Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe

by Judith Herrin

In 402 AD, after invading tribes broke through the Alpine frontiers of Italy and threatened the imperial government in Milan, the young Emperor Honorius made the momentous decision to move his capital to a small, easy defendable city in the Po estuary - Ravenna. From then until 751 AD, Ravenna was first the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy.

In this engrossing account Judith Herrin explains how scholars, lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic. As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers, chroniclers and inhabitants, Herrin shows how the city became the meeting place of Greek, Latin, Christian and barbarian cultures and the pivot between East and West. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome, the Gothic and Lombard invasions, the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from antiquity but rather, thanks to Byzantium, as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe.

While Ravenna's palaces have crumbled, its churches have survived. In them, Catholic Romans and Arian Goths competed to produce an unrivalled concentration of spectacular mosaics, many of which still astonish visitors today. Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs, and drawing on the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe brings the early Middle Ages to life through the history of this dazzling city.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Italy, Medieval, Ancient History, European History, Medieval History

576 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 2016

About the author

Judith Herrin studied history at the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham, receiving her doctorate from the latter; she has also worked in Athens, Paris and Munich, and held the post of Stanley J. Seeger Professor in Byzantine History, Princeton University before taking up her appointment as the second Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's. Upon her retirement in 2008 she became a Research Fellow in the Department.

She is best known for her books, The Formation of Christendom (London 1989), Women in Purple (London, 2000), and Byzantium: the Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (London, 2007); she has also published widely on Byzantine archaeology and other fields. Her current research interests include women in Byzantium and Byzantium in relation to Islam and the West. In 2002 she was awarded the Golden Cross of Honour by the President of the Hellenic Republic of Greece.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

'O lone Ravenna! many a tale is told
Of thy great glories in the days of old' (Oscar Wilde)

Wilde's 1878 poem 'Ravenna', for which he won the prestigious Newdigate prize, is a celebration of the city's rich history, and a lamentation of its decline, 'in ruined loveliness thou liest dead'. In the poem, his 19th century experience of Ravenna is strikingly contrasted with its classical past, but the sense of loss he evokes well reflects every period of Ravenna's history. A deathly commemoration may be one poetic step too far, but Ravenna is a city which doesn't loom large in historical memory, despite its long term significance. Even for this history buff, Ravenna's role at the heart of empires, especially between 402 and the end of the 7th century, was almost entirely unknown. Here, Judith Herrin seeks to fill in those gaps, charting Ravenna from its time as capital of the Western Roman Empire to the late 8th century, when it acts as inspiration for Charlemagne's imperial and religious building projects in Aachen.

While pitched at a general readership, it's a challenging book, especially if you come to it without the contextual religious knowledge (or enthusiasm for it), as I did. Yet the format of small, titled sections within each chapter gives a palatable framework to the complicated narrative. Herrin uses these sections to geographically and thematically extend the focus from Ravenna as a city, to the ways in which it functioned as a place of connection and cultural exchange. The idea of the 'Dark Ages' has long been out of favour and Herrin convincingly adds her own voice to the argument, detailing how Ravenna's mix of influences gave it a formative role in the development of Europe. The scope is huge and not without difficulties. Alongside all the usual caveats which apply to source material, Herrin discusses Ravenna's specifically problematic historical record, making clear just how much has been lost, destroyed, or decayed. Even so, the book is grounded in the extant sources, with the archaeology, architecture, and documentary evidence comprehensively evaluated and referenced. It's impressively done.

On top of all that, Ravenna is a beautiful book. Jacketed in gold, it's well made and heavy, with vibrant colour photographs throughout. Whether judging this book by it's cover or what's inside, there's no doubt it deserves a place on your shelves.


ARC via publisher

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Ravenna is like a wonderful cracked mirror to view Constantinople, Rome, and the rest of the Mediterranean. It is also a fascinating window to enlighten the ebbs and flows of the Catholic and "Eastern" Church's (along with Ravenna's fling with Arianism). Fascinating. I'll expand tomorrow. Night.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ravenna: Crucible of Europe, by Judith Herrin, is a fascinating book on the history of the city of Ravenna from its earliest recorded history (about 5th century) to its annexation by Charlemagne in the late 8th century. This 300-odd years of history saw the emergence of a great city, the seat of Western Rome, and eventually a staunch Eastern Roman outpost in Italy. Ravenna was well known for its amazing architecture, churches, and of course its mosaics. The history of this architecture comes form the promotion of familial interests, first from the last of the Roman Emperors in the West, represented by Emperor-mother Galla Placedia, struggling with the onslaught of Gothic invaders, and then, under the auspices of the Ostrogothic King Theoderic, nominal vassal/enemy of the Eastern Roman Empire. From their, after some internal politicking in the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the Roman's retuned, creating the long lasting Exarchate of Ravenna. Ravenna remained a staunch ally of the Eastern Emperors right up to its annexation by Charlemagne, when it lost its primacy and its ties to the Eastern Empire, finally moving out of Roman orbit after over a thousand years of history.

The port of Classis - the long serving coastal city in Ravenna's orbit, played a long role in its history. The crossing point in the northern Adriatic allowed close connection to both the Eastern Empire in Constantinople, and the valuable coastal cities of Dalmatia and Illyria. These cities provided valuable stores of marble, wood and building materials, crops, and a vacationing spot for Ravenna's elite. Ravenna itself, built in the swampy marshes of the Po, proved almost impenetrable throughout its history, thwarting rebels, Goths, Lombards and Arabs as each successive wave of invader made its mark on Italy. Ravenna was often considered the administrative capital of the Western arm of Constantinople, and had nominal control over the old power centre of Rome. Even so, the Roman senate, and eventually its primacy as the centre of Catholicism, ensured the relationship between the twin cities was sometimes fraught. However, Ravenna effectively remained the administrative capital of Rome up to the 8th century, controlling tax revenues from Italy and the Adriatic, serving as the base for military campaigns in Italy and into Gaul, and serving as a bulwark of support for the Eastern Roman Empire as it struggled with its own turbulent events.

During the religious schisms of the era, Rome sought to elevate itself to the centre of Catholic primacy. Although for a long time supportive of Constantinople's stance on the growing schism between eastern and western Christianity, revolving around the acceptance of the Three Scriptures and the debate around the nature of Christ, Rome would eventually seek to assert itself in the growing face of imperial decline. Ravenna, however, remained a city of remarkable religious tolerance. During the reign of Theoderic, the Arian church came to some popularity in the regions controlled by the Ostrogoths. Ravenna ensured a tolerance of the settled Gothic community in the area, and only slowly eroded the influence of the Arian church in the City. In the face of the growing schism, Ravenna remained on the side with Constantinople right up to the end of its primacy, promoting the imperial interests of the Eastern Roman Empire over and above that of its fellow Italo-Romans.

This was an excellent history of Ravenna, looking at the city from its historical context and examining art, architecture, administration and politics, as well as the lives of everyday men and women through the archaeological and written record. It is a compelling piece of history on a period of time, and a city, that is largely forgotten and little considered in the modern world, even though it played a crucial role in the continuation of the Roman Empire in Italy past the sacking of Rome in the 400's. The continued tradition of the Eastern Roman Empire, seen as almost a separate state in the modern world, even though its inhabitants would have noticed only continuation, make up for fascinating history. Ravenna's influence on the development of Venice, Milan, Rome, Catholicism, and the Lombard's and Franks is also clear. A fascinating book, on an interesting subject. Worth a read for those looking to brush up on Italian history from approx. 400-750.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this book as part of my COVID-19 reading agenda to read more about the places I had planned to visit but am unable to because of the pandemic. We had been planning to go to northern Italy but; because of the failure to control the spread in the US (and now apparently also in Italy) our trip has been postponed indefinitely. Ravenna is about two hours away from Florence and has some amazing architecture, while Professor Herrin’s new book has been highly recommended, so I moved it up in my queue.

Judith Herrin tells a really good story and there is a lot to say about Ravenna over the course of 400 years. ... and the mosaics!! It would be hard to summarize. This book is important for anyone who reads a lot of European history. It fills a gap that is not commonly covered.

