sit . . . . a place that marc casily has a territory [tclTitori1l1llj than solid ground [tcnamJ," in other words, a city o f hydrau lic instabiliry .77

The complex hyd rological system of Ravenna, which had contributed to the city's importance as a naval and mercantile center, deteriorated in the fourth anti fifth cenruriesJ~ The subsidence of the ground , to which R:l\'enna was always su bjl,.'Ct, was Sli pplcmcl1ted by the neglect of the water system, particularly the jossa Ill/gwtll; the separate t:al1al to the east of the P:ldenna wen t outaf usc in this period. It is likely that the lIi(( PI/pilill, which had followed the CO\lrse of the canal , continued in Ilse, becoming the main road through the eastern parr of the new dty; this road was known as the plllle'11IIlIiul" al1(l is now the Via di Roma (Figs. I, i ).~" The water that ha(1 once Rowetl through this canal was (liverted elsewhere in the city. In his fi rst lctter, Sidon ills says of Ravenna:

... Above, the two-fold hr:mehcs of the Po w.1.Sh around and th rough the town {O/,pidIlIllJ; kd ~wa}' from its main h(.'cI IIr puhlic dykes, through them by divcrtecl channels it cli ,,-jclc~, diminished, with di,iclccl flow, S() that part surrounds thcamc known by this namc in later periods.s> The ccntra lization of the govern ment bureaucracy in the fourth century meant that the palace hatl to house a large staff of officials, and it was the setting for thc elaborate ceremonies in which the centrality of the emperor and his government were ,Iemonstrarell to his suojCcts.Bj Emperors had sporadically st;lyed at Ravenn~ in the th ird ;}nd

55

,6 R. ... V[ NN A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489

fou rth centuries, ~" so a n: .. sidcncc suitable lor temporarily housing the L"{)Urt must have existed . The permanent residence of HOll(Jrius and then V~lentinia n IU, howcI'cr, required a mOre signi 6cant set of buildings. There aTC faint hints in literary texts of {he splendor of this stnlcturc: two JXICIllS written around 44 3 by Flal,jus Merobaudes describe depictions of Valen-tini311 [II and his family on the walls and ceili.ng of a palace, perhaps one in

Ra\fenna.~$ Our only textual evidence for imperial palaces in Ravenna COlllC5 from

Agncllus, who tells us:

J. Honorius wanted co bllil(l a palace in Caesarca, the arca bctwl,'cn Ravenna and Classe, but his official Lauric-ius built instead a church ue(licarcd to St. Lawrence (ch. 35); later Agndlus refers to the "Laurentian palace" near the C aesarean gone hllflt' est tlkhlil pUI'ti/r O/ulln:lI, ll'/ictt) [..llll rwti I'II/ario), so perhaps a palace was built there too? (ch . 13z )

_. T hcoderic ki lled Ocloan:r in the pa lace At the La urc1 (ill ",tI/ltiu ill Ltlllro) (ch. 39) - it is also nu:nnonecl in two sixth-cenw ry chronicles that Odoacer was kil1e(1 ~il\ Laureto.":I(,

," Valentinian IIJ built a roral hall at the place called At the Laurel (il1/0(0 qui dicitlII' ad Laureta). (ch. 40)

Thes(' passages tell us that by the sixth century, the palace that was considered {O be imperial had [he name At the Laurel. "I 'his designa tion probably imitates the name of the Jl:l lace of Daphnetll.oqlVTJ ("Laurel") in Constaotlnople, built. according to tradition, by Cooslantine.K, In chapter 132 Agnel1us 1listinguishes between the pllifftilllll '-"lIIn'lIIi and the pi/liIIilllll 'f'heuJuriCllmml later used uy the c.'{arch. implying that they were tv:o dis-tinct structun:s;SB however, it is not dear whether the pll/atimJl Lmre/lri is the same as the plt/rltil/'lll il1 LrJ/lrQ/(,d l.lIl/reM , a lthough the similarity of the words has led to rnonern confusion.

