RAVENNA A STUDY BY EDWARD HUTTON ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR AND LINE BY HARALD SUND 1913 TO MY FRIEND ARTHUR SYMONS IN AFFECTIONATE HOMAGE PREFACE My intention in writing this book has been to demonstrate the unique importance of Ravenna in the history of Italy and of Europe, especially during the Dark Age from the time of Alaric's first descent into the Cisalpine plain to the coming of Charlemagne. That importance, as it seems to me, has been wholly or almost wholly misunderstood, and certainly, as I understand it, has never been explained. In this book, which is offered to the public not without a keen sense of its inadequacy, I have tried to show in as clear a manner as was at my command, what Ravenna really was in the political geography of the empire, and to explain the part that position allowed her to play in the great tragedy of the decline and fall of the Roman administration. If I have succeeded in this I am amply repaid for all the labour the book has cost me. The principal sources, both ancient and modern, which I have consulted in the preparation of this volume have been cited, but I must here acknowledge the special debt I owe to the late Dr. Hodgkin, to Professor Diehl, to Dr. Corrado Ricci, and to the many contributors to the various Italian Bollettini which I have ransacked. E.H. _March_ 1913. CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL POSITION OF RAVENNA II. JULIUS CAESAR IN RAVENNA III. RAVENNA IN THE TIME OF THE EMPIRE IV. THE RETREAT UPON RAVENNA Honorius and Galla Placidia V. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST VI. THEODORIC VII. THE RECONQUEST Vitiges, Belisarius, Totila, Narses VIII. MODICA QUIES The Pragmatic Sanction and the Settlement of Italy IX. THE CITADEL OF THE EMPIRE IN ITALY The Lombard Invasion X. THE PAPAL STATE Pepin and Charlemagne XI. THE CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF THE FIFTH CENTURY The Cathedral, Baptistery, Arcivescovado, S. Agata, S. Pietro Maggiore, S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Giovanni Battista, and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia XII. THE ARIAN CHURCHES OF THE SIXTH CENTURY The Palace of Theodoric, S. Apollinare Nuovo, S. Spirito, S. Maria in Cosmedin, the Mausoleum of Theodoric XII. THE BYZANTINE CHURCHES S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe XIV. RAVENNA IN THE MIDDLE AGE XV. DANTE IN RAVENNA XVI. MEDIAEVAL RAVENNA The Churches XVII. RAVENNA IN THE RENAISSANCE The Battle of 1512 XVIII. RENAISSANCE RAVENNA Churches and Palaces XIX. THE GALLERY AND THE MUSEUM XX. THE PINETA LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS COLOURED PLATES S. APOLLINARE NUOVO S. AGATA THE MAUSOLEUM OF THEODORIC S. VITALE: THE GALLERY S. GIOVANNI EVANGELISTA THE MAUSOLEUM OF GALLA PLACIDIA S. VITALE: THE PRESBYTERY S. GIOVANNI BATTISTA S. MARIA IN PORTO PORTA SERRATA LINE DRAWINGS SKETCH MAP SKETCH MAP SKETCH MAP GREEK RELIEF FROM A TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE SARCOPHAGUS OF THE EMPEROR HONORIUS THE APSE OF S. GIOVANNI EVANGELISTA THE MAUSOLEUM OF GALLA PLACIDIA