Everyone knows about Rome and the Empire. There is also lots of interest in the Middle Ages. Then we get to modernity, and history seems to take on more modern forms. The trouble with this is multi-faceted. The Middle Ages were not discovered and named until later - past the time when they were supposed to have ended.; They seem to fill in the time line between the fall of Rome and modernity. The Middle Ages were also not homogeneous either. A lot happened, much of it gradually. When they start and stop is open to much debate.

The same is true of the fall of Rome. Many know about the fall of Rome to the barbarians in 476 AD, but did everything just stop then? Did the Romans just close up shop and go home? Or was it more gradual? Actually, of course, the Roman Empire remained in existence (more or less until 1453) in the form of the Eastern or Byzantine Empire. But how did that history unfold? How do we even get from the fall of Rome to the Middle Ages, much less 1453? Some good recent histories pick up around the reign of Charlemagne and the start of what came to be the Holy Roman Empire in 800 AD. But how do we get from the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne?

That is where Judith Herrin’s book on Ravenna comes in. Ravenna is the city in Italy that carried on after the fall of Rome by being the actual seat of the Western Empire and then the focal point for the Byzantine Empire in its continued rule over parts of Italy. So while other cities of the Empire were shrinking, Ravenna continued to prosper as a seat of military activity, political authority, and administrative know-how. So as the focus of the Roman Empire transitioned to that of the Byzantine Empire, Ravenna was well positioned to remain a continued center of activity.

...but from the time of Constantine there was a parallel set of authority structures - that of the Empire and that of the Church. Ravenna had political authority but what about religious authority?? Lets just say it get very complicated. After a time, as the influence of Constantinople weakens in the west, the Church (in Rome) has to start thinking of other sources of political support, such as the Franks. ...and one thing leads to another ...

This is largely a political and an institutional history, but given the times, the personalities of church and political leaders, along with their families, enters into the dynamics and there are lots of opportunities over the course of four centuries for strong individuals to have an impact (although the costs of failure are also very high)!

A necessary part of the attraction of a book like this is the surviving art and architecture. With Byzantine Ravenna, that means some amazing mosaic art in the numerous surviving churches. The artwork in the book is excellent and makes me want to go to Ravenna even more. Professor Herrin is a meticulous scholar and there are lots of references to the various reference works she draws on.

It is important to catch the broad arc of the historical story. Otherwise, there will seem to be a large array of names and dates as the book develops. Readers can keep a tablet handy to check on especially strange sounding names.

Overall, this history provides a nice complement to various accounts of the rise of the Northern Italian city states. I cannot wait to visit.

[Alex Sarll]

A sequel of sorts, or maybe more a parallel, to Herrin's previous book on Byzantium. Which I recall more fondly than my review suggests I felt at the time, so bear in mind I may likewise soften on this one as memory smooths its edges. But it really doesn't get off to a good start with the attempt to rebrand 'late antiquity' as 'early Christendom', an effort to get us thinking in terms of a new beginning rather than a drawn-out ending, which to me of course feels defeatist as even the last faint sputtering of antiquity is much to be preferred – it's a bit like trying to rebrand 'old age' as 'young corpsehood'. Anyway, the focus of attention this time is the disappointing follow-up capital of the Western Roman Empire as it ebbs and flows over the years 390-813, and against the more thematic approach taken in Byzantium, here it's strictly chronological. At times it reads like a textbook, which is not in itself a complaint – I was that weird kid who wouldn't just read the assigned chapters of the history textbook but the whole thing, so I knew how it all connected. But it does feel a lot less lively and three-dimensional than one has come to expect after 20 years reading either contemporary history or slightly idiosyncratic older takes. There are only occasional attempts to evoke how it felt to live through the times; for the most part it's heavy on those old mainstays of kings, emperors, popes and bishops. Dear gods the bishops. They trudge through the pages, some worse than others but few of them sticking in the memory bar maybe Archbishop Damianus, Abbot John, and their shit miracles. Sometimes a name helps – Bishop Neon, who as it turns out did indeed decorate the Baptistery of the Orthodox with bright colours; Bishop Ursus, who sadly wasn't a bear in a mitre, but that was still absolutely how I pictured him. These pedestrian prelates playing such prominent parts because this was the period when Christianity, having gained official tolerance, almost immediately turned around and began showing the pagans how intolerance should be done. Starting on the pagans, obviously - there are quotes from some sermons by Peter Chrysologus in which they make an early start on the long-term policy of being even better than COVID at shutting down anything which makes life worth living. But then showing quite what amateurs of animosity the pagans had been by really going for it once they turn on each other. Arianism at least makes a certain sort of sense – and also, of course, ultimately, sneakily won (almost anyone picturing the two less nebulous persons of Jehovah nowadays, I'd contend, would have the father older than the son). Thereafter, though, it's a parade of pettifogging quibbles about the number and nature of divine essences, natures, wills, energies...the sort of stuff which feels like painful fanwank even when it's happening about a show you're really into, and which is simply obscene when people are getting killed over it. These aren't even heresies with a germ of sense like the Cathars, or an interesting intellectual hook like Calvin – they're just dull arguments about stuff which even the faithful would mostly now consider unworthy of attention, fractious obsessiveness for the sake of it, the sort of thing which makes one positively long for big, important questions like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Eventually, with the Three Chapters, even Herrin's patience is exhausted. "To modern sensibilities there is something incomprehensible in the way the Three Chapters continued to envenom ecclestiastical relations". No, really? There's a particular nastiness about some of the measures that come in as toleration for different creeds is reduced, like banning anyone but the orthodox (ie Catholic) from making wills - the sort of horrific not-quite-extirpation measure which recalls the expropriation of Jews in the 20th century (and, of course, the intervening centuries). In the conclusion, Herrin says "I have attempted to show that creation and innovation accompanied the conflicts and immiseration, that what had been the western Roman empire experienced the birth pangs of a new social order as much as the death throes of the old one". Which to me can't help but recall those Pollyannas suggesting that our vile new world of Zoom socialising and 'virtual gigs' is anything other than a horrible shadow of what went before. These little details serve instead to remind the reader that yes, sometimes things get worse for a very long time; Honorius, who moved the capital to Ravenna, was also the emperor who abandoned Britain, so to a British reader in particular can only seem like a manager of decline. Indeed, his reign is as good a point as any to say, that wasn't even a good time really, but it was better than things would be for the next millennium. A verdict I find it all too easy to imagine people will one day apply to 2019 too, although I realise I'm likely being unduly optimistic in assuming not only that there will still be humans that far in the future, but that they'll have the civilisation, records, inclination and liberty to study history.

Still, there are little bits of fun along the way, even if it's as basic as the Goths turning up and picturing them as the modern sort. For me it's even funnier when it's incursions by the Goths and the Alans, simply because in my teens there was a goth-adjacent kid called Alan. But the real star of the section headed "Living with the Goths", and a figure who comes across as a favourite of Herrin's, is not Andrew Eldritch but Galla Placidia, the Imperial daughter who married a Gothic king. And yes, there is something impressive about any woman who could end up as de facto ruler of the Roman Empire, even in this diminished form, though alas she seems to have made the classic regent's mistake of failing to prepare the next generation, not letting her son learn the reins of government even once he was nominally emperor, and being such an all-round nightmare that her daughter appealed to Attila the Hun - who, apart from everything else which might make him proverbially other than the ideal husband, already had a number of wives - to come rescue her from her own family. But, whatever her failings as a parent, Galla P does at least stick in the memory, which too few of her successors over the following centuries manage. As with Bishop Neon, some linger simply for their names, like Exarch Smaragdus, who sounds like a refugee from a D-list fantasy novel, or Bonus the bracarius, or trouser-maker – doesn't Bonus the Breeker sound like he should be in a Frankie Howerd film? There is an interesting story in here – the way the city pulls closer to and further from Byzantium, the contested legacy of Rome, the qualified assimilation of barbarians – but too often it's buried in an endless procession of thinly characterised arseholes murdering and mutilating each other for power they don't then do anything much with, beyond see a little more of it slip away as they try to amass their own heap. And frankly I've seen enough Tory leadership contests lately that I don't need more of that. There's lots of corruption among the civil and religious authorities, but all of it grubby financial stuff or doctrinal shenanigans, none of it the interestingly fruity Roman decadence of a Caligula, Heliogabalus, even the tackier bad emperors like Nero or Commodus. At times Herrin seems almost deliberately to be avoiding colourful detail - I think this may be the only book I've ever read where the Avars crop up without their penchant for anal impaling meriting a mention. And in general there's still that lack of a sense of what wider life in Ravenna was like, beyond the theological bickering and the wars of attrition. Occasionally we get a short chapter on someone like Agnellus the doctor, or the anonymous Cosmographer, but never ones which make a very compelling case for their significance. Most glaring, to the 2020 reader, is that there's more space devoted to the redecoration, after the clampdown on Arianism, of a single church, than to Justinian's plague, a pandemic which made COVID look like a summer sniffle but here gets a passing mention.

