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RAVENNA I N LAT E ANTI QY ITY RJ\"!.'I1n'l w~s one of the mOST import:L111 cilies of laTe nnTi qll c 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 only to Ih" IlOpt's. During this 35o.)"orTallCC to historialls and arT hisTOri:ln ~ of The hIt " ~lbriJge
The ,,,,,hhi"',,,,, of R.nno. 'I'he C .. hcd,..,l ,nd the Fl'i'"'0I",1
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Churl'h lIuildio!( Church Iluildin)i: in 'he City of R"·,,rm. S.ma ,\hr;' ,\Ioggiar"
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Church lIuildin!( i" CI.ss.
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St. Pml,,". Son Vit.lo, 1ll00';. of the south I'n,.hitcry won, Mcichisc<Je~ .nd Ahd V1l •. Son Vitole, mos.ic of the north 'P'" woll.Justini.n .nd his court Vllh. Son Vit.]e, mosoie of the south opse ""U, "I"hedoro .nd her eourt VIII •. S. nt'Apoli inore in Classe, ,'iew of the interior \'Ilib. S. nt' Apotlinorc in CI3SSc, l1l0s0ics of the '1"" '':;lUlt
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Figures CUlTInt ",,,,,,,I pl~n of R.,','Tma, o,'erl.id with ,he I,," onti'IU" w.lls with m.jor .",h.eologi~.. l . iles ond {>Ilg' " .' Tub; ]iui/i, "Iuse Nuion. le, Rovenn. I,
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
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,\ 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 BCIAD. ,\losco N. zion.le. R,,'enlUl Reconstrt>Ction of the l'om Aure. embedded within the Iote .ntique .... ]], ,\ 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""i
rl'hyry b .. htub n,,,.' in the "1'1"" TOorn ,\ lousoleum "f Th,,~teric, -Z.ngcn frie," Tdid om'm""t " the h.se r the ""I""",e ,\ lo"solc~lm of -Thc'O ",,,uming Joseph 7S· S.m 'Apollin.", in CI1<sc. oolwnn, "f I'roeonnNi.n morhle. ""'" from the n"rth .isle 76. S.",. ,\ lori. ,\I'ggior•• pia" of,he 'I's, ". Son Y""le. ,.;~w ofth. enerior frum ,he north 7R. S.n Vi .. I~. "'''',n"""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 t hird 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 31 4 Constantinople, founded hy the emperor Constantine, replaced N icomedia as the eastern imperia l capital. Rome was conspicuously om itted 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 admi nisrration that would now be situated there.'; All of tht'SC new capitals looked to Rome for inspiration, while at the same ti me reAe: Ertm.i. manuscrillt that he had found in his liurary. His colleague and successor at the library, L. A. " Iura tori, who initiatl-d the series Rmnn Itl1/i[l1rum Scriptrn"es, IlIIblisbed Bacchini's ed ition along with most of the other texts from the Codtx Esrtmis in two volumes of his new scries. A new interest in late antique works of art also now l>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. Antonio Zirardini, a Ra"ennate lawyer and historian, published a work entitkd Drgli Ilnticbi rdijizii profllni di RITVfflnll in 1762; he also wrote a companion 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 reference today, although it was largely SUpersl-ded by H. O . T jader's edition of the '95°S. Count lo. larco Fa ntuzzi, also of Ravenna and a student and colleague of Z ira rdi ni and "brini, published his six-vol ume wurk Munumfflli 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 th e city's surviving monuments, most notllbly at San Vita lc and Sant'A]Xlllinare in Clas.< pro;.ru duro ing ,I\< 1>rintrndcnz> P'" i Beni ,\rcheoIogici d.trEmili. Komogm (An::h>«lIogyl .nJ the 'iof>r\n,rn.Jen .. pl",ed. but h,; "'",. i..... infl"",,'i ,l; it "",,,in, . Tbe Jes, ruct;"n ...... It"'i in ,n in'.,... "'"'I"ign ,of """,,,,tion .nd ",,-.000 the W:lr. These clforu wl
,'res
--,---
SOME AIl.C HAE OLOGICAl 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<jue Ra\'enn~ in 2004, whose proceedings were pll blished in two volu mes as RI/VC IIIIII: dll (I/pitl//r imperil/Ie" capit"/I' ffilTadt'. T here has as yet been no sustained scholarly treatment of Ravenna in English , and this book is imclHletl to address that void. An.:hacologica l and restora tion work continucs apace in Ravenna, an(1 given the nllmbcr of questions about the latc 3ntique city that arc still unanswered, new in fO rmation will no douht necessitate revision of the historica l profi le o f Ravenna in the decades to cOllle.
Some Archaeological Considerations Givcn the shortagc of Contemporary wTitten sources for latc antique Ravenna, archaeology provides crucially important information about the city's topography, e(.'()Ilomics, and population . Before World War II, most excavation was directed toward Ravenlla's churches, and to large structures that could be linked to buildings mentionet! in the LPR; indee(l, associntion o f archaeological sitt'S with Agnellus's text ('ontinues down to today. But, e~pecially in the latter part of the twentieth century, other sitl!s, representing private houses, manufacturing and warehouse fJeilities, and walls, h ~rbors, and othcr man-made fea tures have come to the tore. allowing \IS [(J gain a much more complete picture of life in the late antique city (for a map showi.ng major sites, sec Fig . I). Beca use many of these sites will be mentioned in the cha pters that tollow, it is useful for us to understand some o f the factors that have ('olltributctl to Ravenna's archaeologica l profile. is Ravenna's ground level has been sinking fu r centuries, and this has raise{1 challcngcs for those interested in digging up the past. T hc land surround ing R,1\'cnna is subject to two gC'Olllorphological processes. First, Ravenna is located in an allm'ial ba,in; the rivers and streams that flow into it hring sediment with them . O ver time, except in periods in which it has been deliberately pre\'entt'll, th is sedimentation has filled in swamps, marshes, and lagoons, eventually creating new sol id groull(\ along the shores of the sea. This is why Raven na, tounded as a coastal port in the Ro man l}t:riod , ro{lay sits 9 km from the Adriatic coastline. T he sedimentation along the shore also contri butes to the second major process th~t has affected Ravenna, namely the subsidence, or progressive lowering, of the ground level, which has been calculated at approximately 16- l 3 em per celltury'>(, 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
'.
INTRO D UCTI O N
material from the Roman rcpuu1ic:ln period is found 4-f! 111 below the CUTrent 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 '9
'0
I NT 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 Ro man periods itW;1S located directly on the Adriatic coast, at th e 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 OS t important cities. The water The wall's remai ns werc found 7.50-+75 meters below the current ground le\'el, and consisted of a stretch of w;;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:)
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 imerpretation 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.6, fllbit'i1les, Illidl/(lfl)t';'J), lower-level officers (mboptiolles), lind on-duty soldiers (WlflliJir,·J). It is interesting that on this inscription, all the names art: Latin,
indica ti ng perhaps a shift in the makeup of the navy. ;1 Other inscriptions mention add itional occupations associate!\ wi th the navy, indlHiing soldiers (lI/ilirl's) and thei r officers «(r1ItllriUlIf'S and 0/itioIlCS), pilots (gllhc1?l11 rort's), underpilots ( pl'orrr,fr), men who ca lied out the rhythm to the rowers ( pIIIISffI'i), lll~SterS of weapons (1I I7l1iCllsfoJrs), rep~ir personnel (1IIIlIpbyhlm), ax makers (dolal'mri), Aag beart=rs (vrxilliftl'i ). doctors (m~(lid ) . and 5criix=s (scrib/lr) of \'arious SOrts. H Some of these insniptions give the person's cognomen as ChISSiCIIS, or "mcmbcr of thc A(.'c[. ",5 The sailors of the fl cet wcrc sometimes married (a lthough thcy wcre not legally allowed to be while enlisted), and were associilted also with s1:wcs and frel.'u ml.'n, but thl.' ships do no t sl.'em to have been crewcd by slaves, \'VI.' know that the SOilS and brothers of sailors also well[ into the navy. Scholars estimatt= that thert= may have bet=n as mall)' as 10,000 tnt=n attacht=d [0 the fleet, although they were nOt all resident at one timt=; and if even one third of them had femalt= companions of somt= sort that would bt= a wry large population that had to li\'c somewhere. It is likel y that many of them li\'cd to the southeast. of the main harbor, in the area that cvenrually became tht;' city of Classe. - 6 The pol·t city of Classc to the south of the harbor channel develo ped slowly after the establishment o f rhe fleet. In the Augustan period, the area cemcteriesF Only in the second century docs eviwas largely occupied dence of habitation emerge. An imposing structure excavated under the church of San Sevcro. dating to the early second century, contained several rooms ~'i th elaborate mosaic pavements, glass wi ndows, and other indications of high statuS, and has heen inter preted 3S a public bath cornplex.- w 1\ street and sewer system de veloped, and evidence o f lower-class ha bitations amI manufat:turing f.lcil ities have been i(l{'ntilled dating to ix=rween the second and the fourth ccnt urics.-!j The large military installation had a dra matic elfe()IlS r ha" e gi,·en.
3'
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 buihlings in marshy areas: ; ••
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 intriguing 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 daughter 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 l acirli~'sconsent,ac' Valentinian, perhap~ feeling tha t he no longer needed his greatest general to defend the empire from the I·runs, murdered Aetius in 454. Then he was assassinated in Rome in 455 . Valentinian had two dallghtl.'rs, Eudocia and Placiilizillg the regions
around ItaI}'; he reconquered Sicily from the Vandals by 477, took Dalmatia in 480, defeated the Rugialls of Norlcfon:; hut God then rendered thut passab lc which had hitherto been impussuhk. H av ing the refore 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 til'::
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
MOV I NG THE CAIJITAL TO RAVE N NA
was mentioned in writings by the sixth-century histOrians j o nlancs anll ProtOpius. Jonlanes, descri bing the faly !>ecause the mar~hes were not as £1efensible as they were pcrccive£1 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 rc£1uccd me journey tirne. 'o Communication with the east was particularly impormilt 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 notc£1lhat 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 increasc£1, an£1 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, perha p~, Ravenna may have heen rather like Byz;lmiuln before Constantine tran sform ed 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 ("athcdr~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 hagiograph)' 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 center of the empirl:. The panegyrist Claudian e,xtols Rome as the emperor's "true" home, but no contemjlcamc 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 Raven n~ 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~len tinia 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 Valentini311 [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: 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 killed 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) J.
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:llace of Daphnetll.oqlVTJ ("Laurel") in Constaotlnople, built. according to tradition, by Cooslantine.K, In chapter 132 Agnel1us 1listin guishes between the pllifftilllll '-"lIIn'lIIi and the pi/liIIilllll 'f'heuJuriCllmml later used uy the c.'{arch. implying that they were tv:o distinct 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-Ionorills 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 nonhwestern 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
57
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called Sallt'A1xlllinare Nuovo, was atf<Jchetl to it. It is often assullled, based on Agncllus, th;1t this building must have been dilrcre:nt from the: palace o f Valentinian HI, and perhaps also of Honorius, which would han: been farther to the south. N. Duval goe:s so far as to argue tha t the remains found at this site arc merely those of an aristOCnltic ho use, not an imperial palace.90 But it is hard to understand why Theoderic and later the exarchs would have preferred to inhabit an old aristocratic house rather {han the forme r imperial palace. Recent stud it!S have shown that on the foundations of a Roman villa there was a major rd.)Uild ing in the fourth century, prcsumal>ly 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.?'
9' Plan ohh.c p~l ~cc, ~s kllown frum nco'~.-
1;""$, "'•. AD 450 (a fter A"g~nli, ~Ard".·{) I{)gi.I
e ropognfi.>."
' 0 chllf,'h(.>s built by Galla Placidia still survive, and arc thus extremely im(XIrtant for an undersunding of the development of art and architecture in Ravenm at this time. As we will see, the form al1(l decoration of these StrU('tures expressed new iconographies Ileveloped to link Christianity atHl imperial rule. T he lise ofirnperia l l)Ortraits in church decoralion was something new, rem inding the community of GOII's protection o f imperial dy nasty and empire. T his iconography would be repeated in other churches in Ravenna, literally creating a Christian ,·api tal through the images found on its churches. S.l.N 610 \'A"'N I [ '·ANG ELISTA
During a sea \'oyage the shi p carrying Galla Placidia and hl;'r two children was beset by a storm. '3' T he empress cried out to St.John the Ellangelist for protection, vowing to bui ld him 3 church in R,lVcnna ifrhe ship was spared. Upon her return to Ravenna, she built this church, near to the small harhor i.n (he nortbeast corner of tbe cit)', and arranged to have it decorated witb mosaics that told the story of her preservation and glorifie(1 the imperial dy nast}' of which she and her children were a part. 'J! \-Ve do not know exactly when the church was built, but it wa$ 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 'W orld 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 investigat ion was carried out as part: of the rcconstruction, T he original wall decoration 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,
R.... V[NNA AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERORS. AD 400 - 489
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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; no rth and south of the narthex we re small chambers. approximately 7 x 6,5 meters, emered from the na rthex through arches su pported hy columns. Rooms like this are well known from Greek ch urcllt~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 entranceway" 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.
Os
CHURCHES
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At some point the narthex WllS absorbed into the nave, wh ich 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 (Fi g. 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 origina l 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 origina l construction, or that it w:lS mod ified when new mos.aics wcre installed around 600, 'i ' Howcver, R. FarioH 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~"'Ow to the holy and mOst bles.so..J 'IJOstle John the h.ngdist for their ddive"ll1cc from ,Imgcr
., ....
Symbols of thc evangelists may have flanke d thc windows . Below thc windows ran another inscri ))tion from P5:llm 67(68)"9-3°' "Confinn, 0 God, that which you havc wroughl for us; from your temple in Jerusa lem, ki ngs shall offer you gilis."'6' Belo"· this, on the wall alx"'e the clergy's bench, were shown on the right Tnoodosius 11 an d his wife Eudoci3, and on the left Area dius and his wife Eu doxia . T he depiction ofthcse eastern rulers in such a promincnt position underscored the wcstern court's relationship with the cast. Givtn the inscri ption ahove their heads, it is )>ossi bie that they were shown in the act of presenting something 10 Christ or to the central figure on th is wa ll, Bishop Peter I Ch rysologus, who "'as depicted celebrating mass in the presence of an an gel. ,6) As far as we know, San Giovanni Evangelista is the first church anywhere to ~"Ontain imperia l portra its as )>:lrt of its dtcora til)n.' ''' San Giovanni Evangelista's cntire decorative program emphasizes thc piety of the
CHURCHES
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Sol.. _,.. WI/« PIc. de of thot temple, enteri~ g the m. in s; perhaps she had acquired a relic of the True Cross, wh ich was to be boused in this church, '0, or perhaps she felt that a church of this sort would provide a suitable focus for au imperia l mausoleum.