The location of th is pabce, or of any imperial palace (if indeed I-Ion-orills would have inhabited a different onc), is entirely conjoctural. It has been suggested that the imperial palace must have heen locatetlnear San Giovanni Evangelista, ot church known to h;l\'C been built by G;\lIa PhlC'itl ia; it has been suggested that the palace quarter as describe(1 by Agnellus must havc covered the cntire southeastern sector of the city. And it was even suggcsted, although now discredited, that there \\'3S a palace in the nonh-western quarter of the dry, also built by Galla Placid i a.~ A.s described in the previous chapter, the only part of the eastern sector of the city to have heen _~ubjecte11 to extensive archaeological excavation is the site known as the "Pa lace of T heoderic," so identified occausc Thcoderic's church, now

RAV EN NA AS A SEDES IMPERII

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called Sallt'A1xlllinare Nuovo, was atfly tonca te the r~i(lence of the pro\incial governor or mil itary commander, followed by another elaboration in the caTl}' fifth century {Fig. 9) .~ 1 Another piecc of evidence in favor of this interpretation is that the western entrance to the palace is called by Agnellus and other sources Had Calchi," which probably imitates the ChalkclXcAKTl ga te of {he Grcat Pa lace in Constantinoplc, buill hy Constantine. \Vh.ile the date at which this !lame was appliell is uncertain, an attribution to the fifth century is not unlikely.?'

57

9' Plan ohh.c p~l ~cc, ~s kllown frum nco'~.-1;""$, "' . AD 450 (a fter A"g~nli,

~Ard".{) I{)gi.I e ropognfi.>." ' 0

,. R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400- 489

The l:xcav3tc(i arca was just part of what must have OCCll a much larger JllmlniStrative mel resilientia] complex, txtenlling presumably to the eaSt, north, and south, and flankcd on its western side by the plilfctllllffiQl-, or main road. "I'he struct\lrcs that were built or adapted for imperial me on this sic!,' in the early fifrh century were typical of luxurious \'i11as in [he late antique world. A large colonnaded courtYllrd was flanked by suites of rooms on at least the norrh and south sides. On the north sille the focal ('Ioim was a large apscd hall, which was inrrcascd in site at some point ill the fifth century to

~ 7 X II m and was paved with a nmallie opus sertile pavement of imported marble. Around and to the south of the courtyanl, the corridors and smaller rooms were decorated and redecorated with mosaic pavementS; the rooms to the south were el'entu;ll1y turned inlo a bath complex complete with a hypocausr system ." j The,e dements of high-status living proba hI}' formed only a part of the palace complex. Since we

OTIHIl.. I'UBLI C BU ILD INGS

major cities such as Aquileia. t\ mint was opencd in Ravcnna in 401, an importmt inlli(;ation (>f the city's sUllden devation in rank Y" Ravenna's mint produced a complete range of gol d ancl si lver coins from 401-55, and continued, with some interruptions, ~traight thrmlgh to thc cnll of thc cenrury and l:leyond, an indication of importance of Ravenna even arrer the death of Valentini an 1.11.""-; A mint that produced gold and silver coins re1luired protection. This leads to questions about its location. Agnellus rcfers twice to a location "at the mint" (rid "IIIQIJeftnn) in the northwest sector of the (;ity.'i' Dnnl1nent$, one from the year 57l and several from the eleventh century and later, name

60 R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400- 489

such :Ill cll tcrt:.linmcnt facility. Perhaps most signi ficalll. the GJllk author Salvian, writing in the 4405, cOntrastS " Roman plebs in the circu ~, ani] the pcopk of Raven na in tlu.' thC"Jtcr. ... ',"00 Fi nally, gil'ell what we know of thl,' location of gates, waterways, streets, and churches in fifrh- and si:"1:h-century Ravenna, it is difficul t to know where a large circus could have been located . All of the ci,'cuses built in imperial capitals in the fourth and fifth centuries wefe over 440 meter long, a[1

CHUI{CHES

One striking feature cOlllmon to all of tht.:se bu ildings is that, like the city walls, they were made of bricks that had been reused from earlier Roman structu res. In addition, they incorporate columns, capitals, and other picces of architt .. -ctu ral sculphl re rhatwerc li kewise taken fro m earlier monu ments. This useofJPo/iil is evidence for the ruined state of Ravenna, and for the large amounts of reusable build ing materials a\'ailable in 400. Scholars today still debate whether this was simply a question of practicality, or whether the reuse of spolia had symbolic meaning. cspL'Cially of the reappropria tion of the Roman past. but most ofthese discussions arc about the Cnmtantinian period ." ) By 400 when Ravenn a's ch urches bega n to appear, botb migh t have been tT\le: By this time it was expected tha t a noble church would be buil t of spolill. and in the case of Ravenna, where speed was of the essence and a ruined city la}' all arouml, the use of '"poIiIl solve{] several problems at once.