There's more modern resonance in the way in which barbarians took over Rome and kept a lot of the appearance of it going, even if the whole thing was clearly a sham – the way that the Goths, even while recognising that they were in fact barbarians (as with 'heretics', a word I used to think people only ever applied to other people) also tried to get endorsed as successors rather than invaders. Theoderic serving as a sort of overture prefiguring Charlemagne, who pulled the trick off a little more successfully at the end of the book. Livening it up quite considerably, too. Even having studied him there was a whole angle here I'd never considered, his relations with the East - his daughter Rotrud engaged to the Byzantine emperor, nixed by Carolingian inheritance worries; a later plan for him to marry Empress Irene, nixed by her overthrow. But with him also making surprisingly friendly overtures to the Caliphate, receiving the present of an elephant from Harun al-Rashid. Also, his sons Louis and Pippin were subordinate kings and leading campaigns together at ages 14 and 15! Can you imagine the #ladsontour state of that?
(Although while we might see the current crop of supposedly democratic supposed leaders as barbarians desecrating the thrones on which they squat, perhaps they're more like the vainglorious, bullying Emperor Phokas, celebrated with the tallest column in the Forum. It was reused; it was also the last, and he was soon ingloriously removed from office. If only one could be sure that his modern ilk would go the same way)

The conclusion talks about how many of the sources are lost, what a tattered thing the historical record is where Ravenna is concerned – and also pulled the thematic strands together in a way the rest of the book too seldom managed. But it also reinforced a nagging sense that this book was trying to be too many things at once. For large swathes it feels like Herrin more wanted to do a book specifically about church, state and schism as reflected in Ravenna, in which case fair enough, but that's not what the subtitle 'Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe' advertises. Equally, the conclusion suggests this is a story about the birth of the mediaeval city, but in that case it needed bringing to the fore more. Maybe there are two shorter books here, or something more like Byzantium, where a general spine is given but then used to hang essays on individual topics. Hell, sometimes whole sections aren't even about Ravenna so much as the Eastern empire's treatment of the West in general, the West's faltering attempts to find its own new directions. Which is where Herrin ends, mercifully sparing us the interminable squabbles of Charlemagne's successors. As the book closes, Ravenna has finally fallen victim to an excess of capitals: Constantinople has the power and the lineage, Rome is the original, Aachen the new heart of a new empire, and Ravenna is finally just another city again. One with a load of fancy architecture, granted, but even some of that has been nabbed to pimp Aachen. This book has certainly made me more interested to see Ravenna one day, if we ever get the world back, but for the general reader I'm not sure I could recommend it.

(Netgalley ARC)

[Mircea Petcu · Rating 5 out of 5]

După pătrunderea goților lui Alaric în peninsula Italică în anul 401, generalul Stilicon l-a sfătuit pe împăratul Honorius că ar fi înțelept să=și mute curtea de la Milano într-un loc mai sigur. Și atunci a fost aleasă Ravenna ca reședință pentru conducătorii Imperiului Roman de Apus.
Ravenna a părut o alegere firească datorită mlaștinilor și lacurilor care înconjurau cetatea, dotării cu un port bun (Classis) și a legăturilor prin canale cu râul Pad, ce înlesneau aprovizionarea cu produse agricole.
Din această perioadă datează Basilica S. Giovanni Evangelista, Biserica S. Croce și Mausoleul împărătesei Galla Placida.

În anul 476, Romulus Augustulus, ultimul împaărat roman, a fost îndepărtat. Italia a căzut sub ocupație ostrogotă. Regele ostrogot Teodoric a încercat să fuzioneze cultura gotică cu cea romană. Recunoștea formal autoritatea împăratului din Constantinopol.
Teodoric a ctitorit Basilica San Apollinare din Nuovo. În afara zidurilor cetății a construit pentru sine un mausoleu din marmură adusă din Istria.

Campania reușită a generalului Belizarie în Italia a readus Ravenna sub controlul direct al Constantinopolului.
Sub conducere bizantină a fost înălțat cel mai cunoscut edificiu al Ravennei: Basilica San Vitale. Închinată unui sfânt local numit Vitalie, bazilica este faimoasă pentru cele două mozaicuri imperiale în mărime naturală ale împăratului Iustinian și împărătesei Teodora. Aici avem prilejul să vedem etalarea completă a ținutei oficiale imperiale și a bijuteriiilor așa cum arătau ele de când împăratul Dioclețian a adoptat însemnele regale persane.

Prin amploare și profunzime, cartea este o operă academică.

Recomand

[Eddie Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant, comprehensive and persuasive recounting of the troubled period between the fall of the western Roman Empire and the reign of Charlemagne, told from the point of view of the imperial city of Ravenna.

Ravenna is famous today for the almost unique survival of its superlative quality early Christian mosaics. Herrin very interestingly shows that these mosaics were unique within the wider Byzantine world as well - a function of Ravenna’s strange survival of the western collapse as an outpost of the Byzantine east within the Catholic west. Over the next few hundred years, Ravenna would teeter between east and west, only eventually to finally settle in the West’s camp - Charlemagne was a big fan of its art and architecture and San Vitale in Ravenna directly inspired Charlemagne’s Aachen (he also recycled many architectural fragments).

In the meantime, whilst racially and doctrinally divided, the west slowly got its act together. Constantinople, by contrast, fell prey to bizarre fads in elaborate doctrinal disputes over marginal religious matters which took decades and much blood each time to resolve. As the history progresses, the western territories led largely by the popes resisted more and more effectively these disruptive and divisive developments, and the Byzantine emperors slowly lost the physical power to impose their will (although soft power remained potent). In this way, for example, Ravenna’s mosaics escaped destruction in the iconoclastic controversy.

I usually glaze over when reading about the various early Christian heresies and disputes, but Herrin explains them all really well. She’s excellent at scoping out the unsaid and overlooked, and looking at issues from multiple points of view.

Ultimately, Herrin shows a very divided west slowly reforming around a synthesis of various nationalities and creeds into the beginnings of the modern European identity.

[Freca - Narrazioni da Divano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saggio interessantissimo e completo sulla parabola di Ravenna, da leggere di pari passo ad una visita: spiega esattamente come sia diventata il centro del mondo occidentale, arricchita da tutte le magnifiche opere che possiamo parzialmente ammirare tutt'oggi (una gita di un giorno è sufficiente ma intensa), e poi tornare inesorabilmente al margine quasi non fosse stata una protagonista, ricordo mantenuto solo nelle vestigia. La prima parte infatti è sfavillante e mette al microscopio la città, man mano poi l'attenzione è portata sempre più fuori, tenendola solo nella coda nell'occhio. Un approfondimento principalmente storico di 500 pagine per me imperdibile: consigliato a chi vuole conoscere la storia d'Italia, agli appassionati del periodo post romano e d'arte (le foto sono spettacolari, ma andate dal vivo se potete).

[Andres Felipe Contreras Buitrago · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro que para las personas interesadas en el tema de la antigüedad tardía puede resultar muy fascinante, ahora bien, siento que muchas veces el libro se desvía de su propósito original de explicar la importancia de Rávena, en vez de ello siento que a veces se centra mucho en el contexto, que no está mal para las personas que no saben muchos acontecimientos importantes, pero que en últimas dificulta su lectura; no obstante, algo que se agradece son lo breve de sus capítulos van directo a lo que quieren tratar y es muy lógica la división capitular.