When Calla Placidia died in Rome, sbe was probably buried in the imperia l mausoleum at St. Peter's;'''" but by the ninth wnturythe legend had grown up that she was huried in a side chapel in San Vitale in Ravcnna , and by the thirteen th century this legend had herome C()nfused and her buria l was atrributcd to the structure that is still known as the "mausoleum of Galla Placidia."'OJ This small cross-shaped srructure, which now stands d,>t.ched fro m .ny other building, "'3S Ori ginally .ttached to the southern end of the narthex of Santa Croce.'oij It is therefore C()rrcct to 3ttribute the l"(lnsrruction of this chapel to Galla's )).1rronage, and to see it as one small part of what must have been 3 magnificent oomple~ . This chapel is one of on ly thn-e late antique strucntrcs in Ravenna that retain their compk'te decorative programs. It thus provides a small sample of thc ricbness of interior decoration found in imperially sponsored buildings at this time. \\'e will return tothe question of whether it was intended asGalla Placidia's mausoleum. The "mausoleum" is a small cross-shaped structure built mainly of reused Roman brick,''''' "'hich may originally have been covered ",i th plaster (Figs. 15, 16)."° The east-w~st branch m~asures 3-4 x 10.2 !11l'ters (interior), while the north-routh branch is 3.4 x ! T.9 meters, longer because it originally l"Onnt"(;ted the srruCtllre to the vesti bule and narthex. Interestingly. the angles of the C()rners arc not precisely 9D degrees, hut arc slightly skewed so that each component of the plan is not a r~"(;tangle but a
CHURCHES
' 5. "Abu_ ooIeumofG:.J], P!xid;': exte_ rior vi .... from
,he ,o,"h~·<s' (I.how E. V."",,)
parallellogram. Origioally the ground IL'vel W3S ~ j>proximately J . 5 m lower than it is today, and thus the building .....ould have had a higher profile. Each o f the exwrna l walls is nticulatcd with a blind arcade, whose pilasters rest on a plinth now partially below ground. '" The entrance wall, with
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"grouOO 1","t onn with . lunette ofd"., drinking (l>OOt()
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in the Mediterranean (including Ravenna) in the fifth century, and may have been known to Galla Placidia from her time in Spain. Maekie points out that Pru dentius's poem on St. Vincent specifically mentions books, which are depicted in this image, and also says that Vincent hastened toward his torture.' '9 No ea rly sources from Ravenna n3me this ehapd,' JO and in the alJst,nce of any definite evidcn,"C onc way or the othcr, wc can only say that in either case, the saim would have had special meaning for Gal la Placidia. Here, because it seems the most likely solution, I will continue to refer to the figure as St. uwrence. Over the entrance, facing the 51. Lawrence panel, is a representation of Christ as the ('rl)O, is nut de;u. Scholars have
R.... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489
8.
illlcrprctc{1 the cross as a reference ro the Second Coming of Christ frOIll the east, the vision of the crOSS at Jerusalem in 351 ; the heavenly cross; thc city of heaven; Ch riSl himself; Christ as creator of thc world; or simply as ;I symbol of redemption. It seems most reasonable to ~ssunll,' that in th is particular context, the vault mosaic Illay not have had only one 1lleaning. ·~1
Call this collection of im ages help us to understand the chapel's original
function? Many schola rs have wanted to call it eitbtr a lIlemorial chapd for a saintol" a mausoleum; the second intcrrrct~tion is the most common, with the mosaics interpreted as expressing Christian ideas about death ~nd the afterlife. However, the binary oppositlon between ~ memorial I.:hapel and a m~usoleum has been oH:'rdrawni in fact, memorial cll;lpelS were freq uently used for burial, while burial I.:hnpels were commonly dedicated to n saillt or saints. as we have seen ill Ra venna il"e1f.'+1 The form and del.:oratioll of our Structure easily allow for both functions to coexist, an(1 the IlIcanings of the (le(:or3tion are most unclerstallllablc in this I.:ontext. It certainly appears that one of the functions of this space was for the burial of important people. \Nhen one entcrs the strm'mre, the first impression is of darkness, and lhe chamber has been eompareJ to other Roman mausolea that WCTC also Jimly lit.'45 T he funerary motif is reinlorced by the large marble sarcophagi that are today located in three of the crossarms, where thE1' fit perlixtiy. These sarcophagi date to the mid-fifth l.:entury; ,~6 we do not know when they were placed in the st.ruct1Jre or who their accu· pants were, but by the thirtecnth cenrury they wen: believed to contain the hodies of nriou s late Ro man emperors. ' 4J The i lllag~ fo und o n the sarcophagi correspond to, or enha nce, the m05aics in the va ul ts, wruch implies that they were made specifically fo r this space, although it .~hould be noted th;lt such moufs arc common on s;lrcophagi of th is period. '48 T he funer:llY character of the buil(ling is also IlemOllstrate{! by the pinttone 011 the sU1I1m it of the roof. which ~Yll1bolized immortality in Roman and early Christian art. 'oW Many of the images can be inrerprered as carrying particu lar meaning rel;lred to death and the afterli fe; for example, the doves and the deer drink the water of salva t ion .' ~o the landscape of the Good Shepherd represent.. paradise, '5' and the delllt'nts in the dome rc:-fc:-r to the LIst Jutlgmcnt. ' 5' The depiction of Sf. Lawrence is the onl)' image that {loes not fit easily into funerary interpretations of the iconography. Attempts to interpret this scene to conform with an overa ll theological program (for example, that the martyrdom of Lawrence represents the allegorical sense of salvation) seem forced. ' 53 L aw rence is dea rly a celHral fOC ll S of the chamber since he appear.~ in the lunette directly fac ing the entr;1ncc:-.lt is likely that tlle chapel was dedicated to him, with an altar in the c:11sterll an n that would explain the
CHUI{CHES
overall orientarion of the imagery (es pecially the apostles and the (.TOSS in the central tower) tOwanl the east. ')4 Lawrence's re putation cert~inly malle him a su itable saint for a ch apel or a mausoleum in an imperially sponsored church. Hi s prominence is cnhanec(l uy the way that this image fits into the general decorati\'e program of the chapel. Lawrence is the only moving figure in rhe whole space; everything else I·epresents ordered calm - the Goo.l Shephcf(l, the books in the cahinet, the deer, the al>osdes, and the stars in their tOUr.SL'S. Except tor Lawrcnce, c\·crythittg is outsidc of tillle and space; and the heavenly peaee eontrashi \....ith the torments of the earth repn::sented hy the m:lrtyr. Law rence literally and visually "leaps out" at the viewer, crossing the boundary bl.'!"Ween the living worshipers an,1 the mosaic stasis of eternity. Another important iconographic motif, found both in the architecture and the iconography of this chapel, is the trOSS. '5 1 In this cross-sh aped chapel, .machcd to the cross-shapc:
B~"cislery,
,-je'" of the u,,:rior from th e s" utheast
ground level (originally the ground level was ~pproxim~{ely J meters below toJay's level))"'! Today the buil{ling has the footprint of a square with rounded corners, but it is likely that originally the absidioles did not extend all the way w the corners of the OCtagon (Fig. ! I).l°) Viewed from the exterior, the tall ocugonal StruCtUre creates a striking silhouerre (Fig. 21 ). It has been proposed that the top portion of the walls, which arc ornamented with a blind fri eze consisting of twO double-arched panels on each side, were a larer addition to the walls built at some time in the tenth century or later to raise the structure's profile at a time when the city's subsidence may have buried the lower parts of the buiJding;Joo but other scholar~ argue that the rebuilding co uld have taken place in a second
R.... V[ NN A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489
9'
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l:I~pfi"tt"ry.
rccon.rructed no"" ""'tjo" showing th~
original ami s~h ,;cqucmllooran,j rour 1~... e1s ("frer " (I~tf. 19"5)
fi frh--{;cno lT), ph ase. when t he do me ~'as added )O'/ The sidcs of t he octagon afe 5.0-5-3 mete rs lo ng extern:llly and 4.; me ters long internally. T he original baptistery built br Ursus had a woode n roof approximately 1 1 III
above the f1 oor ; J"'~ under Bishop Neon (ca. 45O-i3 ) there was an
extensive rebui lding ;llld rcd(:corating program, resul ting in the struct ure that ~~r\'i\'es tOday (Fig. !3)}"'I A shallow dome, 9.60 meters wide at its springing point and ris ing to a peak of '4.60 meters above the o riginal Roo r, was constnlctcd of a dou ble t hickness of I1Ihifirri!i; at t he summit o fthc
dome. blocks ofl ight pumice replace(1 the tllbi, presum;lhly to create an even lighter structure.;10 The exterior walls of the build ing arc only 0 . 6 0 meters thick, which explains the l"Ollcern for the weight of the dome; moreover, the masonry of the dome and its su pporting arches is Jlot bonded to the outer ~ hell of brick, !Jut tor ms an inner ski n, as it were, to the structure, held up by the interior arc hes and columns.}' I The dome is pierced by eight small holes m ade of fllbi placed perpendicu lar to t he rings of the dome, directly above the eight windows; these were probably for ropes to
suspend lamps in the interior, since the baptismal ceremonies took place at night. HI Two smaller windows on the west and southeast sides of the
building give access to the space between the c:.:lrados of rhe dome and the roof. \1)
A. "" harto]} has re('ollstru('wl elementS of the baptisma l ritual based on the writings of Ambroseof Milan and e~:plains how they would be performed in this struCtu rc. ,li On the cvcning of H oly Saturday. the baptistery wou ld be exorcised by the bishop and clergy, and the bishop took his place in or in from of the southeast absidiole.l'5 T he baptisands emered from one or the t\\'O original doors on the north and west sides (the door on the west side is the only one that is still o pen tOday)\16 and were "'openetl " by havi ng their ears and noses LOuehed. They faced west and rejccted the Oel'il, then faced east and conhrmc(l their allegiancc to Christ. They were then immersed threc times in the font at thc center of the floor. The font that can he seen today, composed of marble and porphyry slahs and columns 3.45 meters wide and 0.84 meters deep, with a semicircular pulpit on the cast side, was built sometime in tlte later A1iddle Ages when the floor level was raised. However, it stands on the fou ndatiOllS of the original fOllt, which, according to nineteenth-cemury e.~ca\'alions, was circular on the inside and 3.10 III across. w Such :1 font, likc those in Nlilan and Rome, provided a vcssel for thc bodily immcrsion of adult initiates who still fOrlll cd the majority of candidates around the year 400. \18 After the immersion, the bishop anointed the new initiates with oil and washed their feet. They were dressed in white garments and proceeded, with their sponsors and the derb,)" into the cathe/l ral for the Easter Eucharist.
R.... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489
9.
The beauty l ll(l mystery of this Ceremony were enhanced by the tlccoration (If the space in which tht:~e rituals tOok place. Agnellu~ lkIys of BiRh(Jp Neon : ~He
Jecoratcd th" baptisteries of lh" UrsiallJ d lUrch most Gcautifully: he set ur in mos~il' Jnd gold I(' s.~cnc the' images of the arostlcs and rn Orthooo.~
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throne in {,,,ms· • j" """h it~clu,....1 ".:cn~,
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the midul e zone
9·
R.... V[N N A AND TH E WESTER.N [MPERO RS. AD 400 - 489
Peter leads the right side of the procession, followed
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An(lrcw, Jamcs, son
ofZeheilee,John, Phili p, and Bartholemew; Paul leads the left side, followed br Thoma s, Matthew, James son of Alphaclls, Simon the Canaa nite, and j\l(lc the Zealot}+! The faces arc individua lized: some 3TC shown as }'OImg
beardless men, some as older men with beards of brown or gray. Peter's and Pau l's faces correspond to the portrait types fOl' these apostles lilready established by the fi fth century, but the fadal features of the others do
not exactly match those of other surviving depictions. ;-l5 T he apostles arc walking on a narrow green ground space that displays the shadows cast by their feet, and stand in front of a d:l rkbluc background. They are separatcd from each other by what S. Kostof call s a "plmt-ed, emulate{! and perhaps competell \vith the imperial palace, '(;¢ at a time in which the bishop was becoming the main :lutborit)' figufe in the (;iryY'7 (Hil ER
F.Pl ~O:; OPA L
elillRell r O US P ATIONS
\Ve know less about other c hurch~ huill in Ravenna in the fifth century, although iTsecms that much morc building activity was taking place. Evidence for other constructions is very ~anty, anll, as usual, comes mostly from Agnellus, ill some cases supplemented by surviving re mJ ins or arc h ~e ologica l evidence. One of the most notable churches built in the first half of the fifth century was 3 large basilica founded in Class!! by Peter C h rysologus, app:lrendy dedicated to Christ and namet] alter its lOunder as the Petriana; it was completed by Peter's successor Ncon )68 Agncllus, who is our sole sou rce for this church, [dIs us that iT collapsed in an ea rthquake in the mid-cighth century and h~d not been rebuilt; he tells \1s;Jw Nodlurch like it in {'(mstruction W:lS brgtr, ei ther in kngth or in height; ~nd it wus 6'Tcatlr mlomc.! with prc(;iou.~ stones anu de(;()rJrcd with Illllici-colorcd mosaics and greatly cndowed with gold and .'iiker and with holy "csscb, whiLh ht IPeter] o rdered to he made. n er say that the re an ill1;1ge of the Saviour was depicted ()\' .. r th .. Ill~in do0 ,"cry bcautiful and lifelikc thut thc Son of God hi1ll~lf in thc Acsh would not h3\'c disliked it, when hc prC3eheu to the n ations ....
Agnellu5 goes on to relate a legend aboutthc image of Christ, from which we le~rn spccifica lly that the image was above the main doors in the narthex. It is difficult ro know whether this srory provides e\·i lli'
MeJ.II;on).
golJ,3·)cm Ji. m.,Museo N ..i"".Io, Rome (COllne')' Mini""ro 1"" i lleni • 1< Ani,itl
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Archeolog;ei Ji Rom.)
supplemented by a few surviving documents in the arch ives of Ra~'cnJla, and by fragments uf man\l~ri pts written in Gothic; archaeology and numismatics, likewise, have added TO our understanding of the Ostrogothic kingdom. As we interpret what these sources tell uS abom Ostrogothic Ra,'cnna, and as we exa m; Ill' the tangible remains from this period of the city's history, we will sec that the city and its monuments hoth reflect and provide us with important infonnation about Thcodcric's ideology, Arian Christian belief, Gothic identity, and Roman and Onhodox reaction 1;0 the new regime.
Theoderi c an d Italy The people who would become the Ostrogoths were rclatiw latecomers to tht "ba rbarian sl.:ene"; a number of small tribes living in the Balkans from the 3Sos to me 'fSos, some of which were undoubtedly connected to the Visigothic community, were gradually consolidated over the course of mar century into one large group.' Theodetic's family, mown after an eponymous ancestor as the Amals, had come to prominence under the Huns, and after the death of Attila they and their followers were offidally settled in Pannonia by the emperor Marcian in 455. The settlement was
TH EODER IC AND
ITA l ~'
uneasy, and at various times the Amal-bl Goths rebcllc did not hay!,' a son to succeed him. III 5 [j he had married his daughter Amalasuintha to Eutharic. a Goth from Spain who was supposedly of the Amal line. Eutharic was named consul jointly with the em peror J ustin in 519, and was atlopted as SOIl-at-arms by Justin, a dear sign that the imperial court rccogni7.Cd him as T hcodcric 's successor. Howl:vcr, there arc hints that Eu tharic did not intend to rule as tolerantly as Thcoderic had, and his clevation may have exacerbHcd anti-Ostrogothic clements among the Roman elite, Amalasuintha and Eutharic had two children, Adlalaric and Mat:lsuintha, but E.mharic diell in )12, when Athalaric was only four or five years old, In these circumstallces, the sources say that in his last years Theolleril: bl..'C3 ll1e paranoid, seeing plots c\'I:rywhcre and striking out at those who h3d formcrly sllpportc(l him, including, most fumously, thc patricians Symm3chus and Boethi us, who wcrC ex('Cutcti on Thcoderic's orders in 514 and/or 515, Thl.' t\1rnarou nd was all the more striking as Bocthius's two sons (who were SYlli llIachus's grandsons) had shared the consulship at Rome in 52!, a mark of high distinctionY' Pope John was sell( on a mission to Constantinople with various other oishops (including Ecdesius ofRavcnna) to persuade the em peror to stop persC '"
uO
RAVEN N A. H I E CAPITAL O f HIE O STROG O THt C KINGDOM
side of the Street were production facilities such as a ceramics kiln and a glass furnacc .- r From the many thou~aO{ls of ceramics fragments found on these sites, we can identify import~, especially from North Aft-iea, but also from Palestine .>gT>1i.: ' '"'5, 6g, 8)
."