Churches;11. the HonQriOll Period

There must h,lVe been some churches in Ravennil. before the arrh'al of the imperial court, bUT of those we have only vague references. Howt::ver, tor the period after 400, we have ever mort:: cerrain evidence for the construction of churches ~ponsored by the emperors and by others, mOst notabl), the bishops .. The cathedral and baptistery complex, begun soon after '100, will be considered in detail below. It should be no ted here that while there is no evi,ience of imperial p:ltTonage of the cathedral, it is not unlikely mar H onorius and his family materially assisted the construction and decoration of these buildings, as they are known to have done ill Rome ..

The only churdl specifically attri huted to the reign of HOllorius was (Ie

6. R. ... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400- 489

Rome.' ,S Lauricius himself was eventually buried in a chapel dedicated to Sts. Stephen, Gervase, and PrOtase, martyrs whvse veneration waS parti(:u-larly promoted in the years ~round 400. I '" Agncllus quotes the dedicatory inscription of the chapel that says that" Lauri6us dedicated this on Septem-ber 19. in the 15th rear ofTheodosius rU] and Placid us Valentin ian IIlIl," thus in the year 435. 11" Agnellus also tells us of llllother inscription com-memorating one Opilio.'" who generously supported the church and was buried in the south aisle. The church of St. Lawrence was demolished in 1553 and its lmilding I..Umponcnts were ta ken to various m her churches; from the little surviving documentary evidence it seems to have been a basilica with a nave and aisk'S separa tcd by rows of f\I.clvc or fiftl.'en coluIllns, but heyonJ that we knoll' nothing abou t its ex-dCt location or appearance. ' "

GaUIl Plnddhl's Churches

Calla Placidia's chief claim to fame in Ra\'cnna was her S\lpport of thc Church and her patronage of churches. An active promoter of religious orthOlIo.~y, along with TheOtlosius U and his sister Pulcheria in the east, she supported the C hurch at a time when heresies about the nature of Christ were flouris hing, and she wrote to Theodosius II an(1 Pulcheria in support of Pope Leo 1'5 position at the Second ('..ouneil of Ephesus in 449 .

".\ She was closely connected with variOIlS popes; shc had Qcen actively

involvc(1 in 3 .schisllI involving the p3Jl:lCY in 418-19," 4 and it is possi-ble thar she gave ber palace in Constantinople to the popes, since in the seventh ami eighth centuries their reside.nee in C.onstantinopie is called the "house of Placid ia.''' 'S She contributed to decoration and rellol'arion at the basilica oISt. Pau l Outside the Walls an(1 Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. ,,6 Galla's piety is also highl ighted in the biography of St. Gcrmanusof A\l XerrC, an ascetic bishop from Fra nce who visited the impc-ri:lll'Ourt on business anti died while in Rayen na in [he 430S or 44os. "7 Her coim, mimed firs t in Constantinople and then in Ravenna, Aqu ileia, and Rome, tIepin her in imperial

C HUI{C HES

Ravenna, and AgnelJus says that her niece also ouil t a chapd dCIlicared to Sr. Zacharias. Galla abo gave precious objects to the church of Ravenna, ~uch as a large lamp with her image on it and i\ chalice. ' '9 H er (XIrtrait, along with

i lll~ges of hcr chil{lrcn, could still b(.> found in S~n Giovanni Evangelista in the ninth cenrury. She was a major supporter of one of Ravenna's most notable bishops, Peter Chrysologl.ls (ca. 43 1- ; 0), and Agnelllls erroneously credits a church dedic:l tetl to Sts. John the Baptist and Barbarian to Gal la's and Chrysologus's joint patronage. 'J" As we have seen, Agnellus attrioutes the construction of the walls an.1 pala{:es of Ravenna to VaJcntini~n III, which would also ha\'e becn sponsored by Galla .

Some of th(.> chllf,'h(.>s built by Galla Placidia still survive, and arc thus extremely im(XIrtant for an undersunding of the development of art and architecture in Ravenm at this time. As we will see, the form al1(l deco-ration of these StrU('tures expressed new iconographies Ileveloped to link Christianity atHl imperial rule. T he lise ofirnperia l l)Ortraits in church deco-ralion was something new, rem inding the community of GOII's protection of imperial dynasty and empire. T his iconography would be repeated in other churches in Ravenna, literally creating a Christian ,api tal through the images found on its churches.