En la introducción nos señala las 3 dificultades que hay a la hora de estudiar el tema de Rávena: la primera dificultad, habla que los documentos históricos son fragmentados, la segunda , menciona la polémica que hay en torno a la antigüedad tardía y, la tercera, es la peculiaridad que tiene Ravena al ser más una forjada que forjadora de influencias.

El primer capítulo habla sobre el traslado que tiene la corte desde Roma hacia Milán, por otras parte, tenemos las reformas del Gobierno en la administración civil y en recoger más impuestos en la cual Rávena se convierte en la capital de la provincia de Flaminia describe también sobre Constantinopla y Constantino I en este capítulo, se aborda de que Ravena es elegida residencia adecuada para los gobernantes debido a sus defensas y su gran puerto que está conectado con varias conexiones fluviales.

En el segundo capítulo se describe los ataques que hace Alarico sobre Roma y el posterior saqueo que hace este en esta parte, la hermana del emperador Gala Plácida se casa con un godo luego de que esta fuera secuestrada y muestra su adhesión así a las costumbres de los godos.
Ravena, por su parte, seguía siendo más fácil de defender y con edificios ya para la corte se construyen así fortificaciones para adecuar mejor las defensas y se empiezan a acuñar monedas.

En esta época surge el primer historiador de Rávena, durante aquella época es que están los papiros que dejan constancia de las familias locales en los gobiernos municipales Ravena, dispone de todo el derecho romano de forma compacta y manejable y esto influye en el código teodosiano qué resuelve problemas jurídico.

Ravena al mando de Gala se expande y se consolida como nuevo núcleo de actividad comercial, religiosa administrativa y arquitectónica el problema de Gala es que no educa a sus hijos para gobernar lo que genera entre otras cosas la propuesta de matrimonio de la hermana del emperador que hace hacia Atila, ella lo que quería hacer era imitar a su madre, pero la cuestión es que Atila era diferente ya que él no era Cristiano y era polígamo.

En la segunda parte inicia con los saqueos que hacen los vándalos pero que no llegan a ocupar Roma indefinidamente, en Rávena las iglesias poseían tierras de cultivos, que estaban localizadas en Sicilia estas proporcionaban trigo, aceite y vino hacia esta ciudad, esta última también participa activamente en el uso de imágenes que suscitan devociones pese a la decadencia que estaba sufriendo Roma, Ravena seguía con sus tradiciones más que todo en la vida urbana.

Teodorico Por su parte reconstruye el imperio desde Ravena todo esto bajo la soberanía de Constantinopla, esta ciudad contaba con trabajadores cualificados que ayudan a arreglar las iglesias, también hay que mencionar que hay iglesias de la religión arriana.

Teodorico manda a construir Palacios y estatuas con retratos suyos, este mandatario también tiene su corte en Rávena que tiene muchas conexiones diplomáticas y que se usan los matrimonios para reforzar los vínculos él también manda a construir iglesias católicas junto con las arrianas las cuales se respeta su creo. Finalmente, en Rávena también hay divisiones entre católicos por el tema de los impuestos.

En la cuarta parte tenemos a un Justiniano que expande las fronteras de su imperio, su comandante Belisario entra en Rávena con ello esa ciudad queda bajo administración bizantina, en esta época también los arrianos se vuelve minoría, Por otra parte, tenemos la recuperación de las fuerzas godas las cuales ayudan a la destrucción de la agricultura en en las postrimerías de Ravena.

Por su parte el imperio bizantino no podía proteger tanto sus dominios en Occidente debido a que tenían, por un lado, la peste justiniana y por el otro, la presión persa. La peste de un modo mucho menor afectó Ravena esta última ciudad se volvió una capital importante de las provincias reconquistadas de Italia y se volvió una sede de la administración civil con lo cual con la llegada de funcionarios veteranos aumenta el tamaño de la ciudad, estos altos funcionarios vestían de unas prendas de clase alta que hacían usos se la seda. Rávena Por su parte hay que mencionarlo se volvió una ciudad bisagra entre oriente y Occidente debido a su puerto rico.

En la quinta parta de centrará sobre las invasiones lombardas en Italia, en esta nos encontramos con un imperio bizantino con unas fronteras débiles las cuales son asediadas por pueblos extranjeros como los eslavos. En Rávena Por su parte tenemos a un nuevo prefecto pretoriano el cual eran llamado Longino él fue muy pasivo ante la presión lombarda estos últimos fueron rechazados para hacerse aliados De Roma, cabe destacar de Ravena una gran administración local y una justicia a nivel imperial que fomentó altos niveles de educación y responsabilidad cívica, la iglesia en este lugar siguió prosperando y adquiriendo nuevas propiedades cerca y lejos de la ciudad.

Ahora la administración de Ravena tendrá un enfoque más militar osea que todo estará bajo una autoridad militar. Se hacen intentos desde el Vaticano de convencer a los francos para unirse contra los lombardos, estos últimos se verían mucho más reforzados por su arrainismo

En un capítulo se nos menciona que Ravena era un centro de aprendizaje médico que tenía una Escuela de Medicina griega, el médico más famoso en esta ciudad era llamado Agnelo, el cual comentaba obras de los clásicos como Hipócrates o Galeno en este capítulo también se destaca la traducción de textos griegos.

En la sexta parte tenemos la expansión del mundo musulmán en ella nos encontramos con unos bizantinos que logran aplacar a los persas y logran retomar Siria y Palestina; no obstante, se encontrarían con la expansión árabe la cual era llevada a cabo por una motivación muy fuerte la cual era difundir la religión del profeta Mahoma, para ello, fueron muy importantes las destrezas marinas de las poblaciones cristianas de Alejandría, Siria y Líbano para atacar otras islas como Chipre o Rodas pese a la creencia de que con la expansión musulmana se detuvo el comercio en el Mediterráneo lo cierto es que sí continuó las transacciones comerciales en este gran océano como se puede dar cuenta en las importaciones que hace Rávena, eso sí no son muy numerosas.

Los intentos de unir al cristianismo frente a esta expansión árabe fracasa, Por su parte los musulmanes logran ser más atractivos debido a su libertad religiosa, Es por ello que ahora nos encontramos con una constantinopla con menos influencia en Rávena ante una Roma mucho más desafiante.

Sicilia Por su parte era una base naval muy importante y Ravena cada vez se independiza más de Constantinopla, los árabes llevan a cabo un bloqueo marítimo contra Constantinopla aunque esto se vería frenado debido a la superioridad marítima bizantina, en todo este contexto, es qué Rávena asiste a un Concilio lo cual refleja la importancia que estaba adquiriendo la ciudad en aspectos como el militar y el eclesiástico.

Tenemos un capítulo donde un autor anónimo escribe un libro sobre geografía, la cual es una síntesis de la geografía mundial basada en documentos administrativos, en el libro, hay muchas descripciones de ciudades de 3 regiones como Asia, África y Europa, en el texto, también hay una fuerte inspiración bíblica ya que se hace mención de Dios y Jesús, por último, se hacen descripciones del desplazamiento del Sol y se representa al mundo en forma de T.

La séptima parte inicia con una expansión árabe que seguía aumentando bajo una división profunda del cristianismo, se hace un golpe de Estado contra Justiniano II esto a causa de los rumores que habían contra él, estos decían que este gobernante había mandado asesinar al patriarca de la ciudad, este volvería a retomar el poder y se intentaría vengar de Ravena con su reconquista, pero la ciudad ya contaba con un sistema propio defensivo, lo cual refleja también un prototipo de las ciudades estado italianas que sería a futuro un modelo para ciudades como la de Venecia, en Rávena también encontramos rivalidades entre facciones locales que se ven plasmadas en las peleas entre barrios en la ciudad también hay una nueva élite militar que clasifica a los ciudadanos según sus ocupaciones.