RAVEN N A. H IE CAP ITAL O f HIE O STROG O THt C KINGDOM
wealth and intcrprcrc{[ as huming lodges or rural palaces: these existed at Meldola, 35 km southwest of Ravenna along the cOurse of the BidenteRonco River and the aqueduct; at Galcata. 50 km southwest of Ravenna: and at the interestingly named Pal37.wlo, 8 km to the north of the city. ! 03 T hen: is no conrcmporary evidence to link any of these srruC[ures directly with Theoderic, and ind eed they merely indicate that a wealthy class residing in Ravenna was building country houses in the surroul1lling area. The structure ar Palnwlo, measuring ca. 44 x 55 III and taking the form of a forrinC![ villa with associated hath structures, is oft-en idcntinc([ as t he pilla/iII'" 71l1J(/irll7J1 tha t Agllcllus says Thcodcric built on an island, not far from the 5(,'a, in a hath, six miles from Ravenna , during his thn:e-year siege of th(,' City. '001
Theoderic's Other Seell/flr CQllsU"lIcti(ms Various pieces of evidence e.~jst for T hcodcric's other build ing wo rks in Ravenna. 'l 'ht: best docu mented of thes(,' is his repair of the aqlleduct. vVe have already seen that, according to the report of Sidollius Apollinaris, Ra venna's Roman aqueduct was no longer functioning in the 460s. Theoderic's reStoration of this aquetluct was seen as a ma jor feat: T he Allfm)'llllls VIl/UitlJIlIS says that "H e ITheode ricl "esrured the aqueduct of Ra \lenna, which the ruler T rajan had built, and after much time he introd\lced water," and Cassiodorus in his CiJrQlli({l also specifically mentions the restoration of the aq ueduct. ' 0) The reconstruction of the aqueduct was confijmed ill 1f)38 by the discovery in Ra\'CllJla of lead fisllllll~, or water pipes, with rhe inscription DrQlI/il/lIS] N{ostflj Rex TluMrril'lls Cil'itflti Il'dJidit. 'uIi Moreover, in a letter, T heoderic declares to the landowners arQun,1 Ravenna that he has a particular concern for a{lueductS ami charges thelll to clean out all the bushes and sapli ngs that have grown in the channel so that "we will have a fit maintenance of the baths, then the pools will swell with glass-like waves, then the water will cleanse, not stain, an.i it will not be ahl',lYS necessary to rewash things ... if sweet wa ter for drinking shall flow in, all that is used in our food will he better, since no ti:)()d seems pleasing to human life where clear sweet water is lacking." 'o; It is worth noting in this context that aq ueducts in majo r Roman cities sti ll seem to have functioned in the sixth century, and new ones were still being built, for example, as reported by Procopiu s. Rome's aqueducts sri II fu nctioned in thc early sixth century, since they are said to have been eut hy vVitigis during the course of the Gothic \Var in rnid-celltury; Constantinople's aqueduct was cm during the Avar siege of 616.'0 From these examples we can see that one of the actions taken by a besieging ,lrrny was to cut the a(lueduct, al1(1 we can
u,
TH EODERIC'S RAVENNA
p. Marble [lond dcpicring !-lcr· cui.,. "nd the Srug QfCcr;neia, ~arl)' sinh cen _ "'ry,,\l uSCQ Ra'·cnn3 (u) ur. I)' SUl'rinl~n _ dwJ.:opfj Lot:ated juSt outsi de the northeast mrnerof the city wall at the time it was constructed, the mausoleum wou ld have been dose to the small harbor and ~"Oasdine . Th e site by within Ravenna 'seemclXry zone, and graves excavated to the southeast in the mid- nineteenth century contained jewelry identified by archaeologim as "Gothic.~ "o Agncllus refers to its location as "at the lighthouse" (ad forum); as we have seen, Ravenna had a famous lighthouse in the Roman period, mentioned by Pliny the Elder, wh ich may h ..'e given its name to this area, ' " The first thing to note is that. unlike any other building in Ravenna, Theoderic's mausoleum was built not of brieL: but of limcstone that ,.une from lstria, across the Adriatic Sea from Ra~enna. '" The wall surfaces pr(.-sent beautiful S<Juared ashlar blocks, shaped to fit together pcrf~'ttly using the technique of I1nathyrosis. in which the inner surfaces of the ashlar blocks arc made sl ightly conca,'e, so that a perfect fit has only to be atta i n~1:l around the cdge of each block. Somc of the blocks "'cre can'Cd in situ to create the interior wall ~1Jrfu~'Cs; for example, on the interior of the lower chamber. thc corner angles are not made of joins between bloc ks, but instead la rge blocks have been shaped in place with the comer angles cut out of them (Fig. 34). T he arches and lintels are made using "joggled mussoirs," blocks cut with a zig-zag that links with the next block (Fig. 35); this technique, whi le used th roughuut the Ruman Empire in the imperial period, by the sixth century is known to h..'c been used only in the eastern " -lcditerr.l11ean,
..6
RAVENNA . HI E CAP ITAL Of H I E OSTROG OTH Ie KINGDOM
H. ,\tnllsoicum o f T h ~o.dc ri ~,
'-;ew of rhe in'c_ rioro fd,~ low~r
lel'el
which has led to the suggestion that Theoderic imported architects from Syria or Asia Minot (Q construct his lOmb. "l Beneath the finely crafted surfaces, the interior core of the wall s consist.~ of irregu lar blocks of Stone, smaller fragments, and mortar, ';4 T he entire weighty strl,lCnlre rests on a platform of brick ami mortar that is at least 1.5 m deep and rests on the Ilatural sa nd, which extends in 3 circle 7.9 In beyond the corners of the mausoleum. I '5 Originally a fence, com])Qsed of metal grilles supported by thirty carved marble piers, LZ9 III high, su rrounded the building at a distance of +8 m. " ~ T he care taken with the design 31ld engilleering of the buildi ng demonstrates era frsmanship of the highcst Ic\'cl. Tht: mausoleum itself is a centrally plannell building with ["wo srories; each Story is visually articulatecl o n the exterior and h~ s a vaulted chamber on the interior. Centrally pl anned strllCQlres arc typical of Roman elite mausolea, and it is often noted that T hoo(leric's mausoleum imitates Roman im perial mausolea know n from Rome, Spa lato, Milan, T hessalonike. amI Constantinople. "; Although 1Il0St of these strucrures were made of brick, therc is evidence that some, such as the mausoleum o f Augustus in Rome, were plastered and painted on the exterior to look like stone. d Despite obvious similarities. Theoderic's mausoleum also conrained some significant differences frOIll contemporary imperial mausolea. One difference is the fact that while some pre-Christian Roman mausolea had an upper and a lower chamber, after the rourlh century imperial mausolea generall}' had only one level, amI were usually attached to adjacent churches.' ''I Thcoderic's tOlll b was a frcestaluling monum cnt, and although
TH EODERIC'S RAVENNA
'"
35. ,\ busukull1 o f Th ~dc ri ~.
cnlrnncc:. lower len]
it has been argued that one of the chambers took on the functions of a chapel , this layout is found in no other contemporary royal tomb. Some fourth-century pre-Christian imperial exam ples from the Balkans, such as the mausoleum of D iodetian at Spalaro and twO funerary strucrures found at Gamzigral.l , with which Thcoderic would certainly have been familiar, were not ana chell ro churches and had two stories and were moreover made of ashlar masonry making them better models for our monument. I JD \Vc will return to this question. Anodtcr difference is that imperial mausol ea generally had circular or octagonal ground plans, whereas Thcoderie's build ing had ten sides at ground level (Fig. J6). Explanations of dlis feature usually center on dte writings ofBoctilius, who wrOte a treatise on mathematics in which number
.. 8
RAVENNA. HIE CA PIH l O F T I-IE OSTROGOTHI C KINGDOM
36. M,uwl"",,, o r Th"od~ric.
pbn al gruII"'] IC"d showing th stnJcruf"(" ~nd Ihe "rigin~lloc"lion
"fth" fi:nc~ 1>O!o"t!< ("ft~r H eiden_ reichIJoha",,
"""".(j>hoto C L, Snikerj
winged victories set on the comer brackets (Fig. 39). 'J5 While their statues arc somewhat fanciful, this reconstruction corresponds to some of {he imperia l mausolea in the Balkans, which, unlike dIose in M ilan, had a pl ain upper exterior drum set back from a lower colonnade. On the other hand, Svcral scholars ha"c propos~~[ that there was originally mcant to be an arcaded loggia or gallery surrounding this level, composed of shon barrel vaults perpendicular to the walls of the decagon and support~-d by the lu nettes and slots in the walls (Fi g. 40). 'JO Such reconsrructions are based on the proposa l that Thcodcric's mausoleum im itated imperia l mausolea in M ilan, in particubr the now-lost chapel o f San Gregorio at San Vittore al Corpo, the buria l place perhaps of Alaximian or Valcntin ian [I, and the chapel of San Aquilino anachcd to San Lorcnm, each of which had an exterior loggia or "dwarf gallery" at the upper level. 'J) San Aquilino, at least, had only one interior chamber, and morco'-er the loggia was set 31)(l\'e the window w ne, thus did not Rank a door; on the other hand, both Mausoleum z at Gamzigrad and the Tomb of M ausolus at H aliCllmassus had a colonnade at thc upper levcl, and some depictions of the Holy Sepulchre show a similar arrangement. ,)8 Since ultimately we Cllnnot know what was intended or what was built, we can on ly conclude that given the variety of models available to Thooderic and his architects, anyone of the proposed reconstructions would have carried connotations of classical monumental tombs_ The upper chamber is circulu on the interio r, 9.zo meters in diameter, with a small square niche (1.8 meters wide. l .z8 meters dccp, 1.90 meters
TH EODERIC'S RAVENNA
• 3'
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,
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.. 39· ReOlcum of Theodoric, · 7.... ,g9 melers high and estimated 10 weigh over 300 Ions; itS summit rises 15.4' meters alxwe the original ground 1, at the center of which is a raisects simply left it where it was. T he Spllrs themselves may have becn used to help movc the monolith; it has oc'Cn proposL'ry and later a chapel dedicated to St. Theodore, but no evidence of these survives:f9 T he main chu rch, except for the apse, is one of Ra"cn na's bcttcr. prcscrv~-d basilicas, an d the only one fur which tbe decoration o f the nave walls has surviv~-d .
T be church lay immediately to the northwest of the "pabce of Tbcodcric," and was apparently closely connected to tbis building. In most of the scholarly literature, it is calk-d the "palace chapel" of T heooeric, although in trutb we know neither that this is what it w.lS nor what such a designation wou ld mean in the early sixth ce ntury.l° Presumably it was the place where T heoderic ordinari ly worsh iped an d in which certain royal cercmonies tooL:: place, but we do not Imo'" exactly what these "'ould have been.>' As we will s~"C, interpretations of the mosaic imagery, both that which survi,'cs an d tha t which is now lost, often focus on the close connectioll!; between this church and the rOJlllI court. Architecture. The original church buil t by T heoderic had Ix."cn modifi~"d (...·en by the time of Agnellus because tbe apse coHapscd in an earthquake
,.'
REllGI ON IN OSTROG OTH Ie RAVENNA
in the carly eighth Lellttlr~' ; the upper part o f the west f;lcaJc is thought to have fa llen at the same time}' Bomb ([am age in V,rorld ' ,Var I md World ,"Var II a1I0ll'ed excavation anti im'cstig.ltioll of various partS of the building. In 1950 the foun dations of the original apse werc cxnvncd; rhe uaroqul,'
apse, which had been constructed in the sixteenth ('entur~', was shu t off from the church by a reconstruction of the origi nal apse made on the basis of comparison with th e apse ofSaIlto Spirito; many rceem photographs of
the church show this reconstructed apse. This n::construction in turn was removed in 1990-6 an,1 the harOt1ue apse has now been rcopcnctl to the church. "l'hL'Odcric's church, lil.c most of {he other religious strUCt\lrC5 in Ravenna, was buih of reused brick as a basilica with a nave, single aisles tha t wt!re half 350 wide as the nave, and an apse directly connL"Cted to tht! nave that was five sided on the extt!rior and St!mieircular on the interior (Fig. 46).)"1 \ Ve know nothing abou t the eleva tion of the apse, but fragments of tllN .Iimli founel in excavatiom show that it was va ulted in Ravenna's cu~t01mry manner.54 Both the layout ;md the dimensio ns 3re very similar to those of Sa n Giovanni Evangelista, founded by Galla Placidia and ostentatiously imperi al in its decoratioll;5j Theoderic no doubt intended to evoke the earlier rulers of Ravenna in his new build ing . The original ROOT level was 1. 15 - 1.50 m below that of today; the entire colonnade was raised in the sixteenth century together with its arche:;, withou t modifying the mosaics on the walls above (no lIIean technical fead). Originally, then, there must have been another hori7.On(31 zone bctwt;'en the arcade and the currell[ lowest mosaic 'Wne. This rnay have been deconlted with giJded stucco, as Agncl lus describes, and was set oIT from the upper mosaic zones by a mar ole cornice with a palmette and egg-antldan pattem.s6 Agndlus repo rts ~ stOry that the elaoorate marble floor of the basilica was miraculously {\amagetl to prevent a rfX VOIlr!,donllJ/ from stealing the materia ls. From his use of the term i (/Sh"ll ("slab"), and from excavation, it seems that the floor was made of deluxe polychrome OpUJ sertifr.5- Originally there may h;lve been a narthex or atrium of some sort at the western end ofdlC build ing, with three doors leading into the nave and aisles. s H It is )x)ssible that anmher TOmB, llerhaps even the baptistery lllemiOllNI by Agnd lus, was found at the no rt hern end of the narthcx.w Another door on the wall of the south aisle, \x:low the mitlelle window, led directly into the palace ::'o The nave colonnade. of nvelve columns o n each side, had bases, ca pita Is, and impw;t hlocks fashioned from marble from the island of Proconnesu s ncar Constantino ple, all dating to the early sixth century (Figs. 47,48). They must have been made and exportetl as a set, the earliest such example
ARIANISM AND TH I GOTH S
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th«itpnJ port
us that the church was built by Theoderic and dcwrated at the time of its rededication to Orthodoxy under Archbishop Agllc1 lus, it is assumed that th~ twO phases uf the mosaic det'r stOry and roof al)(Wt:. V/ingell victory figures fill the spandrds abovc the colonnade.'t>.: The openings of the colonnalle. like the two arches flanking the central one, are nlled with a llark purple background . On the right side of this archit<X'tural unit is a large stone gateway, labeled CIVITAS RAVENN(/\$), with rou nd towers flankin g a singlt: entrance and three small figures depi pa/flfil/l11
facade, except fo r the central
arch with the gold background, '-'j stood ligures who wc re purged in the
Orthodox rcdcdicnion of the church (Fig. 55) ' The fi~rurc in the Ravenna gateway at the right Illay have been seated, ,]6 but in the intercolumniacions, figures stood with their hllllds raise(l in a gesture of acclamation. On the first, third, fifth, and eleventh colulllns, respectively, from the left we can see the rel1laitl~ of hands belonging to these figures ( Fig. 54)' T hey must have looked very like the figures of the Publican an(l the P harisee depicted in the north wall's upper wne. The figures between the columns were clreful1y excised , tessera by tessera, and replaced with the curtains seen today. the pediment of the central arch of the pllliltim11 a figure or figural group was also purged. Most scholars want to see it as a de piction of Theoderic, be" unci ",::IS whi ppo:cI hy the \':\1"ious injuries ilJlJ Ji\"ers;;, blows of the J ~ws. Of hilll it is wriHen, "He h'ITh borne ollr infirmities :lnd c~rried ol1r sorrows: lind we h:ll'e dlOUght him :IS it wen: " leper," etc., ~ncl thcu, "he '01'115 wounded for OUI" iniquities, h., w"s c rucified for O llr sins." H e who offered his gift in white signifies that He exists in divine cb ,iry aft .... th" ,""surre-crion. For lik ... wise the three predous gifts conLlin divine myste ries in them , th'lt is, by goM is meant reg'll wealth, by frankincense the figure nf the prk!'t, by myrrh death, thus through all thc$C rhings they show him 1"0 be the one who undertook the i n i qllirie~ of men, th"r is Chrisr. ... \Vhy did not foul", not si.~, 01" IlOt.tWO, lout on ly these dlfee come from the cast? So that ther might ~' n tircl)' 5i~'1 1 ify the perfect ple nitude nf th~' T rinity.
This e.~egesis of the three ,\Il agi seems to have been culled from an unknown sermon thnt no longer exists, perhaps one written by a past bishop of Rallcnna. ,6, The fact th~t visual n:ferenccs arc found in a sermon indicates the way in which sermon and image might work together in the course of the liturgy. In particular, this scrmon cmphasizes the divine and human natures of Christ and the COnsl! bstantial T rini ty, both concepts that were particularlyanti.Arian. It is often remarb:(1 [hat, except tor [he Nlagi in the procession, scenes from Christ's infancy arc ahsent from the church. It should first be nOted that much of thc origi nal mosaic (lecQration is mi~sing, and in parti Another explanation that work, ill parallel, already noted. is that the vir· gins and martyrs, and thc male figures above them, represent the hC;l\'cnly ARIAN ISM AN D H ·I E GOT H S
of amphorac and mortar. Some havc secn this as a sign that workers werc brought in from Constantinople tor these buildings. " I Overall , the Arian Baptistery's diameter is 56 percen t of that of the O rthodox Baptistery, and the dome's height is 76 percent ofthe height of the Orthodox Baptistery.:!~ It is generally assullled tha t the smaller size is beca use of the Ininorit), stams of Arian Christianity ill Ravelma, al though we sho uld not forger that a second baptistery existed JUSt (loWI\ the street at Sant'A]x>ilinare Nuo\'o, perhaps daring back (Q the Ostrogothic period . The apsidinle on the cast side is willer and deeper (z.80 meters wille, ".75 meterS deep) than the others (z . [ 0 III wide, [.73 m dee p), and its 1100r k'Vd was apparently raised a step above thc rest ofthc space, pe r h~ps separated by a rJiling. Each of the absidioles had on least one slIIail niche cut into the lower part of the wall (the only part that is preserved). perhaps to hol!lliturgical illlpl ement~. These niches are not original, but stem from some later period of usc. The remains of small brick altars, Ilot frolll the original pha~e of builliing but installed at a later point, were found in the >Duth and west absidio1cs; perhaps one was the altar of St. Nicholas mcntion"u by Agncllus. :l' ·f he font. which was removed at some point, possibly when the buil(ling was reconsecrated, was not in the exact center of the building. but was oriented slighd}' to the east of center. ,,6 T he purpose of the deeper eastern apse is not known. Many late antique baptisteries ha\·e one prominent apse, and it may have contained the throne of the bishop. " i Interesti ngly. six graves have been excavated within the octagon; they broke through the original pavement and must have been installed before the 6rst rcpaving.:,8 The usc of a baptistery as a funerary cha pel is somewh,l l ullusual . M . t'I'lazzotti proposell that the burials occurred when the huildi.ng was rededicate!] from Arian worship as a way of marking the fact tha t it was no longer a baptistery. n? On the other hand, we know that burial in bapristeries was not unknoll'n in late antiquity, since lall's against it were p~ ssed by church counci ls.>w On the interior, excavations of 1916-19 and also of 1969 revealed large amounts of mmaic and stucco fragments, and bits of painted imitation marble were found at the lower edges of the south and east ab~id ioles. :J l T he only decorations th,1t hol\!e been presen'cJ arc the mosaics of the dome (PI. /\· b). These were restOred in The seventeenth cenrury and again in the mid- nineteenth century, but these repai rs cOll sistell mostly of sma ll p~ tche5. except for the lower halves of the fOllrth and fifth apostles who follow St. Peter; thus, the original iconogra phy is intact. Based on differences in workmanship and materials, it seems clear that the work was done in different phases or by different arti,t~. :}l Deiclunann, following G . Gerola,
.s.