S.l.N 610 \'A"'N I ['ANGELISTA

During a sea \'oyage the shi p carrying Galla Placidia and hl;'r two children was beset by a storm. '3' T he empress cried out to St.John the Ellangelist for protection, vowing to bui ld him 3 church in R,lVcnna ifrhe ship was spared. Upon her return to Ravenna, she buil t this church, near to the small harhor i.n (he nortbeast corner of tbe cit)', and arranged to have it decorated witb mosaics that told the story of her preservation and glorifie(1 the imperial dynast}' of which she and her children were a part. 'J! \-Ve do not know exactly when the church was built, but it wa$ probably shortly after Galla and her children had taken triumphant control of Ravenna in -+ 25.

S~n Giova nni Evangel ista still stands, in large part rebuilt after it w~s accidentally bombed by Allied forces in 'World Wa r II (who were aim ing at the nearby train station), and, like all the churches of Ravenna, it was redecorated and rebuilt st"\'eral times in its history: the floor was raised ;}nd repaved Ln 1 ~ 13, 'Jl ;lnJ the n;l\"e arc;lde aJHI II'alls wcrc raised in the fifteenth cenrury, ').; T he church was the object Qf extensive re5torarions from 1919- 2 I, and aftc:rthe bombing duri ng \'lorld \Var U, fu rther inves-tigat ion was carried out as part: of the rcconstruction, T he original wall dec-oration had been remove(1 in 1568, but written descri ptions have allowed scholars to reconstruct something of what it might have looked like, and we can therefore see how it tin; with Galla's general aims allil intentions as empress.

6,

I D. San Gim'ann, Evon-"dis"" plan of .he ~;Hly /if" ,_ ""nm,, phase (uftcrGross_ "",n n, ' Q6.+, r.g. :)

R. ... V[NNA AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERORS. AD 400 - 489

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f San Giovanni Evangrdista is a ba5ilica made almQst cntird}' of reused

R01ll31llllatcrials: brick for the walls. and first- to fourth-century colulIlns and their bases and Corinthian capitals [0 scpar;ltc the nave from tht;' aisles. ' 3, The original building (Fig. 10) had :In interior colonnade of nine columJls on each side; newly carved im post blocks (tru ncated pynlll1i-tlal StOlle blocks) were plaeN! bern'cen each capital anti the springing of the arcade. T he upper parts of the walls arc later construction, bm they originally comainc(1 windows both on the e>.terior aisle walls and on the

clerc$tor~' walls above the nave arcade, resulting ill an unusually brightly lit intcrior. ,~6 \Vhcn first built, rhe church was emerea through a narthex that was 9 meters deep; north and south of the narthex were small chambers. approximately 7 x 6,5 meters, emered from the narthex through arches su p-ported hy columns. Rooms like this are well known from Greek churcllt~s built ;It the same time. ' n T heir lo('arion is similar to the chapels/mausolea at the end~ of rhe narthex o f Santa C roce, and Agnellus mt:ntions somt:-olle who was buried in the eighth century "in the corner of the entrance-way" of San Giovanni Evangelista, which might rl'fl'T to a sidl' chamber. ' 38 The narthe.'I: opened to the exterior through a colonnade composed of six columns. and probably comained three doorways into the church, one for the nave and one tor each of the aisles.

CHURCHES

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At some point the narthex WllS absorbed into the nave, which was elon-gated to its preSent dimensions with twelve columns on each side; at this time an atrium was added and thc sideehambers wcre remO"ed (Fig. T r). ' N No distinetion can he made between the original eighteen columns and the six that were added; al l {\I.eney-four impost blocks werc made at one time in the fifth century. The impost blocks (and the ~ulumns and ~ .. pit;als) of the westernmost three bays of the nave must theretUre ha,'e been pan of the original church, and Grossmann has suggested that th~1' were us~-d originally in the narthex. ' ' The date of this modification is the subject of controversy. It has becn suggest~-d that thc plan "'as changed shortly aher its original construction, or that it w:lS modified when new mos.aics wcre installed around 600, 'i ' Howcver, R. F arioH points out that Agnellus refers in the ninth cent:ury to the nanhex of this church, and thus it is mOSt likely thaI the changes should be dated to the temh or elevcnth century, at the time of the construction of the campanile to the southeast of the narthex. 'i'