Los árabes en las conquistas que hacen incorporan recursos a su civilización ellos son diferentes a otros pueblos invasores de Europa ya que estos tenían su propia religión y no aspiraban a ser una parte reconocida y legítima del sistema político al que habían invadido, estos intentaron conquistar Constantinopla debido a sus riquezas y a que era la puerta de entrada hacia Europa, pero, estos debieron frenar su intento de conquista esta gran ciudad debido a que: en primer lugar, la ciudad contaba con defensas duras, en segundo lugar, la larga duración del asedio hizo que se soportara un duro invierno, en tercer lugar, al despliegue del fuego griego, y por último, a la tenacidad que mostraron los bizantinos.

En Rávena nos encontramos un aspecto interesante y es que la ciudad estaba acostumbrada a los terremotos por lo cual una vez pasaba esta catástrofe natural eran reconstruido rápidamente los Palacios e iglesias, esta ciudad se mantendría alejada de la Iconoclasia ya que durante esa época el emperador León III trataba de buscar culpables para las desgracias que estaban ocurriendo en el imperio, para lo cual el principal objetivo de este fueron los ídolos, aquí se hace mención a que la veneración de imágenes empezaron en el cristianismo oriental y eran muy importantes ya que eran una tipo de mediador entre El Mundo terrenal y el espiritual la cuestión es que era muy criticado ya que se veía la veneración de objetos como si fueran sagrados. Uno de los principales detractores de esta nueva política fue el papá en Roma, es por lo anterior, que las decoraciones en forma de mosaicos frescos y esculturas en las iglesias de Italia permanecieron intactas.

El papá durante esta época le pide ayuda a los francos a causa de la gran presión que estaban ejerciendo los lombardos sobre Italia, es así que acude a su ayuda el rey Pipino, esto a cambio de ser reconocido él y su familia como soberanos del reino de Francia, igualmente, este rey debía comprometerse a defender Roma ,es este rey, más el emperador de Constantinopla y el rey lombardo los que luchan por tener influencia en Ravena la cual pese a todos los conflictos mantiene su población y recursos.

En la última parte tenemos la situación de Rávena durante la época de Carlomagno el cual vuelve a acceder a ayudar al papá frente a las lombardos, este logra triunfar y se vuelve rey de los lombardos, en esta época sucede un hecho muy curioso y es que el papá crea un documento falso, en el cual se decía que Constantino I le había entregado todas las tierras de la Europa occidental, por ello, el papá tenía autoridad sobre éstas.

En Rávena el imperio bizantino perdía cada vez más influencia en la ciudad, por ello Carlomagno puso sus ojos en esta ciudad ya que sabía la importancia que tenía esta en cuanto a sus rutas comerciales, este emperador hace entrega de mesas con varios recipientes de plata y una Copa de oro la cual tenía una imagen de Roma como una forma de recordarle a la ciudad que estaba subordinada a Roma.

En las conclusiones se nos menciona la importancia que tuvo la iglesia de Rávena en Italia, también se narra sobre las ruinas de los edificios que ya no existen y que solo podemos acceder a ellos por medio de documentos. Era tal la importancia de Rávena que Carlomagno quiso emularla en Aquisgrán, el que Rávena no tenga voz y no sea una ciudad tan importante para la historia se debe a que siempre se impuso en la ciudad los designios de forasteros. Ravena gozó de una gran prosperidad gracias a los bizantinos, los cuales a su vez también impidieron la expansión del islam por toda Europa, y es que no solo frenaron la expansión de esta religión, sino que también a través de esta ciudad, se difundiría toda la cultura bizantina que sirvió de inspiración para toda Europa.

En conclusión un buen libro para conocer más acerca de esta ciudad, que no es muy mencionada en los libros de historia, aprecio mucho el gran aporte historiográfico que hace la autora al tema de la antigüedad tardía.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up Judith Herrin’s book on Ravenna this year on a whim after visiting the city last year (I was in the Veneto and thought I’d pop in for a few days). Ravenna is a small Italian city with glorious golden mosaics, and the full colour pictures really help this book.

The book itself is a 400 page monster that gives a comprehensive overview of the city from its designation as Western imperial capital around 403 AD by Roman Emperor Emperor Honorius, to its capture by the Lombards in 751 and a little after. For most of this time Ravenna was ruled by Constantinople, either indirectly through the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great, or by the Eastern Roman Emperor via the Exarchate.

Reading the book, I did feel that 400 pages were overkill. Ravenna was not a major imperial capital like Rome or Constantinople. It was the imperial capital for less than a century (less time than Milan). The great buildings of Ravenna were largely completed by the death of Justinian the Great in c.565 AD and over half of the last 200 pages are filler, going through the endless bishops and wills left by the people of the city in a pedantic manner. 100 pages could easily be excised, maybe even 200.

Length aside, the book does offer a new central thesis, which is that Ravenna represented the birthplace of the Christian Barbarian West. The two standout figures, Theodoric the Great and Charlemagne bookend the period of Ravenna’s greatness, with Theodoric starting many of the churches and Charlemagne nicking the blocks at Ravenna to build the Palatine chapel in Aachen. It’s an interesting view. Theodoric is lauded for his tolerance, but he slaughtered the leading philosopher of his generation, Boethius. Charlemagne is generally accepted as the leading figure in the Western Dark Ages, and realizing he had to build his best buildings using rubble from Ravenna shows just how far the West had fallen. This is of course a nice way of framing the period. But how much you agree with the author that these rulers represented a new phenomenon will partly depend on how you view these figures. Was the Romanized-barbarian ruler Theodoric a new phenomenon, or was he just a latter-day Stilicho? Was Charlemagne’s use of spolia for legitimacy different than that in other cities in the Dark Ages?

Instead, I found the period between Theodoric and Charlemagne much more interesting- the period known as the Italian Exarchate. This was the period I knew the least about before reading this book. I did not realize the Byzantines had continued to retain control of Rome and Sicily for virtually 300 years after the Western Empire fell. Linked by a narrow corridor across the Lombard territories of Italy, the Byzantines used these territories, particularly Sicily, to supply grain to Constantinople, after parts of Africa fell to the Muslims.

Aside from Ravenna’s secular rulers, there was of course, the Church. Anyone who has read about Byzantine history will doubtless be familiar with the endless Church Councils, the Chalcedonians, debates about Monoenergism and the Monophysites, the Arian heresy, but here I felt a separate chapter on the church would have been useful to give a proper overview of the religious situation over the period (and to spare us from the endless tales of the lives of bishops). Such a chapter could also have addressed continuity and breaks with the pagan past. For example, I believe Theodoric commissioned a Basilica of Hercules, which isn’t mentioned.

I had to think hard about what rating to give this book. In terms of a blow-by-blow aspect of Ravenna’s history in this period, it’s very good. But I felt at times we can’t see Boethius for the bishops. I would have preferred a work which was shorter but asked more questions- why mosaics not statues? Why gold? What was Boethius’ work about? How did Theodoric differ from earlier Romanized barbarian generals like Stilicho? Someone like Peter Brown would have written a very different book.

[Dvd (#) · Rating 4 out of 5]

09/04/2023 (****)

Monografia come da titolo dedicata a Ravenna e ai suoi secoli d'oro (V-VIII secolo). Meglio la prima parte, dagli ultimi anni di vita dell'Impero romano d'occidente alle guerre gotiche, che la seconda, dove la narrazione si allarga via via in maniera sempre più netta agli sviluppi storici dell'area mediterranea (con annessi gli indigeribili ma ahimè fondamentali passaggi sulle frequenti crisi teologiche che hanno flagellato la storia dell'impero bizantino) e all'emergere della potenza franca.
La conseguenza è che si perde il focus sulla città, sul suo sviluppo edilizio, umano e culturale, sul suo allontamento da Costantinopoli e il suo avvicinamento alle sorti della Chiesa romana, dal cui mortale abbraccio la città romagnola finirà per essere annichilita lentamente, relegata ai margini della grande storia.