,8.
REliGI O N IN O STROGOTH Ie RAVENNA
6 ,. "';3n B"rtist.-r)" cem ...JI n,~d"lIio"
dq,ict_
ing the baprism of Christ
proposed thal the mosaics were made in twO phases: the first, contemporary with construction, would consist of the central medallion, throne, Peter, Paul , and the apostle behintl Paul. The rcmaimier of the mosaics would ha ve
beell set in the mid-sixth century. 'll C. O. Nordstrom instead proposed three periods of composition: the first consisting of the cenr.ralmcdall ion;
the second the th rone and Sts. Pefer, St. Paul, and his follower; and the third the rest of the figllTcs, bllt Nordstrom docs not S\lppoSC a large chronological break between the phascs.' H It should be remembered that the buil(l-
ing, begun perhaps as carly as 500, would not ha\'c been turned over to the Orthodox Church until ,61 or later; thus. all of the decoration was proba bly made duri ng the building's Arian period. The mosaics of rhe (lome consist of two zones. In a cemrall11edallion, set off frOnl the outer eircle by a dt.'Corati\'e wreath, is a (iepiction of the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist (Fig. 6 1). John stands on a rocl..y prominence in the right of the circle, his right hand 011 the head of Christ. John is dressed in a spotted tunic lind carryi ng a shepherd's crook; he is bearded, 31l1i has no halo. In the center, the nucle Christ stands in the waters of the river Jordan, Wllich reach almost to his waist; he is beardless wi th
ARIANISM AND TH I GOTH S
"3
6,. An,n 110.1>timf)', SIS. Pe! and Fig. 26) reveals both striking simi larities and difrerenct's. Whi le the similarities im ply that the Arian artists were 1lI01ieling their imagery 011 that found ill the earl ier building, it is the dificrenccs that have caugh t the attention of scholars who hope to idcnti~' in them some hint.s of Arian theology Or religious practice. As we will sec, the search (or A,·jflll meaning has obscured (he even 1110re radical nlmic meaning tha t is found i.n th"
imagery in the I>aplistery. First let us examine the si milariti es: the scene of Christ's baptism with
John the Baptist, a nude Christ, the river Jordan, the dove, the water of
the Jordan, surrounded by a procession of apostles, repeats the Orthodox design . Enthroned crosses likewise are found in the third zone o f the Orthodox Bapti5tcry. The diA'erences can be listed as (0110,"'5 (excluding matrers relating to the heads, do~·e, and hands of John the Baptist in the Orthodox Hap tistelY, which, as we have already disc ussed, ,1 re a reconstruction):')!!
Orthodox
H~ptisTe ry
}\ri;lT1
H~ pri5te ry
j ohn the Baptist on the viewer's left ) dla( the aposcles olfer theiT crowns to the eternal presence o f Christ. as symbolized by rhe cross on rhe throne, rather than to the hapril'.e(] Son or Go!!. '~!J The throne
is aligned with the dove of the Holy Spirit and with Christ in dl(~ baptism scene, linking the three, and some have seen it as representing God the Fathcr.' 5° O thers have seen the tbronc as symbol ic of the bishop who performc{[ the ceremony or ~s emph ~ si7. i ng the sillli1aritie~ between G(){[ and king. '5 ' F i n ~ l l y. crowns being offered to a throne ~I so e\'oke the image of the twenty-tour elders of the Book of Revelation, and thus lhe empty throne becomes an frill/{{s/tI, also a reference to the Second Coming of Chrisr.'p One imen"sting {Juestion hcre, as we h;we already seen in thc O rthodox Baptistery, is whether the apostles are in fact offering things to the throne or receiving things fr01l1 it. TJl this cl epiction, Peter and Paul arc hold ing kcys and scroll. obje{.·ts that thl.'Y \1S11a lIy n.'Ceive from Christ; thus, as we have already seen in the Orthodox B~p[ istery, the apostles here may be receiving thei r crowns from God/Christ, JUS t as the baptisnnds do. 'H One final unusual aspect of the procession is that the apostles are nOt laueleSY although nonc of these arc mnnel:tcil to sideburns. Du tton t:onclmlcs th ~ t Thcodcric was depicted in this way to distinguish him fro m Romansj,6 at the Icast, thcse coin portraits show that the mustache was a type o f facia l h ~ir known at the Ostrogothic coun. Ennodius pokes fun H his friend Jovinian '5 Ililr"tl go/b iNI and bllrlt"riCii j:uie.,', implyi ng that a distim:til'e type offaeial hair was worn hy Goths ami those whownnted to look like them!6, I \\'oul{\ arguc that this mustachiocd al)()stlc wa s intended visually to make the point that Goths were part of the Christian 1.:ommunity. When fac ing west and looking up atthe baptism scene, one docs not sec the easily recogni7.abh: Peter, Paul, and And rew, om their marc gcncric followers. T h\ls, the G m ilic oaptisand, in ~ lil1itioll to associating himself with Chri~t, al!iO cou ld associate himself with the 10110wers of Christ. iJ1Jeed, the very lack o f labels allows this amoiguity, as it then becomes possible to understand the~e figures as both apostles and ChriStians of associated ages and backgrounds rcceiving their baptisma l crowns. Ultimately, the only features that can be clearly identified as "Arian " ahout these mosaics is the fact that they are different fro m those in me Ol'rhodax Baptistery. As S. CUl11mim notes, the fact that these mosaics were !lot changed or destroyed UJXIIl the Orthodox rededication means that they were not offensive to the O rthodox and did !lot osteJlta tiously represent Arion doctrine. I", At the most, as we ha~'e seen for the ChristoJogical cycle in Sant'Apol1i nare NuO\'o, a lIiewercould COIllC up wi th an "rian interpretation of certain fCaOlteS, bm l,'(]ually li kely could provide an Orthodox explanation. However, whLle the im;lges may be theologically neutral, the Arian Baptistery's iconography accommodates the inhabitants of Ostfogothic Ra \'enna in what was certainly all Ariall context, but with an ethnic spin.
The Orthodox Church in Ostrogothic Ravenna \Vhi!e Ravenna was under Ostrogothic rule, its Orthodox bishops, John I (4 77- 94), Peter IT (494- 51 0), Aureliall (51 I), Ecdesius (511 - 31). Ursicinus (533-6). alltl Victor (538-45), had to share episcopal authority wi th
" 7
REll G ION I N OSTROG OTH Ie RAVEN N A
.88
oy
the t\riall oishops inStalled Thcodcric and the exalted position that they had establishell under the emperOrs may have slippcl[ somewhat. Never-
theless, for most of the period the Orthodox bishops seem to ha \'c been sllpponcd by the Ostrogothic rulers. A letter in the Varia!' indicates that Theorleric had treated Ravenna's Orthodox Church with favor, sillce the church o f Milan asks for simi!al' pdvileges. while in another, Theodahad asks J ustinian to favo r the business ;1 ffairs "of the Ravenn ate Church. ' '''J As we have seen, there were religious tensions in Ra venna during the latter part.of T hcodcric's reign, and these may well have included opposition between Arians and the Orthodox Church.'6.t There also sccm to hal'c heen tensions within Ral'cnna's OrrhlXlox C hnrl.:h, whi!.:h might refle!.:t the strains imposed by O srrogothic rule. H 'hH is d ear is that when Ravenna emerged from the !.:haos of the Gothic Vla rs, the bishop had l)ttome one of the dominant figures in the !.:it}'. Our nnderstanding of the rolc of the long-serving Pctcr II i~ compromisc!1 by thc fa!.:t that hi!; biography is confnsed by Agncllus with that of Pcter TChrysologus. As we hll l'e seen, he sided with T hcoderic in the control'ersy ol'er the J ewish synagogue of 519 and he st:ems to have worked well with Theoderlc. H is name appears in various synodal documems and letters, indicati ng that he was considered to be tOllrth in rank among the dergy o f Italy, behind the pope and the bishops o f Milan and Aquileia.,6S In Ravenna Peter 11 undertook three building proje!.:ts: a chapd (the Mp Parts of this building were modified in the sixteeorh and seventeenth cenOlries, and in particular the apse of the chapel was completely removed and rebui lt during the extensive reco nstructions that were executed between 191 1 ~nd 1930 , but much of the building SIlTvives in its original form. '-j The decoration of the chapel has been heavily resto red everywhere, based on the careful analysis of sun'iving traces of the original as described in detail by G. Gerola . Thc chapel is preceded by a narthex, or ent'ry hall, whose doors opencd on the southwest to a rriangular space adjacent to the rower (walled up in the Byzamine period), on the nOrthwest to the hallway of the building, and on the northeast, through lllhick wall into the chapel (Fig. 65). The floor was originally covered with an opus scaife pavement made of marble from Proconnesus and elsewhere, whose panern was recovered from surviving traces of lllortar.,-8 The lower parts of the walls were originally covered
and eb,!>,,1 (ar,,,.
Gcrob.
1'.I3~)
'9'
REllGI ON IN OSTROG OTH Ie RAVENNA
by a revetment of large slaos of marhle, again now entirely restored with Prl)(;()nllesian marble, as describe,[ by Agnel1us . li~ The brick harrel \·ault is covered with a mosaic of an abstr.lct pattern oflilies, discs, and birds agai nst a gO] ll backgrmmd (Fig. 66). M1lCh ofrhc southl,';lstcrn wall is taken up with a large window (much al tered and now completely reswred); the mosaics above the window aTe not original. Over the northwestem door is a mosaic
depicting a youthful Christ (Iressed as warrior·cmperor, trampling on a lion and a serpent in a rocky landscape with a gold background; the lower parr of this image is entirely restored. , No Christ holds a long-handled cross in his right hand and an open book in his left, which displays the words "Ego S\I111 via, \'erit~s ct, vita'" (John '4:6). Agncllus (luOtcS the lengthy inscription, which he says was fou nd in the narthex. ,~, The restorers found small fragments i dent i ~alJle as rhe ends o f some of [he lilles, indicating lhat this was a mosaic inscription covering the upper part of the long w311 s of the narthex and they recreilted it ;In ;ordingly. ,lI, The fim part o f the inscription is notable for it.s emphasis on light and the metaphor of its r~diance in a small chapel: Either light was bom hcrf)
' 96
REllGI ON IN OSTROG OTH Ie RAVENNA
lambs, and the monogram of Bishop Peter, and arc set off by abs tract bonler~ from the other eJemento;. At the apex of the vault is ~ gelid c/Jris"IIMI agai nst a blue background set within a medallion. It is held IIp by four angels, haloc(l , \\ringcd. and (IrCS5cd in white nmics and pallill and standing on green spi ts of ground at rhe four corners. Between the angels, the four beasts of the Apocalypse, here holding books and thus s)'mholi7.ing
the fou r tvangelist.gr,,,,,) 5{nK!llrco was built by Julian and his son -in-law Bacau Gregory me G reat records severe Hooding in Rome and Verona in 581); this is presumed to have been caused by exccssive rain.4 T aken together, lIlany scholars propose tha t the sixth century markrd the I:x:ginning of a cooler and wette r period. known as the V;llldal Minimum, that lasted until around abom 85 0.s At the sa me time, the urban an(l rural po pul ations of Italy were devastated by the bubonic plague wh ich hit Italy beginning in 543 and reUlrned in sllccessive waves until the 7405, Mortality ra tes are almost impossible to deduce, but some scholars think that it must havc been sim ilar to tbe Black Death, killing- 30 percent 01" more of the population, at least ill urban areas. Outbreaks of the disease are documented in Ravenna for the 560s, 591 - ~, and 6 00-1.6
10,,"
RAVENNA'S EAl1.lY IWlANTlN[ PERI O D. AD 540- 600
In Italy, cities Were devastated both by these natural events anti by debilitating warS, firs t bt:tween the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines, and then the Byzantines and the Lombards. M ilan was sacked and destroyed in 539. Rome changed hands four timcs in the t:ourse of the Gothic \,Var, which, comoined wid} the plague, led to dramatic depopulation, dle disappearance of the Senate, alld a com plete reorgani7,ation of the city's social order.? In other places the changes may have been less dramatic, although ceruInly many citk'S experienced a continuation of a decline that had been marked since the thini or fourth cenUlr},. i\urhors from Procopills to (;rego'1' the Grcat describe landscapes denuded of 1I1en; whether these aTC rhetorical exaggerations or ind icatc a demographic crisis in the countryside is nor yet resolved .$ Some of these disasters must ha\'e hatlnk)
Vl b. Son Viul •• n ..... ,;c uf "'"
.""th fll">bil.I (pOOlu S.). Me\)onoog!>l
VII •. Son Vi .. lo. """.i d ictated, a!> earlier, by logistics and case of transport to Constantinople, uy secu rity, by pn:stige, an.l by the fact that if there wen: still any bmea ucratic insti tutions survivi ng, they wou ld have been foun d in Ravenna. Ro me remainCI1an importanu:cnrer, and, a5 previously, the rulers o f Italy preferred to keep some distance between themselves and Rome's f U lers, now increasingly the popes In place of the defunct Senate. Rllvenna, as the home of the army and the civil administration, re mained iIIl()OrtaIH !>orh practi1.:aJly and ideologically, and retained a stronger ,-'Conomy longer than most other contemporary urban centers. T he long war with the Byza ntines had destroyed the Ostrogothic king· do m - nor just the warriors, but the entire go\'ernmental sysrem creatcI1 by Theoderic. The [3X system broke down under the impact of the wars and ofthe demogrll phic crises. Order had to be resto red, and in .-;:;4 J ustinian issued an imperial ellict known a~ the Pl'llgmatic Sanction, which details how this was to be achieved. " It is notable that J ustinian cl~ims to h~ve issued the decree at the re{lueSt of Pope Vigilius and that it i~ a(ldressed to the milita ry commander Narscs and the Praetorian P refect Antiochus. The Pragmatic Sanction is a cmious doculllent, anempting to portray (he new sodal and politic;ll order as the reimposition of the best elements of the prewa r era. Laws promu lgated by Amalasu intha , Athalaric, and T heodahad were to be respected, but nOt those of To til a; property that had changell honds during the waf was to he restored to its original owners. Payments to gmlll'llltltiri, orators, doctors, and lawyers were to be continued so that knowledge and education \you ld continue to flourish !" Senators were rcc· ognizea as imlxmant political fi gures, hut the edict includes a number o f notable politica l changes: The right to elect provincial governors (illilim) was no\\' granted to bishops a~ well as local magnates, and the sallie tWI) groups were ma(lc rcsponsi hlc for military requisitions, a recognition thar the allthority of hishops was now an important dement in local politics. Conditions changed so rapidly in the decades after 540 , especially after fhe Lombard conquest, that the new conditions do not seem to have been well receivc{1 by J ustinia n's Italian su bjects or eyen to have appl ied at all. '~ The Roman Senale is last mentioned as a fu nctioning body in .')80 ; personal names with links to senatorial fam ilies disa ppear by the early seventh ctmury. T he scnators ha(l becn appointed uy the emperors and then the Ostrogothic kings; the removal of central authority Qut of Ita ly after the Gothic \Var meant that senators tOO h;ld to remove to Constantinople in order to maintain access (O COHrt ap pointments and some 3re known to have clone SO. '5 Their pb ce was taken by a new hierarchy of officials whose authority derived from their mililary role, as has been described by T. Browll .,I, Byzantine rule in Italy was marked by almost continuous milit·.\ry activit),. ' \!hen the BYGantine army hrst ap peared in Italy, its cOlllmanders 3ssullled
uy
RAVENNA'S EAl1.lY IWlANTlN[ PERI OD. AD 540- 600
complete authority over the territory that was regained from the Ostrogoths. lndeed, in a war situation, what else (:oulll have happene& Narses, in particular, set abou t thc task of restoring order in It aly, until he was relieved in 506; in la rer accounts he W35 accused of enriching himself with the property of Italians.'! By then, the army had been fighting for thirty years, and the authol'iry of military commanders in ci\' jl a/rail's had become clltrenchell. \Vhen in 565 a civiliall Praetorian Prefect. Longi ll u~, was appointed to have an equivalent measure o f authority, he was almost immed iately rcq11ired to assume a signilil.:am military role in the aftermath of thc Lomba rd invasion .'11 After that, the continuous Lomba rd mil itary th reat meant that army officers rose to thl.' top of the hil.'Tarchy in Byzantine h aly, By the year 600, the leader o f By"..antine adm inistration was a figure (.'alled the exarch. T his office seems to have developed sometime after the Pragmatic Sanction; the term r,fll1·cbll.' firs t appea rs in h aly in 584, but not as an official title, amI sub~e(l uently it often appears in con junction with pfltririllJ.'9 Other people with \' arying degrees of au thority, most nota bly thl.' ci\'il ian prefects, also appl.'ar in the yea rs bctofl~ 6 00 ) It Sl.'ems (;Iear, however, tha t from the time the title eXII1'cbllf first appeared, exardls exercised both military an([ civil authori ty), T he e:.:archs were always sent from Constantinople, but we do nOt know the criteria hy which such officials were chosen, 0 1' how long th ey m ight have eXliected their official te nure to last. \OVh enever one died or was m urdcred, a new onc was sent nut, and occasionally there arc refere nces to changes UJXln the accession of a new cmperor. Se\'eral exerci,ed authority hllice. others fo r mo re than te n yC;lrs at a stretch (sce the list in Ta ble +). Below the exarch, the ,,'overnment that was centered on Ravenna was composed of hoth [oLaI and fore ign officials who perlormed a variety of functions. Individuals with mi lital}' titles slich as lIIagirter lIIilillilll, dllx, and tl'ibl/lll/J also exercised civi[ functions in the late ~i xt h ccntury) ' Before 600, at 11.'3st, thcsc autho rity figurcs wcre scnt to Ravenna from Constanti nople ami came with contingcnt.~ of trOOps, sometimes recruited from among thc barbarian populations of the Balkans and someri mcs brought directly from the east.H Some o f these officials and soldiers bought 13111131111 settled down in h aly,;l trend that wou ld actclerate in the following dtclules.H On the other hand, most o f the derks, tax collectors, 3n(\ o ther bureaucrats secm to have.- been drawn from thc local popula tion. And in addition to thl.' representatives of imperial government, Ravcnna also rctained its ciry council, or CIIrin,;lS late;ls 015, which functioned as the body that cerrified and prcscn'cd [cgal doculllcnts and collectcd taxes) i Thus, thanks to i~ statu~ as a IlOlitic;)1 center, Ravenna remained;) cosmopolitan ci ty with ;Ill ethnically divcrsc population whose st'.l.tUSCS and
TH E AR C H BISH O PS O F RAV EN NA
roles were in flux in this period. Analyses of papyrus docu ments show dtH people with G(lthic-Iooking n~mes umtinued to exist in Ravenna up to the end of the sixth century, alongside ind ividuals with Greek or eastern names. Scholars arc dividcd over the qllcstion of how many Greek-spea kers there were in Ravenna at any time; we know that a norable medical school, wi th an emphasis on Greek medical te,-1:S, existed at Ravenna in this pel'iod, ,6 ;11111 some (Iocuments arc signed in Greek or in Latin using Greek charactcrs, but Larin remai ned the common and official language); Bankers, silk merchants, doctors, and not~ r ics :lrc all :lttcstcd in rhc documcnfi; and uear witness to a still -thriving economy . Indeed, the new administratlon malic cvery attcmpt to ~tress that afFairs were continuing as usual in [he capital city of Italr. I mmediately after 540, RaVe1\11a'S llllnt began producing gold coins on the imperial model amI continued right through the Byzantine period [0 prolluce coins in gol{l, silver, and bronze. ,S The cxa rchs moved into Thcoderic 's p;liace,JY which, as e;l rly as 57!, was rde rred to as t he $fI(HIlfI pfI/fltilllll, a deliberate imitation o f the designation of the imperial palace in COllstall tinople.-t" Other (Opographical designations in ,111artiClllarly signifi~"nt that early Christian martyrs and episcopal saints were claimed for Ravenna at the same time that the archbishops were claiming new status and privilegcc, th [)ioce'; di lUv1 Ovviously, further study i~ retluired to tletermine the original for m of the builtling. If Eec\esius's chmch of the Virgin had originally been a twelve-sided polygon, it woul(l have followed earlier prototy pes such as the Church of the Nativity in Bcthlehc m ,9~ the church of the Virgin ill Jerusalem, and the shrine of the Virgin at Blachemat:' in Constantinople, the latter twO cxaml>ks bui lt in thecarly to mid- sixth cemury.¢' Perhaps Ecdesius's trip to
CHURCH BU I LDING
'"
,.....,.....,..... ..,.....,.. , .~
the capital inspired him to build some of the new, domed shrines in Ravenna; certainly we can see this influence in his other foundation, San Vir:ale.