The castern end of the na"c tcrrninat~"

RA VINNA AND TH E WESTE RN EM PE RORS, AD 40(}-489

rebuilt in the [94S (Fig. ! 2). conmins seven windows that arc 2,75 meters high, immediately below the level of the springing of the dome; these windows ate separated hy douhle-eolonnettes, AO()ding the al>se with light. The colonnettes date stylistical ly to the fifth century and came from the Prownnesian workshops of ConStantinople, which implies that this fea-ture was original to the building, although it has also been proposed that the se"en-arch feanlre had been a loggena that aniculat~-d the wall surface on lyon the eXterior of the bui Iding. '. 5 Below these windo""s the outlines of three smaller windows, now filled in, can be ~en along the bad, wall of the apse; either these were a lower row of windows-or they were the original windows, with the upper wne add~-d later. Since no other surviving apse from Ravenna has a feature like the scven-arched opening, neither windows nor loggetta, and since in all other cases the apse windows are taller than the lower niple array, we can only conclude that the o riginal arrangement in San Giovanni was unique, whichever form it took.

The a]>se was flanked by two rct:tangular chambers that were entered from the aisles; they measure 5 x 6 meters, and each of their e>;ternal walls contains two an;hed windo~ approximately 1.5 meters wide and l meters high. Below the level of the windows, the interior northern, eastern, and southern walls each contain two niches ! X 1.25 meters and 0.56 meters deep. These rooms are ohen called {JMInpbtrrir, a term that refers to spaces wi th particular liturgical functions du ring the Eucharistic service, but these rooms ~"nnot have had this fun~-tion, sinl"t' they did not communk"te directly with the apse. J. Smith has presented evidence that the north-ern chamber, at least, had a hypocaust, or wall-heating, system in it, and suggests that these spaces were used as libraries. As she notes, such side chanlbcrs flanking the apse were known from many churehes in Ravenna, but in each ease the function or funetions weTC different. ,. "

St. John is the only evangelist who frequently had churches dedicated to him in late antiquity. Re\'ered as the author of the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, biographies of him began to circulate in the early fihh century, and included references to his conn~"Ction with sea trawl and stonns. John's burial si te at Ephesus in A~i a Minor was marked by a fourth-century church, and another church in his honor e. isted by the time of Thoodosius I in the suburb of Constantinople Imown as the Hebo:iomon, ncar a harbor and an imperial I",iace. '41 Deichmann asscrt5, on the basis of a few later topographical references, that San Giovanni Evangelista was built near the imperial palace in Ravenna. J-t8 Bur, while the eastern 7.one of the city cerminly oontained buildin~ that were part of the administrative complex, there is no evidence that San Giovanni Evangelista was in any way J "palace ehurch,~ as it is ohtn called. '.9

CHURCHES

One reason for it~ anribunon a~ a palace church is the apse mosaics, in which IXlnraiu; of Christian emperors featured prominently. The mos.aics no longer sUn'ive, but descriptions of them are found in Agnellus, in {\I.'O sermons from the fourt~...,nth wnturywrincn on the occasion of the n-.:k'

RA VINNA AND TH E WESTE RN EM PE RORS, AD 40(}-4 89

where they have been placed in this reconstruction. '55 Rossi lists them: on the right, Constantinus, Theodosius, A=dius, Honorius, and TheodO'lius >I.p.; on the left, Valeminianus II I, Gratianm., ConSt:l.ntius 1111 ? J, Gratianu~ >Itp., and Johannes "'p. These figu res link imperial rule, and Galla's family members in partkubr, to orthodoxy; not:l.bly, emperors whose orthodoxy was questionable, such as Valens, Valentinian II, and Constantius II , were not depiet~-d. '56 T he epithet "'p. is probably Rossi's misreading of NP, the abbreviation for "iJbilimmur purr, a title bestowed upon imperial chi ldren;

th~ hoys may ha'"C been d~",aSt:d sons of Thl"()(iosius I, ',7 or perhaps Thoodosius >If{! . was the son of Galla Placidia by Athaulph. '58 Dcichmann supposes that Rossi may have gotten some of the names wrong, either because of his source or because they were degraded with time. '59 In any case, the main male m lers of the Christian empire are obviously the focus of this series.

In the apse itself. the semi dome comained a large image of Christ seated on a