Ciò detto, la prima metà è perfetta e riesce, con compostezza e ordine, a ricostruire l'atmosfera urbana di quella che l'autrice non lesina, a ragione, a definire, "la prima città dell'Occidente medievale". Mentre Roma decade e tutto l'Occidente sprofonda in una regressione culturale profondissima, rappresentata in maniera evidente e plastica dalla regressione, soprattutto fisica, delle città - sempre più accentuata più ci si allontana dalle Alpi - Ravenna risplende e raggiunge, in assoluta contrapposizione, il suo apice. Emergono nella descrizione i nomi dell'imperatrice Galla Placidia (sulla cui figura, va detto, gli storici hanno assunto nel tempo posizioni molto discordanti) e di Teodorico, re dei Goti (e, pur se marginalmente ricordato nella storiografia patria come tale, re d'Italia - soprattutto!), le due figure che più di tutte abbellirono Ravenna con gli straordinari monumenti che ancora oggi possiamo ammirare e che ne definirono l'impronta urbana.

Cerniera fra Oriente bizantino e greco e Occidente latino e germanico, Ravenna visse la sua controstoria di splendori e centralità fino alla conquista longobarda e, soprattutto, all'epocale scelta politica di papa Stefano II che, accerchiato dai longobardi e terrorizzato che Liutprando riuscisse finalmente a unificare tutta la penisola sotto un unico governo, ribaltò la politica stategica del papato fino ad allora seguita, che vedeva nell'impero Bizantino la potenza a cui rivolgersi per protezione, chiamando in Italia i franchi di Pipino e poi di Carlo. Rimosso il regno longobardo, reciso il cordone ombelicale con Costantinopoli, Ravenna diventa una sorta di relitto e di curiosità archeologica (già ai tempi di Carlomagno, che come noto depredò marmi, capitelli e pure una statua di Teodorico per abbellire le scarne architetture di Aquisgrana), destinata a un ruolo né più né meno importante di tante altre città italiane, visto anche l'impaludamento progressivo e irreversibile delle sue lagune e del porto di Classe e la conseguente chiusura ai traffici marittimi.

Il ruolo di perno culturale e economico di Ravenna, tre volte capitale (dell'Impero romano d'Occidente; del regno d'Italia ostrogoto; dell'esarcato bizantino d'Italia), sarà come noto rilevato dagli scaltri e intraprendenti mercanti di un'altra città poco distante, sorta anch'essa in mezzo a una laguna e anch'essa inespugnabile, e rivolta prevalentemente a Oriente - e a Costantinopoli soprattutto - e che di Costantinopoli e del millenario Impero romano d'Oriente sarà di fatto la vera distruttrice (molto più dei Turchi), finendo per assimilarne la cultura e esportarla in tutta Europa. Ma questa è un'altra storia.

Rimane per noi il centro di Ravenna, con i suoi meravigliosi monumenti da ammirare, e una storia di fondamentale importanza per l'evoluzione dell'Europa occidentale, che come giustamente dice l'autrice, non va dimenticata.

Il libro è leggibile da tutti e non presenta particolari complessità. Sicuramente consigliato agli appassionati della città di Ravenna, anche in previsione di una visita turistica.

[Faustibooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at a souvenir shop very close to the Basilica of San Vitale last month when
I was in Ravenna. Ravenna had some absolutely stunning things to see which impressed me a lot. Especially the many beautiful mosaics the city has to offer are some of the most charming works of art I have ever seen in my life. I therefore bought this book and started reading it on the train back to Bologna.

Judith Herrin is a very good writer and does a fine job at writing a history of Ravenna from the fourth to the ninth century, despite the lack of sources. Many of the sources that we still have are ecclesiastical in nature, which is not really my interest, but I understand that Herrin doesn't have much else to work with, and she still manages to link it to the state of Ravenna at those times. I really liked the fact Herrin mentioned throughout the book that Ravenna only became important because others imposed that role on it. It was not a great or important city when it became the capital of the Western Roman Empire, it only was easy to defend and had a strategic location. It became the capital of the West, later also that of Gothic Italy and later that of the Roman Exarchate of Italy.

All in all, I think it was a pretty nice book for if you plan to go to Ravenna, but I wouldn't recommend it if history is not your thing since especially the part of ecclesiastical history can be pretty boring at times. Four stars!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Window on a Little Understood Period

Author Judith Herrin, by addressing the years 400 to 800 CE in European history, will fill a gap for many readers. Through formal courses or casual reading, many of us have read about Greek and Roman history leading up to the fall of Rome in 476. The story then became pretty much a blank canvas, except for reference to the barbarian Huns and Goths who destroyed what the Romans had built and threw Europe back to the Dark Ages.

Finally, as many of us were taught, in the 14th Century European culture and learning began to reassert itself and the Renaissance really began to blossom in the 15th and 16th centuries. Once again there was a period worth studying.

For the reader who picks up the physical book, immediately the stunning photographs of the mosaics dating from the 6th Century are a revelation. These survive in the churches of Ravenna, a city much less well known to tourists than Rome, Florence, Milan, or Venice. Clearly there is a story behind such breathtaking art.

Herrin’s scholarship is impressive. She is professor emeritus in the Department of Classics at King’s College London. If I, as a lay reader, have a criticism of the book, it is that the level of detail can overwhelm as she traces not only the major rulers in the period, but records many, many other names. She cites legal and other records that have survived the centuries. But the inventory becomes somewhat mind numbing and can bog down the broader narrative.

The complexity of the age, admittedly, doesn’t lend itself to easy summary. Herrin does a wonderful job discussing the political triangle of power and influence among Rome, Constantinople, and Ravenna. Ravenna was small but it had a port and was easily defended compared to the difficulty defending a city as large as Rome. Thus Ravenna for much of four centuries had an outsized influence and served as a bridge between Constantinople in the east and Rome in the west.

One theme of interest is the importance of food supply and taxation authority to the viability of a city and its rulers. Sicily was the breadbasket of the region, and thus control of Sicily was important to the maintenance of power. For much of the 400 years, Ravenna had that control.

For this reader, one of the biggest revelations was that while the Huns destroyed and moved on, the Goths, and later the Lombards, settled, intermarried, and adopted Christianity and much of Roman culture. Far from razing and destroying everything in sight once they had prevailed in battle, they kept much of Roman law and administration. This was not a 400 year period of scorched earth.

Herrin tells the early part of the Ravenna story through two remarkable personalities, the woman Galea Placida of high Roman birth, who lived from 390 to 450 c.e., and Theodoric, a Goth who led an invasion from Hungary in 489. Remarkably, both had been prisoners held by the other side during which they came to understand the other culture and serve as a bridge useful to governance.

Captured by Goths, Galea Placida married a Goth warrior and leader. They settled in Ravenna. Her husband died and she assumed leadership in the name of her 16-year old son. Demonstrating capacity to rule, she made Ravenna a rival to Rome as a center of Christian artistic expression in architecture and mosaic decoration. Unfortunately, she did not prepare her children to rule, thus failing to further extend the dynasty.

Theodoric, a Goth, was held hostage in Constantinople, during which time he observed how Roman administration functioned. After being freed and subsequently leading a successful Goth invasion, he established himself in Ravenna where he was responsible for building improvements, restoring the Roman water supply system, and commissioning additional mosaics.

As an example of how the Goths themselves became as cultured as the Romans whom they displaced, Herrin quotes from a 5th Century description of Theodoric’s daughter. “She is fluent in the splendor of Greek oratory; she shines in the glory of Roman eloquence; the flow of her ancestral speech brings her glory; she surpasses all in their own languages, and is equally wonderful in each.” This is a long way from the stereotype of Goths as brutal, uncivilized and destructive barbarians.

Herrin covers a great deal more ground, including the rise of the Lombards from the north and the Christian theological disputes of the time. These were not only between Constantinople and Rome but also concerned Goth interpretations of Christianity. Arab power eventually overwhelmed Constantinople and the Arabs, unlike the Goths and Lombards, rejected Christianity.

Summarizing the period, Herrin suggests the narrative of the “decline and fall” of Rome, put forward by Edward Gibbon, is too simplistic. Instead, she argues, “Creation and innovation accompanied conflict in this 400 year period. What had been the western Roman Empire experienced the birth pains of a new social order as much as the death throes of the old one. A long process engendered a social, military and legal order we call early Christiandom.” Readers will gain a new appreciation of the richness and complexity of the period as a result of Herrin’s scholarship.