The church of San Vir:ale is unquestionably a building "like no other in ltaly.""'7 Built a'...."Ording to a design that rcflt:Ctcd the most up-to-datt archiwctural ideas from Constantinople, it has impressed visitors since the time it was founded, both because of its unusual and irnpressi'·e layout and because of the beauty and splendor of the mosaics that are still prL'SCr,·ed in its presbitery and apse. Founded by Bishop Ecdesius during the reign of Amalasui ntha, it reAcets a InU ltirudc of ideologies and concepts in its design and dL"(."(lration . The construction of this church esr:ablishc.:! St. Vir:aJis as Ravenna's chief martyr. The origins of this cult and its connL"Ctions to Ravenna are obscure, but it is somehow connected to the riva lry betwL~n the sees of ,\'iI3n and Ravenna. St. Ambrose of Milan famously discovered the relics of Sts. GefV:lse and I'rotasc in M ilan in 386, and huused them in a grtat hasilica;»8 Ambrose also found the relics of St. Na zari us in Milan, and in Bologna
16. San .. M.ri. ,\l oggK><e, pt.n of the"1"" (.fI.. lJeVeral baptisteries and possibly Sama Maria Maggiore, none was as large as San Vitale and none had such a complex layout. San Vitale is a double-shell oct:.lgon, that is, a building with a domed octagonal core surrounded hy 1 passageway (Fig. i8). t\t San Vit:.lle, the ccntra I core (33 meters in diameter) is surrounded on seven sides by an ambulatory with a SI..·..:ond-story gallery above it (40 meters in diameter toral); the eighth side, to the cast, opens inTO a high vault~-d presbitery and an apse, polygonal on the exterior and circular on the interior, that projecrs beyond the exterior octagon (Fig. i9). The apse is Aanh-d to the north and south by round chambers with rectangular Ilrrow/ill on the eastern and western sides. Access to them is provided from the ambulatory via sma ll r~'Ctangular chambers that fill the space between these chapels and the apse. Remarkably, there were dcors on all seven exterior walls of the church , five of which It"lc r~""IJ II""t o n the o me r "'~lIs
o( the ,,,"bubroty (Odd",,,,nn, tY7 6• !,I. 47; l"ou rtesy FrJn z Slein~rVcrlag.
Srllttg:1n. Germ",lY)
,,6
RAVENNA'S EAl1.lY IWlANTlN[ PERI OD. AD 540- 600
revealeJ two segments of the original mosaic, 80 em hdow the later floor; the entire level was then lowered to the original b 'el, and the eighteenthcentury scgl1lcnt~ were·replaced by lhe origi nal (restored) mosaic. The floor
currently in the prcsbitcry and apse was created between ' 9' [-36. ' ~ ~ Overall , it is dear dlH the sculptural and decorarive elements help [0 denne a hieral'chy of space in the church. The most elaborate elementscolumns, capitals, ilIl()()St blocks, and opus sufii/' - are use Mllseo Nazionale), and a ri/lorimll, all made ofProconnesian marble. One can easily see how important Julian's !6,ooo gold .,-olidi were to this project!
Mosaics. T he brilliance of the mosaics in the pn:sbitery and apse of San Vitale is oven vhclming, :I1l.1 no reproduction can do j11Stice to the su btle colors and to the ever-changing effects of light. T he arch leading into the pn:sbitcry, the walls on either side, and the valdts and apse arc covered with SOllIe of Ravenna's finest mosaic work, which, although many times restored , still display the effects and the iconography created in the sixth centu ry. Color, predominantly green and gold, is used to achieve subtle eftects; '~;] the faces o f many of the figures are wOl·ke(1 with a marvelous attention to physiognomic detail. [ 50 A range of imagery is displayed, inci llding depictions of the impt:ria l court, scenes fro m the Old T cscament, Old and New T esta mem holy figures, abstract but symbol ic ornament, and the central tlg111·e of Christ fl anked by Vitalis and Ecdesius. Much of the imagery is related to the celebration of the Eucharist [hat took place ill this space, but there is plenty of o ther symoolk meaning ~s well. These images have provide3rtS of human figures, including thd r skin, whilc the second style uscs green for scenic backgrounds an d stone tesserae for the skin ufhuman figures. ' >! The first style is used in the apse mosaies, the vault of the presbitery, and the top of the arch that leads from the presbi tery in to the core, whereas the second style is used on the walls of the presbitery, the lower parts of the presbitery HI;;h, and for the hea,ls uf Maximian and the man who stands between him and Justinian. Some r.cholars ha~e interpreted the two styles as deliberately different modcs of representation, with the more natural istic hackgrounds and figures suitable for Old Testament subjectS and the more hieratic, formal poses with gold backgrounds for the Christian images in the apse . 'H While it is possible that this might have been in the minds of the ,,·orkshop responsible for the Old Testament scenes, it is more likely, as pointc and a slight hea rd on his Jean, intenSe face, The perspective in this cotllJXIsition is vcry ambiguous, which is probably (lclib(,>rar(,>; from the position of the feet, l\'laximim ~eems to lead the entire procession, closely followed by twO deacons, dressed alike in white, who hold a jewel-encrusted Gospel boclk and a censel' burning incense (the tOnsure of the (leacon on the left is a t\1ielfth-cenrury modification). "'5 Justi nian is the first secular figure in the procession, ami he is followe the first twO are allotted more space than the others, who crowd togt'ther on the right.hand si de, perhaps to echo the arrangement of the men opposite, T he faces of these women are less differentiated than those of their male counterparts, but their dothing is much more splendid, displaying a range of texti le patterns, l'Olors, and designs; interestingly, some of them have embroidered srgmmtd on their mantles or tunics, The six women at our right have walked through another entryway, which has a short curta in of red, white, and blue stripes above it. \Vho arc all these people, and what are they doing? First, i( is clear that what we see is an idea li zed presentation of an emperor, empress, and thei r courts at an l'Cdcsiastica I ceremony, rather than a depiction of a spe ..Ii'
86. Son \"1""cc)
RAVENNA'S EAl1.lY IWlANTlN[ PERI OD. AD 540- 600
>,6
the south wall is [SAlAS ll saiabJ, like Jeremiah but with a close(! scrolL On
the
eaSt
sides of the lunettes we find three S reportS the dedicatory inscription in the \'3\I[t of the apSe: H ~\'i ng n:ccjl'co l~nc fits (1""Lfiri(l) of rhe 'lJ'Ch'lngcl ,\'I it h'lc ]. B~c:luda Jrld Julian h ~ ,'(' made from rhe fonndationS:llld dcd icHed [th ischun;h] 011 7.\b y, the fourth year ;Lfh;r the consubhip of B,1~ililiS (he yOull£,.... r vir d,'ri...,·inllls consul. in tht: !:Idl indiction [dIe yeu 5451.
Agnellus claims that Bacauda was the son -in-law of Julian and that he was buried ill a nearby tower, but in fact we know nothing about him, although two men with rhis name arc known to have been political appointees of ThcOOcric."9 Nor do we know why he and Juli an together might hal'c sponsored this church, although it(;ame about because thc.'Y both attributed sOllle act of beneficence to St. Michael. The inscription is curious because no bishop is mentioned as having consecratl:d the church; and il1(lee{] there was no hishop ofRavennn ill Mny of 545.:' ° As already lIoted, this church was hastily built and secms to havc been hastily dedica ted. 'l-Vhat rn ight have been the need for such haste? I would suggest that the hnanl from which Michael preser.cn in cxcellent repair in the ninth cennlry, h\lt no later documents mention it or its loc;!tion. No fragments of marble or other materbls are assigneu to this chu rch; no location has been identifleu for it. no excavations have revealetl any part of it. A~ we see what Agnell us says, we will see how remarkable this is . The church of St. Stephen was l()(;ated "not far from the postcruln Ovi/iQl/i.f," thus in the northwest corner of the city, somewhere around Santa Croce. I t thus fornll.'d part of the large e,·c1esiastical complex that h,l(liJcen growing up in this area since dle tillle of Ecclesius. Agnellus gives me tle; studies in the ,8205 showed that an earlier church had been builton top of older Roman buildings dating from the first to (he fifth century, but there is no evidence for the original dale of the church.' lo I( was a basilica with, oddly, its apse orien ted to the north; it is possible that it ,,'liS Originally a Roman building that was fL'Used.' ; ' The cleventha:ntury basilica was 40 melers long an d lO meters wide, with a triumphal arch ~UPIK)rte !.>cyond ,·cry general ones in the fifth and sixth century "'ere obtlined.'7'> Cortesi subsequeml y pro]"ICI5Cd that the building had not been a basi lica church but a large U-shaped bui lding of a type kno"'n in Rome as a comurrriu11t, or funerary basilica.'?' Both proposals seem "cry uu likcly, and, in fact, Cortesi ex~.vated only a very smali]>art of the ("(lmplex. Until further eAcavations can be carried out, all that can be said is that the structure "'as large and elaborate.'l' Finally, Agnellus adds the odd stlternem about the church orst. Probus: "And in no churches inside thc city of Ravenna or Classe is the mass celebrated over the people except in tbis one alone.''' Il The mention of the mmll sup" popu/um suggests that an older liturgical practicc w.JS maintlined only in this basililo, but it is not dear ",hat the phrase means. A. Testi-Rasponi suggested that it refers to a praycr said by the bishop over the people, the umr;6 SUP" pofJul/l11l !mown from liturgical manuscripts, ",hile G. Gerola noted that else",here Agnellus says the bishop stlnds "before the altar" (Ilnu Ilfrllre) during the mass, hence ",ith his back to the congregation, and explains the mmll fliP" popufum as meaning that the bishop faced the congregation only in St. ProbUS.'l' Ho"'ever, thcories deri,·ed from this suggesting that St. Probus w.JS the "first l.thl" depictl..:! from the waist up, wearing tunics and mantles that float in the hrec~c, on the left, youthful and beardless, is Moses (Iabek-d l\'QYSES) and on the right, with white hair and beard, is Elijah (labeled I-lbEL YAS). Their right hands gesture toward the cross. Standing in the upper pan of the landscape and gaz.ing Ul' at the lTOSS arc three sheep, one on tbe left and two on the right. The entire scene is a very curious depiction of the Transfiguration,
,'1'~"I'f)
,68
RAVENNA'S EAl1.lY IWlANTlN[ PERI O D. AD 540- 600
the e\,ent dcscri lled in rhe Gospels (Man. r7:1-- in 1948-9 and 19iO-! revealed the underd rawings. or sillopic that represent the original design of these mosaics, paimed directly 011 the bricks (I'rg. 94» )' ~ Today these drawings. carefully removed, can ue viewed in the l\lu~eCJ Nazionale in Ravenna . On the upper part of the ap>;c the dimensions of the medallion with the cross were lightly sketched, although when it was actually ma.lc in t1lo~ic it was 10 cm larger than the drawing. No sillopic were fou nd UlU!er th .... other elements of the Transfiguration scene, so we Illay wonder whether originally the meaning of the cross was something different. On the lower part of the wall, the sketches show tha t originally there was to be another cross in the center, flanked by peacocks, birds confronting t'a'ies, and plant~, amI a horder above atHl below, all motifs known from other mosaic and sculpted jmages in Rave nna )'/';
C HURCH BUILDING
It is likely that this lower {lecorJtion was never eXl'Cu fed in mosaic, but th~t the rl~n was changed, perhaps Vict(Jr or Maximian, Uc)th of whom recognizerl the potential for visually enhancing the episcopal irleology of this church .JI' Vie will renl rn to this (luCsrion in the next section. J\hny of the iconogrdphical elements, symbols, and themes in this llIosaic cnn be compa"ed to those from other contemporal')' monuments. T he Transfiguration appears in other apse lllosait's ofthis perio{l; the only one that survives is the example in the church in the monastery of St. Cath erine at Sinai in Egypt, spomored h;.: Justi nianyR The Sin~i mosnic, howcver, docs not include any extra figures and (e:ltures a conventional image of Christ at the center, as do al most aII later images of the scene.l'? Two-wne compositions ill which the figures in the lower zone look up at a divine c\'ent allove art: depicted on StnallllmpllIIm', o r lIasks for hololIi"31' RCf>arorus
V.' hal c\'cm thiS was is thc subject of debate. Agnellus reportS that the image depins the granting of a set of privileges uy Emperor Constantine IV (668-85) and his brothers Hcraclius and Tiberius to Archbishop Rcp~ra OlS (67 1-7)' Below th is image was the inscription "This ReparaOls, tha t he might be a comrade to the saints, made new det'Orations for this hall, to blaze through the ages," and above the heads it read, "Constantine the senior emperor, l-leraclius ami Tiberius emperors.";·I) The specificity of the privileges listed b}1 t\gnellus suggests that he S;lW a document listing them ) )4 However, Deichmann argued that by Agnellus's (by part of the inscription was missing, and that instead the scene clcpicts the gr31lt o f autocephaly made to Bishop Maurus by the emperor Consu ns II, installed by Reparatus to com memorate his own role as me ambassador who obtained the privilege.Hi T his was a significan t event in Ravenna's history and will be discussed 3t greater length in the following chapter. The lIlost we can say is
C HURC H BUILDING
98.
