[Footnote 522: Galla Placidia (_circa_ 388-450 or 451), daughter of Theodosius the Great, sister of Honorius and mother of Valentinian III. Her adventures indeed form the strangest of romances. Born at Constantinople, she was taken prisoner at the siege of Rome by Alaric and carried off in captivity. Atawulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, became smitten with her and married her. After his death, she married Constantius, one of Honorius' generals, who soon assumed the title of Constantius III. After being first the slave and then the Queen of the Visigoths, she governed the Western Empire in the name of her infant son. Her tomb is at Ravenna.--B.] [Footnote 523: Theodoric the Great (_circa_ 454-526), King of the Ostrogoths and, after 493, sole ruler of Italy.--T.] [Footnote 524: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (_circa_ 475--_circa_ 524), a Roman philosopher, author of _De Consolatione Philosophiæ._ He was put to death by Theodoric, without trial, on the charge of treason and magic.--T.] [Footnote 525: Amalasontha (498-535), daughter of Theodoric the Great, and Regent during the minority of her son Athalric King of the Ostrogoths (526). Athalric died in 534, and Amalasontha divided the authority with her cousin Theodatus, whom she married, and who ordered her to be strangled in 535.--T.] [Footnote 526: Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (_circa_ 468--_circa_ 560), a wise administrative officer under Odoacer, Theodoric and Amalasontha. He retired to a monastery in Calabria in 538, where he wrote his History of the Goths and other works.--T.] [Footnote 527: The Exarchate of Ravenna was instituted in 568, after the conquest of the Ostrogothic Kingdom by the Byzantines. It at first comprised all Italy, but was soon confined to the district round Ravenna and, in 755, was taken from the Lombards by Pepin the Short, and granted to Rome.--T.] [Footnote 528: Astolf King of the Lombards (_d._ 756). His conquest of the Exarchate of Ravenna (752) was wrested from him by Pepin the Short in 755.--T.] [Footnote 529: Ravenna finally passed to the Papal States in 1509.--T.] [Footnote 530: Giuliano della Rovere, Pope Julius II. (1443-1513), elected to the Papacy in 1503.--T.] [Footnote 531: Giovanni Cardinal de' Medici, later Pope Leo X. (1475-1521), was created a cardinal at the age of thirteen, fought for Pope Julius II. at Ravenna, in 1512, where he was taken prisoner, and was elected successor to Julius on his death in the following year.--T.] [Footnote 532: Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), the celebrated Italian poet and author of _Orlando Furioso._--T.] [Footnote 533: Pierre du Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (1476-1524), the _Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche._--T.] [Footnote 534: Gaston de Foix, Maréchal Duc de Nemours (1489-1512), defeated the Papal and Spanish forces at the celebrated Battle of Ravenna, on the 11th of April 1512, but was killed while pursuing the beaten enemy.--T.]