[Tyler Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible history of an understudied subject. Well written and engaging narrative.

[Duncan Caramichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply a masterpiece.

[Ellen Cutler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time, I thought my specialty in art history would be medieval art. I was enraptured by Celtic design and mosaics. Ultimately I ended up a modernist but that medieval foundation turned out to be strong and helpful.

In March 1975 I made an excursion through Italy while on spring break from my semester in London. Among the very greatest moments were the ones spent in Ravenna--then quiet, somnolent, devoid of tourists and very inexpensive. (I also had my first bowl of calimari soup there and that, too, was memorable.) I had studied the mosaics of San Vitale, Galla Placidia, and both San Apollinaires as well as a bit of the Arian controversy that left the Arian Baptistry looking quite different from what was then called the "Orthodox Baptistry." I didn't allow myself nearly enough nearly enough time to explore and soon I was on to Florence and thence to Rome and back to London. But the memory remained vivid.

In 2004 I included Ravenna on an Italy excursion with my husband. He had never been and I absolutely had to share something of what I had seen way back when. A lot was different after 29 years--but the mosaics were still as glorious.

I was delighted to open "Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe" by Judith Herrin on Christmas Day. It essentially tells the story of Ravenna, the place, from the 4th century and the death throes of the western Roman Empire to the 9th century, the legacy of Charlemagne and the emergence of geographies and polities that we would recognize as "Europe."

The book design is wonderful--and the structure that Herrin identifies in her introduction--short sections primarily focused on individuals--made this dense material accessible. Maps and timetables of political, military and religious leaders were useful--and I consulted them so constantly I kept them bookmarked. The color plates are engrossing--although at two or three places in the text the reader is referred to the wrong plate.

What I thought as I got started was that someone at the BBC or Masterpiece or maybe one of the for-pay organizations really ought to do a series of Galla Palcidia. Born in Constantinople to an imperial family, she was sent to the West, to the court then centered in Milan. After Alaric sacked Rome in 408 he collected considerable booty, including Galla Placidia as a hostage. She spent three years with the Goths, married the Gothic king, later married her brother the emperor's general, Constantius, and settled in Rome. Turns out she was a lousy mother. While she herself became empress, she never prepared her son to become emperor. Nor did she provide her daughter a proper education and arrange a suitable marriage. None of this worked out well. But the story is just fascinating--and cinematic.

Ultimately what Ferrin does is elegantly lead the reader through the extraordinary role Ravenna played in the transformation of the late antique, not fully Christianized Roman Empire into a conglomerate of multiple Christian theocracies, assaulted by the Goths and Lombards (among others) in the west and after 600 by Islamic nations on the east. From there she traces the complicated choreography out of which the eastern empire became Byzantium with their own theology and the bishop of Rome, aka the Pope, gradually assumed power in the west as the head of what we now call the Roman Catholic Church.

And the story is just so compelling!

One of the hardest things for me, as an undergraduate studying art history, was sorting out all the Byzantine stuff, trying to understand the developments of styles for which I really had not historical context. That confusion remained when I tried to grasp the early Renaissance and those issues of "Byzantine styles and influences." This is what I needed. I didn't really have the history to go with the art and falling back on a kind of formalist strategy didn't work well.

Damn, I wish I was still teaching!

Anyway--great book if any of you are planning post-COVID jaunts to Italy and particularly to the Veneto.

[Ross Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting idea that suffers from a staid and dry format, which is a shame as it really is a dynamic period of history.

Part of the problem is brought up in the final chapter - Ravenna was a power in that awkward period of history bracketed by the decline of imperial Rome and the Black Death, where primary documents become spotty and many of those that did get made have been lost. This means much of the book is spent establishing the historical context of the era, with little time spent on how these events impacted Ravenna in concrete ways, and vice versa.

Another issue is the length of time the book covers. 500 years might be a small fraction of history, but it's still a daunting task to familiarize yourself with it. I suspect someone more versed in the established narrative of late antiquity Mediterranean history would get more out of it. If you're just being introduced to the topic this is not the best book to read.

There are a handful of interesting tidbits peppered throughout the book, but for the most part it's made up of a fairly unadventurous recounting of events and the deeds of a handful of powerful men. It works as a framework for (what I think of as) the actually interesting topics tyat other works could explore, but it seems like something of a missed opportunity - if you're going to go to the trouble of recontextualizing history around an over looked city, why bother sticking to an old school presentatory format that leaves the events you're talking about as a bland list of facts? That sort of thing has its place, but I would be much more interested in a history of Ravenna focused on daily life and the physical culture of the era than the "list of great men and their deeds" format so beloved by classical historians.

[Eileen Iciek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This truly exceptional history covers the period from the reign of Diocletian to the reign of Charlemagne, about 5 centuries. These murky years - filled with invasions, Huns, Goths, Lombards, popes, Byzantines, and bishops - are typically thought of as the heart of the Dark Ages in Europe and glossed over as confusing and unimportant in most history classes. Herrin instead describes a vibrant time through the lens of the evolution of the city of Ravenna from backwater town chosen by the Roman Emperor Honorius to be his capital due to its easily defended location, through its centuries of importance, before its return to backwater status in about 800.

The cast of characters Herrin writes about include the imperial daughter Galla Placidia, the Arian Goth King Theoderic, Emperor Justinian, a host of dynamic archbishops and popes, the Lombard King Desiderius, the Byzantine Empress Irene, and Charlemagne among others. The author clearly explains the world events that gradually moved Europe's focus away from the dominant imperial rulers in Constantinople to the leaders in western Europe (specifically Charlemagne). I have never read a history that explained this transition so well.

Herrin writes with a fluid and engaging style that keeps the reader interested through even the most tedious of Church rivalries between popes and errant bishops. The book contains excellent maps and illustrations to help readers visualize Ravenna would have been like at its height.

All in all, this book is a masterful accomplishment that anyone interested in the development of European history would appreciate.

[Wouter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book, with an interesting thesis. In Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, Judith Herrin deftly argues for the city's importance to understand European history. More precisely, without Ravenna our idea of Western Europe would not exist, for it was the fate of this city that necessitated the invention (c. 776) of the Donation of Constantine as a way 1) to forge an identity in the west entirely separate from the emperor in Constantinople (whose territories were under threat by the upcoming islamic tribes) and 2) to ensure the pope secular power (as an excuse to take the territories of the former Exarchate of Ravenna).

Herrin's suggestion is a thrilling and compelling conclusion to a book that suggests nothing more than offering an overview of Ravenna's heyday as capital of the Roman Empire in the western Mediterranean (in brief: a discussion of Ravenna from the fifth to eighth centuries). She discusses the city's most important rulers (be it members of the imperial family, bishops, or Gothic kings) and describes how and why the famous churches and monuments in Ravenna came into existence. An impressive book!

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do remember some historical facts about Ravenna but I never read such a detailed and well research historical book about the city.
It was a fascinating and informative read and I loved the style of writing and how the author talks about historical characters making them fascinating and vivid.
It's an excellent read that I strongly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

[Bob Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tegelijk diepgaand en vlot geschreven.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has gotten rave reviews, and justifiably so. It's a topic, and time period I had little familiarity with, what used to be called 'the dark ages' of European history, so after the fall of Rome and before the Medieval period got a good start. Hence the period between 400 CE and 800 CE. But Judith Herrin managed it with a masterful pen, so to speak. Mind you, she had to fill in numerous gaps with speculations, issues that historians have been speculating about for centuries, but she goes through the various options proposed by earlier historians, and either selects one that best fits her own research findings, of presents her own conclusion based on her research. She bemoans all the frustrations she encountered with lost records and contradictory records, which justifies calling that period the 'dark ages' in the first place.
And what a wealth of info she has pulled together, not just about what the Romans had left behind, but what the Byzantine Empire brought to bear in Ravenna, this Western Capital, this outpost of Constantinople. And how they dealt with all the invasions, waves of colonial migrations, political intrigues and power plays, religious debates and conflicts, etc, etc were all very eye opening, and gave my a feel for what it was like living in that time & place. Parts of it were like an adventure novel, but all completely true.
The art & architecture of Ravenna is highlighted, of course, because that is what draws tourists to the town today. And the integral story of how it ties in with the history of the town makes it all the more interesting. So it is chock full of luscious color photos, with clear explanations of what the work meant to convey when it was created. She draws art & culture together to give it all that deeper meaning that is often lost over time.
Just some of the many things I learned the origin of for the first time; 1) How & why the split between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholics churches happened. 2) What the fraudulent 'Donation of Constantine' is, and why it mattered so much to the Protestant Reformation 700 years later. 3) How the 'Anonymous Cosmographer' of Ravenna affected the understanding of the world, and excited the imaginations of the earliest explorers at the beginning of the 'Age of Exploration in the 15th Century.
This will be an easy book to recommend to any history buff, art lover, or travel junkie.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is hard for me to rate. There are a few things going on here so I'll try to break it down.