S~,,! '
AllO liiua ..... in C lasSrovi n~-e~, based in major cities (Rome, Naples, Rimi ni, C\'cntually Vcnicc), and ill smaller towns authority was exercised by tribuncs (rribum). Dukes and rribunes pe rformed both military and civil duties, and
RAVlNNA' S BYZANTINl AND POST-BYZANT INl lLiTE
they, along with the lower-level officers and troOps, administrators., clerks, and tu col lectors were drawn primarilyfmm the loca l population, although on OCClsion one might he sent from Comt:mtinople. T. Brown sees a deterioration in the sophistication of the bureaucracy in the seventh eentllfY and later, but ~oycn in these later pcriod~, the )l.Tibes, cler1.:s, rnbdli(f1l(J, notaries, and others remained laymen, indicating that education was availableoutsideoftheehureh. 5s Rawnna did not have a duke, but was govem~-d dircrtly by the cxarcha l ad,ninistration. The ronn disappears from view after the mid- se\'enth century,J9 but we do find in Ravenna men with the tide iutfrx, which literally means ~judge" but in the sevemh and eighth centuries was used to designate any sort of government official, or indeed any memher of the leading class of 13ndowners.60 It was these landowners who made up the army, military service hcing expccted as a condition of their starns. As the authority of thc exarehs declined, it was the dukes, in their local territories, who emerged as leading political players; indeed, the fact that Ravenna did not have its own duke e\'emually put the city at a disadvantage in post cxarchate politics, and wc see, for example, the duke of Rimini hecom ing deeply invol\'~-d in Ravenna's cpiscopal elections. We know very little 300ut the actual military organiz.ation; Agnellus provides much of the evidence which comes in the form of naming particular regions of the Lity 1S thc home h,ase of military units and occasionally ll1ention ing barracks. The rehel leader George nameS cleven military I1umcri, or squadrons, that arc to defend Ra\'cnna at the timc of rc\olt against Justinian II, and it is thought that these represent, if nothing else, ninth-centllry militia units within Ravcnna that perhaps had their origin in the early eighth ccmury," The relationship between th e archbishops and the exarchs .... as close. It is possihle that the exarch h.d SOme role in the choice of the archbishop, and certl in Iy the two worked together in legal cases, foreig1] affairs, p.pal relations, and other similar sorts of sitllations. 6 , Church and Sttular leaders were oound together rhrough propeny relationsh ips: church lands ....erc frequcntly lcased out to S/.>;trcmc.ly complex issues of the day. Archbishops plotted, armies marched back and forth to ROllleorout againsnhc Lomb.uds, exarchs wcn:mllrdcn:d. and thcci lY's leaders took and chllllged sides and fougln continually among themselves. Bur what was the urban enVLrOll111cnt in which these C\'en(s took place? And what eft·ttt did they have on the city of Ravenna? The seventh century saw the beginning ofa dramatic l\edine in Ravenna's economic fonunes, some of which was attributable to the state of the Mediterranean 1X"0nomy genera lly, and some of which had to do with tht: state o f the city's harbors, pons, and coastlines (Fig. 6). In the seventh or early eighth ceunuy the hydrological network of the Po river basin underwent ([ramatic changes.I,H New branches, the Pi/dlls Prilllltl"itlS and the 8I1dlll"f'lIllSIEn"dlllllls. rcplaccd the existing courses and now 110ll'cd through Ferrara, cutting off the flow of water to the Padenna amI thus breaking Ravenna 's direct connection to the riverine network. The Badarenu s flowed into the Adriatic north and cast of Ravenna, dose fa the mouth of tht: former Roman port in the northeast part of the city where a new harbor devclopcd.~ T he Padenna did not completely disappear; it perhaps continued to be fed, 011 a smaller scale, by small streams to its norrh. The LUllonc, which had flowed in from the west to the Patlellll;l through the somhern parr of rhe of'pidmJl, now hecame the main water source feeding the canals inside RaveJlna, and sometime before the late nimh century the o[d/ossil ;/mmis ~'as extended to carry ~'ater from the Lamone to the Badarenus, with only a SlIIall branch feeding the canals within the cit}':o 'W e saw in the previous chapter that tempora rily increased water Aow, and thus sedimentation, along with a decline in the kind of centralize' ] government systcm th;lt could maintain artifid,l l watcrways. had rC5ult'cd in the si lting up of the harbor of Classe beginning in rhe mid-shth cenUlry.
THE ENVIRONMENT AND URMN LlH
W hen direct influx of water from the 1'0 (via the I'adenna) ceased hy the early eighth cenrury, the harbor of Classc completely dried up) ' Archaeological evidence shows that by the early eighth century the city of Oasse had shrunk dramatically), Classc was conquered hy the Lomoords in 7' f 18 and the 720S, and accordin g to Paul the Deacon was destroyed. ?) During the reign of Archhishop John V (726-44) Ravenna suffered a serious earthquake; Agnclhls mentions this disaster in the context of its destruetivc effects at two Inajor churches, Sant'Apollina rc Nuo'"O and the h1.ria lla church in Classe. 'Ibe former "ca~ rebuil t but the I'etriana \lcas not, despite the eflOnsof Ki ng Aistulfin the early 7505,1-1 which underscores the demise of Cia sse in this period. Economically, historians and archaeologiSts agrcc that Ravenna undcrwen t a reduction in its trade, si •. c, and construction history during the cou~ of the se\"Cnth and eighth centurie .... 1l which "cas part of a sL»'cnthcentury economic and urban crisis that was empire wide in the eastern Mediterranean, md wa~ ~causcd by a number of fanOT$, including the Persian and Arah invasions and thc plague.'" While Ravenna's mint produced B~ntine coins in gold, silver, and copper until the Lombard conqucst, after the early scventh century foreign eoins cease to appear in the exarehate, another ind ication that long-distance trade had been drasticall y reduced.17 The archaeological evi dence from sites such 15 the I'odere Ch iavichena in Classe shows ccrdmic imports and a ceramics kiln in usc until the end of the scventh century, after whi''
RAVENNA CArlTAl. AD 600-850
" taurus, consisting of miscellaneous lines taken from poems by the fourth{o-fifth-gium .ttributed w J erome.s being in C.csare. in R..'cono.'" Agn.lIus's chureh, Ex.rch "lneodore (co. 67B--687) .nd his wife huried there, "not for fmrn \V.nd.l.ri.., ou,-,i,le the gate ofS1. L.wrence," ,hus in C.es>rco. '''' Archbishof" " louro, .nd Felix were ohbots here, os wer< Agnellu< ond his unde Sergius.' o, Archbish0f" Rep""tus .nd G "ti",,"US ,..ere , hhots here, "not for fmrn the Ovilionparun,h in the ploce which is co.lI ed the Public ,\Iim," n",,,ely in the northwest corner of the city.'"' Theodore the exordl with Archbishop "n ",ooorc built it; fOnnerly it wos 0 syn.gogu., neor \ V.nd.l.ri., in C.csareo.'"' Th'-''ar.1ih. and C. Ricci plausibly suggested that this w~s the 1'i-;"oril/1/1 mentioned by Agnellu5, a Structure tor holding small animals, perhaps incl udi ng a fi shpond (Fig. 64)' "" And finally Archhishop Valerius (ca. 789-810) built a "New I·l ouse. " or a "Doillus Valeriana. " using building material taken from thc Arian episcopal palaces; this st()()d next to the Domlls Pc/iris, allli remains survive within the clirrent palace. ' ' S By the ninth century, Ravenna's archuisho ps had ta ken control of the city hoth IXJliticalIy and topographically. The episcopal complex was the center of urban activity, and the trajectory begun by Maximia n and contimled by his successors hac! reached its ultimate eA-pression. Ravenna was no longer a capital. but reminders of its secular rulcrs werc c\fcrpvhcre, and would imJlress future generations of resillents and visitors alike.
AFTERMATH, RAVENNA, AGN EL LUS . AN D TH E CAROL! NGIANS
' OS
' ''4. S, nt'"poI li .... '" in G • ...,. dhqriM'" of
0,0 0,....' 6'P-049 4. 408; V ... Ib m. '479. '746; ond Fire""" RibL N,,;. 11.1 V. I74_ Deliyonnis, ed., .006, PI" 711--9· Sec esp. Vos;"., "Il,-"cd("tto llaccilini," '978 . Nov ..., ]InS. SeeM.iol~ '9!A esp. p. 376. See e.e, '998, Pl'· voted in 1?8)4l thot sup]>On the ,hesis of one I.te . ntique or early llledic...1 found.tion for the walls. li e cites the """"ion of".. 11 '"' ..... ted .. Porn S. Vitror" (p. 50) as rut_ ting through .n imperi.I...,,.. house th .. was built in the first or second century .nd abandoned in the th ird. '7 Geliehi. '005, 1" 833- 4' There h.s been Some JiscU$;,m . IKIU' ,,'hother the "",IJ Ihot " 'OS Jisco,'ered " ... j>3"'Ucl to, but nol the same.s. the ..stem w. 1l of 'he r"'-1::mglllor oppid"", enshrined in 'he late .nti'llle w.1I (e_g_, Mainij, "L. To]>Ogr.6 • . " '005, P, 46), hilt other ""bul.n h ..'e concluded thot they do f.1l on the ""me lines .nd thot ,he lotc antique " ..II prot.ably I.rgely follo,,'cJ the poth of the republicon " .. U _ 98 Iknnond ,\ Ionl:ln.ri, "L'impi.nro," '99"'> p. "7; M.nzclli , iI4t'f"tl''''' 'ooo, PI'. o't6--7'; ,\lanzellilGrossigli, 100'. 1'. '36. 99 Montevecchi, "La "rod.," '004. '00 Set ,\1.n1.c11i, /W,wma, '000, Pl" 100-;, .nd ide,"" "I monum01.", .nd thc Vi. D'A1.cglio .ites .ddcJ hypoe.ust ,ooms. " bn~elli, "t o fonn . urhis.~ ' 00 ). pp. iI - I.
" 0 1[1 ,\ lonzell;, 1003 ,pP.55~. 1 1, Vitrm';us, I>' Arrbi"ctnra ' .9, [6, "h,,"On, ,,·hil ... th ... impon of wine incr.,.sed d.. motically in th ... firs, and ""mnd "enturies AD. Fisl, SO""e con.. iners, which oftcn make up an inlport.nt mm]>Onent of imported ccrnmics, were likewise rel,ti"ely sc.rce, .Ithough hecOlning • bit more frequent in ,he S{)COnd .nd .,.rly third "enturic•. Cont:lC1$ wi,h the Aegc..n we,e muc~ more commOn th.n wit~ ,he western ,\ledit,r .. n.,.n. 1 18 Rch~""hi, "Gr~"l"onurinm were rpulution of about ) ,000 persons, while C05Cntino, l(XlS, pp. "[ [- I 2, c::stj m~tc s 9,000--1 0,000. 43 Shlonius Apo lljn~ris, £pi,'/b/,/(: 1.8 .• , ";":gri de~llIbuhn T medici iacly JdintJ rht: dty's pOl>lrrilflll , or sm:reJ boun d~ries. n"IY ha\,.. lud to he kept for juridical purpo5;es. 54 Geliehi, :005, esp. p . 830; Ch ristie, 19H9. p. 115. :\ de tailed study of The remains w,jsmade in 19O5!.>Y Ga--1 , ; Cirelli, w08, 1'. 67; but Augen!;, " R, venn. e CI.sse; il n>en.o;.ntinopoli," [99'. Pl'· '+' - 3· 'llle southern rorridor . round the ro"rty.rd wos 1'.ved with mosoics dq,icr_ ing circus, mythologico~ .nd hunting scenes. B.ldini Lippolis. [997 , dOles the circus m",.i", to the period of·l1,rodenc. hut Augen';, "Arehoologi, c topogn/i,," ' 005, dot"" th ..'JT1 to the fourth century, thus ]",fore the .m....1of the imperiol roUrt. Ort.lli, [99[ , p·17!. The mintsofRome and Mil.n oominued to proenIlOJl in his honor by Pop03- '4' I 33 Deiclunann. 1974, PI". 101- '. In Ill) the church wos gi"en • l,vish new Set of flo'" lnosoK:s thot commcmo...tcd. '",ong other thing>, the Fourth CTU>.de, including the .. ck of Const:.ntinople; see Forioli C.mp.noti . ! 99;. 'H Nov ....., " L.. 11...· NOTES TO PAGE S 7]-74
179 180 18, 18, 183 184 185
186 187
188 189 1'}O
'9' '9'
'93
194
'95
10 197
"II 199
'00
101
Rizz. rdi. "L ·.rchiteuuro.~ [9!JO. pp. 1'9-30. Gdichil1\'ov:aro. 1995. pp. 358--9 n. 31; Stt ]'.... n. [984- 5' Rizz.rdi."L ·.rchitetturo." [9!JO. p. [H. l.nnucci."1l m>usolw ri"O\.. lttcrnpo"'ry •• nd thus R,,·cnn.'s mU" h ..,c hcen modeled inste.d on Rome; onother eX311lpl e in which the dote of Ur;us L·.,ries signiflC.nt Conse_ quences for the hi5tOlY of .rehitectu .... l development. If, os J have orgued .hove, Un;us" constructions dote to the 4 'os, "lil.n lx"COmcs • po.,.il>le model once more. 300 Ristow, [998. Pl'. 35-8· 30t Koslof, [9'>5, p. 43· 301 Petri.no; LPR ch. ,6, So, 67, .nd 9" Ari.n Boptistery: LPR ch. 86; S.nt·AI,,,lIin.rc Nuo"" I,PH ch. fl9, for thL~, .n,1 the Ca ·Ili.n"". see the lUI_ lowing chapters. Compore the Lorge numbers ofb.pUs,erics known for Rome in the fifth .nd sinh centuries: "'" C .ntino \Votlghin et . 1., '00[, I'P , '4' 50. 303 The n",in public>lions for the Orthodox (Neoni.n) Bop,istery ore Nordstrom, [953, Pl'· 3'- 54; Mow>tti, [01; KOstof, '9'>5 (,,~th usefuJ bihliog .... phi"" l noles ot PI'. [57-65); .nd Deichm,nn, 1974, 1'1'.17- 47; for 0 good summ.ry of more reecm scholorshil" ""e P'squini, '005. 304 The .hsi.!ioles .1i,l not h.ve 0 StTUSC. ntes Kostof, '05,1" 47,'" con be seen by the foct that the ones on the north ,,·es, .nd southwest sides were Temo,','<J ot some unkno,,,, period, . nd then Testored in the m;.1- nin'"lecnth tions conrlucted by Filippo century (their ""istenee w"" ottested by Lanciani .. thot tim~). 30; Koslof, [9'>5, p. 47; ollhough Russo. "L·orchitellU ... : '005, p. 98, seems to di5.gree. For the postmediev,1 history of the boptistery, see KOstof, 19'>5, 1'1" dl- 30· In the se,'enteenth ,..,ntury • house fuT the T""toT of the cathe_ dral wos buil l .buuing the south side of the bopUs,ery and storehouses .hm ting the north side. V..ious other .lternations were "",de to the structure in the eighteenth .nd nine,eenth eenturi,... including the cre.tion of new windows ond doors and the oltenl.ion or filling in of old ones. The mosaics were restored in the '7?Os. .nd .goin in the ,8;05-7os, .. the same time th ot
=,..
338
NOTES TO PAGES 9 1-95
J06
107 JOS
309
J [0
J'I 3" 3 [3
1'4 J '5 3 [6
J [7 J[8
1'9 1'0
J" 3"
3'3 3'4 J'S
J,6
the tWO lost .bsidiol .. were .Iso restored .nd the .nached buildings "'cre removed. In the [&}os ,he morble "P'U smi/f, which hod becn removed, wos rem.de. Kostof. 191'5, PI' , 39-40 .nd 4 )-5, who no,es on obrup' change of mortor a"d 1>rid,·moclulc beginning Oo i' 11l(~e,.., . bove ,he cornice of ,he origin.1 U",ini.n wooden roof. Dcichrnann, '97~ , PI'. '3-4; RuSS1.- p. ztl, sa}';; the \lse of Bible "ers'lsquilli. 200-', p. H-l-: Kostof, 19Ostlcs do offer their ~ro"11S to such " thron~; sce ChapTer 5. Norchnom, [953, PP' 4,---6, Pas'luini, 2005, p. 333· \Vlnrton , 19S7 , PI" 373-5· Deiehmann , ' 9 :;f. p. 38, thinks that John the Baptb-t's halo, ot lca,,-t. is nat origi",,1. Ri~l,anli, ~L" dec-or;ll.ione tnllsiv"," ~ oo [, ret:cntly prop05 NOTES TO PAGES 100- 102
J6J LPRch_ ~J; i\'lil1er, ' 991 - :, p. 149, ~ I [.h ough I do not agree- wi th he r ,md ,,;th 194. tha t we CJn infe r from ,\ gm::llus th at th e rpis>;opilllll Dcichm ann, pred"-te-,I rh e ca!hedr.11, :lS his reference- is t,x. "~g\le for $peci lic me;lJ\ing to be JtT:lChed to it. )64 Rir.zardi, ! 000j , pp. 16l- 7; for other inrcrpretations of the iconography of thts 1'1'. I 7tedly confused the three bishops n.med Peter; see De~J".llnis, ",06, p. 99. J8SO See HIlL 97" The "Im_ enth_et",tury manu'nipt in ,,·hieh the legend is ~.und, llrusscls, Bibliothcque Royole. Codex 6.f, olso comoins Li.,·cs of Peter Chr)"sologus, Severns of 11.0...'''''', o"d mony other saims to whom churches were d",lic>tted in R,,,·cnn., ond must depend on 0 R.vcmute sonrce. Peter D.mi.n, the cieventh-eentury monk and scholor of R.o.venno, preo3, p. )89; S'lj r(a, 19Qj . pp. 104- /0 . CassioJorus. Cbrol/im, 3 . 500. For cxal11plc, Vllrille 1. ~5 , :8, 11.; , 0 1.31, 44, TV.p. VIJ . 15; also Chnmira, 'I. ; 00, which srillo:S th~ t ho: stlrpass;.-(l '1I1c1ent works. On Theodo:ric's building program, see c~r . S"itta, 1993. PI'· 103-38. La Rocca, ' 993 . p. 466. Amm, VI/fef. 1.70; Fn:llo:gu, Cbnmicil :.57: ·'Ci"it:1to:s univo: rsas lluas regc:bat mi.; ope r i~ rest:1urMC cr munire ~olleITi~.'lil1Je fecit. P"latb quoque splendcdis_ sime Ra"enn~l· urbis, Ve ronac ct Papiae, \.juod T icimnll cognomen tuln l·St, fabric-arc iussit . T" ntal· prosp1, p. 7i; Vl1ril1~ rI' J9 CAhallo), III"'H (A ries), 49 (Catnnh), IV .!oJ (Spolcto), Vll l. l9-) O (Panna); Anon. V"les. 7 I for P,wi:. and Verona . Saitta, 199J. p. 10j . La ROCC:L, 1993 , pp. 464- 5 ~nd 484- 5, suggests thaI the omission of dlUrchcs is \"'C3USC that lind of activity did not distin!:,'uish thc king from his aristocratic sllhjects; seclllar parn:mngc, howcHr. hy this time was viewcd as thc proper sph~rt of rulers. Amory, 199,. pp . ·n-71:1· In 1II1ri,1r V .40.5. Theoderie col1lmrods C}1)rian for k.ilOv.lIy turned to Rome. Vn nodius, Epistolo 5.18 , "'nnen to the semlOr F.ustus N iger, refers 10 ,he l.tter's d.p. rture lrom ina_bil, ""vm"". but he rn,}" mc. n 'hat the city is now odious bee.use F.ustus h •• lcft. Sec .1.., Pietn. 1¢l3; .nd B.rnish. ' ¢l8, PI'. ')1 - 3. Pa"'giri"1 ortIel'!. Certoiniy Ra,'cnn. is viewed os the ""AId city in the kingdom; see, c.g., Y ni;u X.,8 ."d XII.", in ,,·hich the twO cities are p.ired. Polo"" ' 995, p. 354, notes that .Ithough R.venn. houses schol,I'! ."d schools, in Vllria, X' 7, c..«iodorus gi,·cs highest I'",jsc to Ic.ming .t Rom". Cf. B.mish, ' 988, JIP. "7 .nd 151. L. Rocca, 1993, pp. 48'-4, implies that the me,on •• hout construction at Rom" w", .imc,l., .nstocratic Rom."". while th.t at Rat·enD. w.s more .imed.t the eonst.ntinopolit.n .udience. \Volr...m, 19i18,p. '9iI. So,id"n"" of bO'rTtarii. OT w.rehouse m. ""rs. in R,v~'Tln1te documen"" and inscriptions, 84 V....ia, Vl.6; 'iCC Cosentino. 1005, pp. 4,8--'9. who . ssumes that Theoderic continued. trod ilion !.>egun eorlier_ 8S DtbtIIoGfJlbitoVI" S.'5 , 86 V",-iat V.,6 .• 150 V.'7 - }0. Sec ,\ louro. cd., 1005, for more on the Acet of Ravenna. 87 h rioli C . mpanoti. "1.0 sculrurll,- }COs. esp. Pl'. ,6--19, 88 llaycrischc S" . t.,),i),liothd" ~ l unich. Clm. 6"" is .n e.ny ninth-cenrury Gospel bool: th.t contains on inocription s. ying thot 0 ""rum I' m-icius h.d emendd the 'e" ot Ihe re'luec..."., in the middle of that cenmry 0 n.ve W25 ot"med to the structure, with the upper chamber incorpor'lted "' the choir of the new ch urch (llcidrnreichlJoh.nn("S, '97 ' . PI" 70-106: Dcich"'onn, 1974, pro '[ ' - '4)· [n the sineenth cemury, the e.rliest d",wings mode of the m.uso leum show it h. lf submerged in the ground .nd unused except as • cemetery, wi,h a tower "'tIlch •..! to 'he :;ou,hwes, s;de, pmhohly 0 hell tower fo,the church. The m,uso[ew" rem,ineus sincenth- ond 5cH'flteenth-cen'"ry p. imings (see HeidenreichIJoh.nnes. 1971. pro 9-4). In [774 ""'0 st.irc.ses were built to . ccess the upper floor; ex ....,nions were corrie..! OUt in the eorly .nd mid-nineteenth cenmry, .nd in [879 the emire strucmre was re[e • .oo from the surrounding ""!th , 'Ine eighteenth- e. nmnine ,,;us 1\ \alL'ole. nuneupcn _ mr." On the fome of the eponymous mausoleum. cf. Vitruvius. Dr Anbilm"", , .S. [0. ,",I most notably fnr nur pu'P'....." Cossiodnrus, V.,,-iar VI[ _, 5' "FeTUnt prisei sacculi n..... 'ore. f.bOOrum septem ""nmm 'erris .dtriburo mi",,,,lI,, Ephesi Dion.e tc"'plum, regis ,\1auso[i pulmerrimum monumentlllll. , quo et m.usol.,. dicta SUnt .... " He lists these in order to s.ay thot Rome surpasses them .Il. 1'0 Deichm.nn, t974, 1" l' ,. I " His/orin N~mralis 36, [9. As DcicJunonn notes, [974. p. 11 I- I', there is there fore nn nud to posit that the ",ousoleum or the tower built nen '0 it sometime befnre the mirteenth C"'!l tury .... os used os 0 Iighthnuse_ ' " Fiorin. [993, discusses more precisely the en", origin of the stones which ..he says come from the Corso region orow,d ' rries,e. "3 Deichm.nn, ' 974. pp. '30-3, proposes mo,.., specifically thot ...... ndeTing group of stonemasons from [saori. wos employed. 1'4 s.' 1'1" 13- 17; 'he m.USe I"cr in d"e, .lthough i, is not dc.. r whe,her SIn.llef windows would h.ve l>een there origin.lly. '4' Dcichm'nn , '974, p. It 7· '4' Bo.ini, '959, 1'1" ,6-)0. ' 43 L/'Rch. 39· '44 Bovini, '959, 1'- F. notes ,h.. S,_ Ambrose. EpimWz~ 14, reer "'OS origin .lly fined out .s a ch .pel with .n .Itor while the uPI"" h. d. ,,-'Cording to his f""""'truction .• COIn]>!C' seri,-" of twe!"C pil . "",,, thot upheld an .,..,hitrovc m'C, the so"-~>ph.gu. like "thc gTO'-e-tcI1lplc of. \ V.gncrian "ogc scti, but docs not negate the ide. thotth. upper ch.ml>er " ... the buri.1 spoeut when the inscriptions would hove been m.de; os we will sec, this list of .po ,·3·' 9. '''9 VQtiu XI. 1.9. ' 70 LPRch. 6" Deichm.nn, 1976, p. 349. ' 7' I), /HI" gumim 5.' t. t t, t8, .nd ,6. '7' S'''', e.g., I)' btllo gothi .. 6. t 0.8 .nd 6_" .9. 17.1 Dr/HlkJgotbkr>6.1.1.t. Five . Religiun in O stroguthic Ravenna r Thi. Ari.n creed w•• rejected, for "".mple, in the .ct'l of the Third Council of 1
.I 4 5 6
7 8 9
Toledo of Ss.., .t which the Visigoth, convened from Arimismto Orthodoxy. For . u.criol p.l.ce in o,nstanlinopl •. 49 Wood, ' 007. 1" '5' , q uestions whether the font" mentioned by Agndlus Were ... fly a hopti"ery and suggestS thot they w~re funtain!> hwe .. e,. e"e,y the, lime Agnellus uses this word he refers to baptisteries. As we h.ve .Ireody seen, R.vcnno in the sinh """tUl)' h,d ,,,''"erol bopti'''e,i",. 50 De Angelis d 'O_t, Suldi, '?"i l. p. 60. not", th., the teno is moinly used for the C .rolingi1lt period 1Itd loter. S' Deichm . nn , [974,1'. 118. goes so f.r os to suggest that rO)'llI ea'" " ..jot ,,,,,on."L ·,rthite"!",,,,, ~ '005 . 1" ,, 6. 56 For oIl th is.""" Penni Iocco, ""e>." PI'· 33 - 5. F"'gmen" of the cornice were found in '916; the cornice thot ' 1'1'"""'" now " .. s m.de in the sixteenth cen tI,ry. 57 LPR ch . 87; Penni locco, '004, Pl'. 36-7 , .nd idem, [993- 4. 58 I>mmi lacco, '004. 1'1" ' 7-9< Dcichm'nn, '9i4. p. t 30, saysthot no troc .. of .n "riUttl or porticus hn'e l:>Ccn found . S9 I'enni locco, '''''4, p. '9· 60 See the reconstrw:tion in De Angelis d'O""t, S/lldi. ' cc>lJSC Ambrose, in In fidr 1.J " notes th,. the Ari. ns m.!:e p.rtieular referene"" t\ 1111 lux mundi" on tilt modd of the iigurc of Christ in H'lgill Sophi~ in Constantinople; for refere nces, sec D..,ichlllann, 19;-1, Pl'· !46---? ! O() This tht'sis w"s bid out by Grahar, 1!l36, t'sp. pp. ! 8,)-! 34. Ma thews, 1993 , has argue(1 that c n thron~d hcardl''! figures arc much more simib r to illl~ges of Jupiter; he does not, howe""I", di$CLls.~ th is il11uge. bLit ..,on fin"s hil11self to nther, less impcri~I-I{)Oking on~s. It has also been not"d that the \-lagi on the opposite wall wen: paying hOlll~ge to Chri~1: as re.'; th'IS 1.H)th sides cmphllsi7.c the n 'gal l1~wre or ClrriSI (see esp. Steigerw;lld, [/)66). Cle3r1y this dle:tlle wou ld r" I-'~)' furth er study. If rhe book held here by Christ did contai n thl· phrusc rcported in th ", sh1:ee nth century, th is woulel he strong eviele nce for the regal ~s.'>Odations of tht' figure. Brtckcnridg". 1980, pp. lSo- l , discusses the: coin t'vid"nc" for th is 1)1}C of throne. I 0 1 T~rry/'\1nguire, ~ 007. \·01. I, pp. J 38-9, point to (he sixth---centlll), diptych in the Staatlkht .vluScen, Bcrli n, and tht boukco\'er of th~· Gospel Book. of Sf. Lllpicin, Bibliothcque Nationale, l'~ri~, nlS. hIt. 938,+. I 0 : · 1 ·e rry/.\I~g'uire, : 007 , vol. I , PI'. 1 3ti- 9, point to the si.~th---celltury dipl)·cll in the Smatliehc .\1uscel1, Berlin. ::md the bookco\'cr of the Gospel Book. of Sr. Lupicin, I~i bliothi:quc N~ti onak', P"rlS, ms. hrt. 9384. ! 0 ) Ueid ullann, ! ')7+ p. 146, Jiscu~St's:lt I~ngth thc g~stur"s, ~:o;;tulncs, :II1U oAjct'~. r 0 4 l1,ese 3 ' "", ofren identified "s rhe itr1~ges deserihed by C:~ssiodorus in his pan ~gyric on \Virigis and .\'lat~sllinthu. 01·,lIinlllllll rdlf(lIl1f l ; SCl· Johnson. I gt;8 , pp. 88--:1.
,6.
3"
NOTES TO PAGE S 160-]63
lOS Of the inscription o"er the gote of Clossr Asterius of Am. sc •. See Snce. ' 9'}8 (referring to the sixth-Junia mcons AI1l>Jtllrif. 189 Deic/umnn, '976, Pl'. )01 - ), rejects this hypothesis, so)'ing th.t An."osi •• nd An .. tasi. were not likely to he confu",d in the 'inh cenrury, .nd thot c1thcdr:.1s were nevCr de,lie ..",j to ",ints. The I.tter sewment, how",'er, m.y not he true. It is olso significant thOl on the papyrus ,he church is . lw.Y' c.lIed AI ..".,ie, not Anastosi.", although other geniti'·"", .re gi,'en in -iIt! . Since no other ch urch dedicoled to SI. Anostasio is known in R"'enIl>, we must "",ume Ih.t this Gothic church l.cc.me one of the ones listed hy AgneUus. 190 S"" Broschi, !g65, PI'. '5- ,6, for Ihe loter history of the complex ond of its ",sto... tions. 19 1 Dcichmann , '974, p. ' 46, gi,"" • differen, set of m"""rement0 thot the h>plistery lK."",mc the.psc of the new SlT"cn",e (see Breschi. 1urvi\';ng mosaics in the v.ult
'0'
,0,
NOTES TO PAGES 178-180
heg.n in the [85"'" Frum [9[6 to [9[9G. Gerul. o'·e,.,.,w thc reMoration of the building, exco".."ion, resto""ion of the interior,.,.,d reom<truc,ion of some of the .pses; .fter the oomb d.m.ge of\\'orld \\'.. 11,.11 of the sorrounding buildings were removed, .nd in the J 95"" the westen, apse wos reconstructoo. Enough frogmen", of the origin.1 'p"" surviwd, both .. ground k-\·cI .nd .. the level of the \·.ulls, for Gerul, to estin"te thcir dimensions; see Breschi, J~5,
p.)3.
lOS I.PRchs.R6.nd '57. l"9 "Ineconclusion of Meslin. 1~7' pp. 386--?>, esp. p. 387. Eunomi.n b'pti<m.1 ';tu.l. attracted p.rticul" 'l1ention, for e.. mple" by Sowmcn. Himma E.d... SiMli", 6 .• 6; Philostorgius, Ecdui4ffl; she pro,·ides. dct.i1ed .nol)".is of the .postles .nd comp'rison with other mos. ic figures i" R".. tllla. Nordh.gen, 1!J66, p. 59. proposes ,h., the m.rble;n Pcter's p'llium wa. i",endOO to represent wool. to d;stinguiOSC' werc in spired by -lfiMCnc'S ",ust3nni., ",.ns., ''''''4. 1', 3 '9· Thi. is th" I""-"-studielow. Chapter 6, ,\ Ion",lI i, Ibwnma, ' 0::1, 1'1" 1 ,6-'7 ' \ Vhy this .nolll,l hove been inc1l'M1t",1 into me tpiw>pil"" at me .. me time that Theoderic wo. restoring the .quedoct is not de ... Gerol •. '9,., 1'1'. [' [- ', b>sed on Agnellus'. stoT)' .bout ,uch • hiding pl""e funrC05ure, L/'R eh. '58. Deichlluru" '971, p. '99' Ccrol •• '93'. docs not olfer .ny 'illggestion ond • "-"·.... n., CO!ls.. minopoli,~ '99'. 4' Augem;. "Ar NOTE S TO rAG,S 211-218
54 Gregmy the Greot, &ginru", £pistllh",,,,, ),54, ),' " .nd 5,' 5 (to Jolm); 5,6 [, 6,]" 6,34, . "d 9, [68 (to 1I1.ri"i.,,), 55 Gregol}', R'gism"" ,pimw..,mo 4-37. Scut the origin of the 'Mists, .nd co",es do".., on the side of Const.ntinople; Vol hoeh, '977 , PI'. 2' .nd ]8- 40, argues for R.venn •. Fariol; C.mp.n.,i, "Per 10 dotozione," l005, 1'_ [67, argues correctly th.t the tide rp;«O(I'" thot . ppears on the throne does no, mc.n ,h., i, was m.de before 549.