First and mostly superficially: I was drawn in my the jacket design and the amazing maps and photographs. The Princeton University Press is known for producing beautiful "art" books, and while this does not neatly fall into that category, the book itself is nicely printed and made me hopeful for the content.

Alas, the content. From early on in this book, I kept comparing it to that class that you signed up for in college, with a really interesting course name and intriguing description in the course catalog, taught by a tenured or emeritus faculty well-respected in the field. But when you sit in that class, the professor drones on and you want to zone out. That is this book, big time.

Also, nothing in the description of this book on Goodreads, or on the jacket copy, prepared me for the level of THEOLOGY that I would confront in it. It was a limitless deep dive into early Christian theology and it was just TOO MUCH. There is an excess of ecclesiastical information; too many bishops and popes discussed in minute detail. The multitude of emperors, kings, and rulers added more layers of opacity to Herrin's research. I read the first 200 pages diligently - like a good student! - and skimmed through the last 200. I do not need to retain what a random bishop decreed in the year 600 that was a clerical scandal at the time. (That said it was interesting to read about Iconoclasm.)

What I was hoping for - and what it seems like some other reviewers were hoping for - was a more narrative description of early life of Ravenna. But Herrin drew on primary sources for her work here - which is astonishing since a lot of the primary sources came from 400-800 A.D. - and it makes sense that the sources that would survive were preserved by the Church or by government. So, although I was bored by the minutiae of this book, at a high level I do have a better understanding of how Ravenna emerged as a player in the Byzantine world: why it was important, how its influence spread throughout Europe, and how power eventually passed on to other citites.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars.

Interesting, but failed to convince me of its central thesis: that Ravenna was central to the history of early Christendom and that it was vital to the development of the early Middle Ages.

This is a book about the fall of Rome, the rise of Constantinople, and the religious/political tensions between those cities. Yes, Ravenna is a part of that history! It was unusual in its place as a crossroads where Greek and Latin coexisted.

But so many chapters would tell us about emperors and bishops and popes and whatnot in other parts of the Christian world, then would throw in a “Ravenna is relevant to this bit too, I promise!”

As often as not, Ravenna felt more like a shoehorned framing device, rather than truly being central to the history at hand. Part of this is surely due to records from the city itself being sorely lacking, but author herself acknowledges in the conclusion that Ravenna was not a leader. It’s shaping power — whatever that power was — came from how it followed and reacted to the greater forces of the world.

An interesting thought experiment, perhaps, but not in need of a 19 hour audiobook.

(I also found the audiobook hard to follow at times, between the deluge of names and the oft-quotes Latin, but did not have easy access to a different format.)

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ran into this book browsing the electronic offerings of my public library. I was searching for Byzantine books and this one, written by one of the more notable Byzantinists of this generation, leaped out at me. Ravenna,that bastion of Byzantine power in Italy, was, it turns out a labour of love for the author, who visited Ravenna when she was younger and was inspired by the fusion of Byzantine, Gothic and Roman art and architecture.

This book looks at the history of this remarkable city. That is not an easy task because, like many cities in the Mediterranean at this time, sources are lacking and there are substantial gaps in the records. Herrin uses written sources such as histories as well as inscriptions and physical evidence to produce a coherent narrative of this city from the fifth century, when it rose to prominence as the capital of the Western Roman Empire into the 9th century, as an outpost of Byzantine control until its fall to the Lombards. The story is complicated and more and more focused on the ecclesiastical politics which characterized the mediaeval era in Italy.

This is a fascinating book, which gives a clear sense of the history of Ravenna, but just as importantly, a real sense of the physical setting of the city and its art. I've never visited Ravenna on my various travels in Italy, but, I admit, this puts it firmly on my list.

[Romulus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bardzo wciągająca książka. Pewnie dlatego, że przybliża historię dotychczas słabo przeze mnie poznaną. Zmierzch zachodniego cesarstwa, wczesne średniowiecze - wszystko z perspektywy ostatniej stolicy. Przy okazji można sobie zdać sprawę z abstrakcyjnej symboliki niektórych dat. W tym przypadku chodzi o upadek cesarstwa. Ostatniego cesarza zachodu Romulusa Augustusa z tronu złożył król Wizygotów, który był chrześcijaninem. Tyle że odłamu ariańskiego. Tenże król oparł swoją administrację na administracji rzymskiej. A samo cesarstwo istniało nadal na wschodzie i poprzez Rawennę jeszcze długo kontrolowało zachodnie, po jego "upadku". I tak dalej. Dużo tu pasjonującej historii, na którą nie ma miejsca w podręcznikach. Wczesne chrześcijaństwo było ciekawsze od obecnego. A ujednolicalo się ogniem i mieczem. Na ogół. Cała historia została opowiedziana z perspektywy jednego miasta. Ogromnie fascynująca.

[Kate Vane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired by the beautiful mosaics in Ravenna, Herrin set out to tell the story of the city in the 5th to 8th centuries. This is a fascinating account of how its strategic location gave rise to its significant role under Roman, Goth and finally Byzantine rule.

Ravenna does assume some prior knowledge (I had to resort to Wikipedia a couple of times) but it’s a fascinating account of the political, social and religious developments. It is lightened for the general reader by the dramatic lives of figures such as Galla Placidia, King Theoderic and Emperor Justinian. Herrin also gives the history and descriptions of the mosaics and buildings in the city (and what has been lost, including in bombing in the Second World War). The pictures in the book are beautiful!
*
I received a copy of Ravenna from the publisher via Netgalley.

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one as: (1) I have Herrin's "Byzantium" which I enjoyed; and (2) for the inclusion of Galla Placidia and the Visigoth Kingdom, and the succeeding Ostrogoth and Lombard Kingdoms.

The period covered off was one of turmoil - political and religious, of conspiracy and machinations, internal and external power struggles, creation and destruction of empires. It was a period I was familiar with - and Herrin's tome is more on the academic side of things rather than a travel guide for the uninitiated. The city prospered after the fall of Rome, and this is evident in the church building program undertaken in the early 6th century and the city's position as a key power base for the Byzantine Empire.

For me, Herrin's book provided me with what I was specifically looking for - for others, a more general history may be in order.

[Karina Samyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dat Ravenna zo'n belangrijke stad was in het vroegmiddeleeuwse Europa realiseerde ik me pas na het lezen van "Heer Belisarius" van Robert Graves. Na de kennismaking met de befaamde mozaïeken van de stad tijdens een cursus "Inleiding tot de kunstgeschiedenis", plaatste ik de stad op mijn lijst "Wil ik bezoeken". Ik begon dan ook met veel zin aan dit boek. Een gedetailleerd overzicht van de historie van de stad, dat wel, maar heel beschrijvend. Op den duur een vrij saaie oplijsting van namen, data, oorlogen...en ellenlange uitwijdingen over theologische twistpunten tussen Rome en Byzantium. Eerlijk, ik ben blij dat ik het boek uit heb.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

New book now overdue at the library, and way more than I want to know. But, wow, gorgeous photos of lovely buildings and tile mosaics surviving in decent shape for 1500 years! I might (or might not) get back to it later. In the meanwhile, here's Emma's fine review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Excerpt: "While pitched at a general readership, it's a challenging book, especially if you come to it without the contextual religious knowledge (or enthusiasm for it), as I did."