"'J"""
NOTES TO PAGE S 218-222
78 Riu.rdi. >003 . 79 Vibn. '979> p. 105 n. 3. notes th><Joseph W2S regorded IS Iloc.1 hero in Egypt. since th.t is where much of his srory rook pl.ce _In LPR ch. 78. Agnd lus quores I """ion of flloximiln's chronicle in which ,\ \""imi. n says ,ha, he has visi,ed Ale .. ndri •. For . summ. ry of the .rgume...... . bou, the workshops thot c",..ed the throne, see, e.g .• C.pp, [94>, who cites .. rlier litc .. rure. 80 Seh'piro, [9i' . P, '9, notes th .. Jo.eph, the hush.nd of M.ry, who is.1so comparc,l '" • bishop in p>tristic .,egc';;., is pmminendy tr-., ..",[ in the !iCenes of the inf.ncy of Christ; see Peter Chrysologus. Sn7t/"", '74 .nd ' 75. 8 , Seh.piro, ' 95' , 1'1'_ '9"""30, ci,es Ambrose. 0. Offoiir. "'I" ' _'1 _,6; Amb""" continues the .n.logy in • k'{{er (PL [6. colis. 884- ,) to the newly on:b ined Bishop Constontius of 1"'01•. In .ddition. Cassiooorus W....Wt 6.3. 8.'0, and [,.,8) holds Joseph up os. model for the P"'etori.n Prefect ",d other go". eming ollici. 1s.; see Sh' piro, '95', p. .p . nd Mont:",ui, IQ84-5, PI'. 308007, PI'. '40. 'Ibose bricks me. surc c• . 50 " 33 x 4.5 ce",imerers., • type ,hat is c. lled "'If"ip"'''/;,; bricks of this type m.y h. ve been used in Rom.n R.venn •.• nd were cert.inly connnon in 'inh--cer\1ury Constantinople. Another church buih ofthi< type of brick was thot of S. n Michele in AccJ"Voli ot S.nt'A=ngelo di Rom.gn., • dependent b.ptism. I church in (he diocese of R"'enn" see Russo, "L'. rch i,.,ruro," '005.1'1" ' 49-H· 89 1 ~)mh'T p rim ("") sIr. tor in I(USlriS) p( '" efcctu f'jI e) tern p(ori)b(u.) d(0 )m(i)n(i) ,\erte)r(o)b(ilis) ,\larinian(i) arc(hi)cp(i)s(ropi) fcc(it) ind(ictione) XV.~ 91 LPRch·57· 9' ,\buot!i , "LI b.silic.," 10; Deiclnnonn, 1976, PI" 343-$. Y3 Deichmann, '976, Pl" 143-6· 94 Deicltm.nn, [976, p. 344· 95 The s. nem, ry of tlte IIctltlehem cltu",h "" " on octogon; Deiclnn.nn, J 9]6, 1'_ 345, . 1", suggests simil.rities with the Church of 'he Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
m
No ns TO PAG ES 222- 226
37 8
')6 Kr:lurheimer. 1(/)3 : t'-rlJaps at tht S;Ulle time tll" atrium W;1~ rebuilt as a doister. [ ' 3 Deichm ann , l ,r;6, Pil. 69-7 !' The current cloister "".15 huil t in the sixt eenth n:n IUr\·.
['4 Thc n;rthl'x and stair {Owen> we re udically mOllified at various mints in the IJuildi ng's hislO ry ;,nd weTe Tes(Qre(\ in 1919; Dddll n ~ nt1, '9io , 1-'1-" 71- 6.
[ • 5 The large tl~.jng buttresses were added in the later _\I iddlc Ages when the amhularorr and gallery were " 'lIllrl."d. [ , 6 Deid n nann, '976, p. 81. [' 7 In f.lCt, the IIIhi )ill iii "re used for the uppe r arches of th e ".jndow~ as well a5 for chI." domc prO[lCr, scc Deichmann , [ Q76, p. 64, who argucd that th ey (Onll part of [/1(, dome, but for a contrary opinion See RUSID , 11/eriod but WefC inst'llled bter in the .\tiddle Ages; see DeJl"Aqua, ~ oo5 , Pl" :05-i· [lu Dcichmann, [le). Deichm.nn. 1976, pp. 84- 5, lists .nd dismisses most of ,he other enmples. The Golden Oc140 Knuth"imcr, '!)&i, Pl'. '33 - 4, who notes th" the impost copitols h.ve m.ny simil.rities with ,h""" used in the ehu",h of St. Polycuktos, \'uil1 5' 4--], while
NOTES TO PAGES 233-239
' 4' ' 41
143
' 44 145 ' 46 ' 47 ' 48 ' 49 150 15 '
' 5'
composite capitols of this type were not used at all in Consl:lntinople in this period; cf. also Deichmann, 1976, p. 110. Tcny, ,'}!IS, p. 57· ,\ Iorble from lasos was used in many Justini anic ooilding5. including St. Andrew in Ravenn., ' nd, monus\ ,..ife Antonin •• nd ,heir d,ugh'.r J o:,"nin. (follo,.._ ing Mon.,... [!)il 3). who "·os betrothed to Anost:l.ius. ·[be mess:age would be th.t Bclis>nu,:and h is fomily "' ill h.d the 'iUpfJOn of ,he imperi.1 couple .nd indeed were forming. m.rr;.ge .Ui.lICe with them. While the ,,",pl.n.tion is pl.usible enough. the schol.rs do "ot expl.in why Jk~ .. r;us should h1\'e hod the .uthon,), to decide on the coment of these p.nds, in . chutch sponsored b)· the bishop ond. pri""e individuol; .nd why the head of BcI~rius wos not simply "h.nged to ,hot ofJohn , . s ,.... done ,..ith II I.. i",i.n. 111.1\.1,.., '!)il3. h.d pmp",.,,1 .lscror. 189 von Simson, I9-IS. PI'. 3 ' - 3' Dcichrn,nn, '976, PI'. '5btlhe,.- wro'e in Hebrew_ 19' Sec Deichm.nn, '976, PI'. ' 74-7 •• nd Brenk, 19i!, . 19' IIrenk, 'oil" p. ". 193 Ibid" p. '3. For the fullest discussion of Ihis trod it;on, see M.goire, 19i!7, pp. '7-8 .nd 77· 194 Foro complc1C ,Iescription of the condition of ,hese mosaics . nd their r",,,,ra _ tion, see the . nicles in lonnocci, ed .• 195 Andrcesru-T re.dgold, "The Mos.ic \\' orksh0I" H p. 33. 10 M. goire, 1987, 1'- 76, identifies h.re . • mclope, fawn. nm, goot, pamhe ... lion, dove. parrot. ow~ cock, qu.il. swollow. dock. stork.• nd pcocock, . nd notes th1t the ,-aricty of C"'lItU"'S is ,i",il.. to ,h.. found on the similor om.men.. 1 ponels on Muimian '. Ihrone. 197 Ld",,.nn, '9015 , p. '5, pointed OUt th .. ,hc ligh' .nd d.rk orcos on coch globe .re ditTe",n' .nd in'erl'r"' •.J ,hi, ... n .""np' to "-1''''''''''' the ch.nging ,-ydcs of lime; Maguire, '9i!7, p. 77, suggeSts Ih.1 they represenl the Four Seasons. 1~8 Noted hy "Iogoir". ' oIli .p. 78. 199 "·lont.n.ri. T90, .nd von Simson, ' WS, pp. 3' - 1, but denied by Deidun.nn , '976, pp. '59"---60. SOreies. loIll' pp. I 5~, saw these d"1'ictions of Moses spe,king to GOO os .nolher clement of .nti -Arim thwlog}'. '00 See most recently Soreies, '9i!3, .nd Rizzardi, 19i!~ . '0 1 Alm.m",,·sli, '00 1, Pl" 300-,. '0' j\ 1onl.nari, "Elementi." '00' (orig. 19'59). '03 Abrnmowitz, '00', Pl'· '9' - 3· '04 H.b_ 'T "qui cum sit splendor glori •• '" figun ,uhs,..nti.e ei.,,;"; on Mekhiscdcl.: . so type of UriSl, Heb. 5~. ' Ibc ide. thot this epistle W1< rejected by Ari.ns is found in EI,iphaniu. of S.I.mi., Punmilm "9.37.' •• nd ' lbeodor",
'99"
'99'.
NOTES TO PAGES 250-252
of Cyrmus. (;qm",mlary on Hrbr..." . pref. ce (PG 8" (73), .Ithough H.mon, 1)iIl8, p. 561. notes that Epiph.nius .Iso SOY' that the Ari.ns ..... d Heb. 3:1 os proof of their views; sec . Iso Sch.ferdiek, '\-Iore WON i, needed 011 this 'nterpr=t!OI1 . Prop("(..! by m. ny ""hob ..; sec Dcichnunn, '976,1'1" '43--n.
14'
'43 '+t
Nons TO rAGES 256-259
'45 Ven.mius Fonun.tus, Vita S. Martini 4.61k>--98. '46 Se. Dcidun.nn, ' 976, pp. 33J-4; of the church still survive, in sm.ller form, proboblymo,dy medic,,", I m.teri. l, but. frogment of. n»'e . ",.de ,hows it wos. bosilic •. '+7 M.rini no. 80 = Tj~dcr no. 8; LPN eh. 70. S(.., lJeich,nann, '976, p. 374'48 M.zwtti. ' 959. 'Inc churclt. bter .u.ehed to. monostety, wos in use until '7911; hy 1810 it was p.tti.lly dcmolis/,ed ond shon~ .fte<word some e.e..... _ tin< wcre ,lone, '49 U'N ch . 76. '50 r.hn7-clli. 1l1n". 359, ,65 /.PR ch., " 6, S, 9. 10, " (Pmbus) •• n,1 chs. 4. 5. 7 (Flc""h"lius): documentS from 103] ""d ['38. see Deichm.nn, [976. p. 3'3 . ,66 Its dcdieototy in> who. how",..,r, .uggests cll't the cemeteri.1 b.,ilie. W1< built in ,he foum. century. 'rnis se,,,,,. "ery lIIlhkcly, giwn R,,·eruu'. rel.tively uni"'portont""'1US ot thot time. '76 ,\huotti , [95 4. is , beautifuUy written OCCQul1t of the history of the church; .Iso idem, '9Il6; Dciehm. nn . '976, pp., 33-80; Mich.d, '005. '77 PetruS Chryso logu....."'""=~ ,.8. '78 Deiclumnn, '976, pp. '33""""4, argues ,h.. the SIll.1I ch.mber over the tomb wa. only hui lt up in ,h. mi,l...,ighth century, b..ed on. frogmenl'ry ",feTe"". in the LI'R ch. [59. which s.oys either thot Bishop Sergius buill. "ulla on the men's .ide of St. Apolhn"i.~ or • "uflll of St. Apollin.tis on the men'. side~ of 0 church whose n.me is missing; the I.tter, how""er, i. more likely, see Deli)'llnrU', tro[lS., '004, p. ,85 n. '3. Moreo"er, I'eter Chrysologus Imew the loco,inn of ,he tomb, ond it is h. rdly lild y thot it would not h" 'e heen commemor:lled somehow, ""en if t!":ICes no longer survive. '79 For the dote, see olxwe, Chopter, . ,So Dcichrrunn, [976. p. '34. "gues th.t the l>o agoin Inn.l.ted in , I 73, tWO .il"er 1,lates were "discovered" with ten written on ,hem rontoining se,'enl phnscs th., correspond e"",,,1y to those USC '93
'94 '95
'0
'97 '98
'9') 300 301 30' 303
constructed by Pope Gregory I in the 59C'S- Others, hO"'e,'er, h.ve proposed tho< M.urns built me crypt when he moved the hody or m ", i, wu built in ,he I"e ninth century (Mazzoni, '954, pp. '4 ' - 53)' The moot recent ""c.votion. in me a"", suggest thot i, was built be""""n ,he nimh and ,he ,welfth centuries; Io nnucei, 19112, PI" 202-3, .ceeprs M'Zl'"ni's dote. LPR eh, 168; Lib.. p<mlif",~/it, Vil~ Lnnif III rh . [06. It has becn suggested th.t mechurch was d.,naged in ,he e.nh'luakc mot Agnellus rcporrs .. ho\'ingt:lkcn 1'1. "" h",w",-'T1 7,ihf4 (I.PR chs. Sy.,1 the 1'OSCS thot Cl asse wu ""cked by Muslim .. id.," cnly in the ninth centu,y, which is wh.t led to ,he restoration. As M.uoni, [954> PI" "4-6. notes, this infomlation comes only frotn the twelfth century, when hoth ,he monks of S.nt'Apollin>re Nuo,"" and ,h,,,,, of S.nt'AroUin.re in Classe claimed thot the relic. were in ,heir church (the d,te of 858 is first ou""ed by Rossi, '57'); the dispute Wa S finally mediated by • p.p.l lcgote .nd the .rcllbi.hop, who in " 73 "found~ thc relic. under the .It.. in CI,sse, which is docwnemed in a tex, known .sthe Trl/cto/tu. , , dtimon,rimu M'(>Orir "'a,mi",i ApoJmln'i< (RIS 1.>, 1'1', 536--8), while the monks ofthe church in Ro\'enn. composed Iheir own text, fiiS1YJr'ia """''''limit btati ApoIIinlmf, 9''''' aM,,.,,,,..- X VII K.olmdar Aug,,,,i (RIS I." 1'1', 533--.6). M01.1.Otti 1""llOS", th., Wme of th" relics wc,e tok"n to R,,·enn.> ,,·hil. the r"",.inde, wer" huried bene.th the . Itor. I'.... n, '9i8; lann"",,;, ' 911'; lann"""i, ' 986. Russ, "L'.rch;tetl\l",~ '005 , p. '44. Deichrnonn, ' 9i6, 1'. '38, rct'lOrl<s ,hot the rceonstruCtion of ,he n.nhex was entirely .mitr.I}' and not bued on .ny ",~dence .bout its fonn. M'ZW1ti, ' 986, Only the ""n[('!TIp',rary San Vito]c h.d so m.ny do"rS diree,ly to ,he ""rside. Smith, "Fonn . nd FWlction," '99", p. '99, who notes th.t the rooms .... ere so secret tho, their exis,ence wos not rcdi;:covered Wl,il ,877! Deichmann , '976, 1'_ '40- Ru,"", however ("L '.rchitenura," '005, 1'1'_ 135 40), finds m.ny simil"i, i", bet .... een this church .nd volious examples in ,he ea"cn, Medi,er .."e.n, whid , he SOY' is evide,,,,e that, like S." Vit:llc, this church wos designed by on ".,stem .rchilecl," whot.ver Ih .. might me.n. 1'.h1.lo11i, '951 ,1', " 7-3), pro •.;dcs.n en,c",dy d"toilcd study ofthe ",. sonry. Deichm.nn, 1976, PI" 'l8-side, ~ [!IS in the upper pHt "f tbe .pse; Ab ... mowsk i, '00 [, pp. 3"4- 5, notes that tbe new prog ... m gO". greater prominence '0 Apotlinaris .Ione. 3 ,8 Another, inst.ll ed .]'" in the mid-si:
mo,,"Ski. 10"I! , wm Simson, '948 (who, .long with C ... bor, ' 946, linl<s this to ,he suppa""d m.rtyrdom of Apol~""ris., which connot be sustoined given th.t Apollinaris W2S not thought to h,,'e been. m.ny,); DinkIer, 1¢4; Deich",.nn, [9761" , 53: .nd Mich,"" )005 . who h .. rl.'C. Demus, 1')69, suggests thot on imoge of Ahrahom ... ot S.n Vitole. ,ns origin.Uy found in the left p.nd here. but when the Rcp.ntus mos.ic WItS in"""ed, Ab nh.m and I ..." were mm'ed to ,he righ, pand , which w• • re,,,,de ""ith f>-Iekhisedek now in me center.lorger th.n the others. I."""",,i. '9li6. Pl" 18J4l. I.PR eh. 1 t 5' " Is igitur 'o"ius meri,is Rep',.,tu< ut the eVent of 7 J 8) .nd the e,ile of ,he ],ishop, but docs not men,ion the role of the 1~)mb3rds. Agnellu.< .1", d.s re"""n.ble. A, {he le. SI. the story disploy, AgnclJus'. hostility to the lIyumines. ' Inc more detoik-d ,'crsion of ,hc events of H3 is found in LP Vi", L.lu/Juriaf rns. 1l- 16. These e"ents .re not mentioned in the Rnmon LP. only the .ftenmth, once Ai«ulf w>s ensc",,,,,,d in Ro>·cnn. (Vito Stryh""; /I ch. 8). Br"",,,, '98 ... p. [5[, mentions the possibility that the fomler crotch Emyehius mol' st ill ret:lined outhority, or at leo.. prestige, in 80 1. ']"be m.in Sllldi .. or. Simonini, '9699'. 7oS-, 0. and 7,8-'41. f.vol'S ,he in,... ions, while ,\leConnick, ,""" PI'· 36-4 [, .Iso .dmits the impact of the pl.gue.
77 Arslon. '''''5, p. "7·
NOTES TO PAGE S 289-292
78 Augenti, "Nuo"e iud.gini," '005 , 79 Brown, 1984, 1'1'. "4- 15. 80 Antiolini ,\ b ninell;. 199', PI'. 16'- 3; on the .mbo, see D. P reistori" al .\IediOCo e l'edili7.ia ecclesiastica ravennate tra V e X stmo: Agndills of R"\'enna 's View of {he Past." Tn Tbr 'llbrrifillla of J-Ii.t~ {"Irenic. ,md Giorgio foon ddL. 5tona di Ravenna: Rl·g,,~to dei ilocll menri." In Srarin ,Ii RIII'f"llI/oJ If.r, eil. Antonio Ca ril e: "o l - SoH . Ve nice: .\'larsiJio Edi tore. Ceeehelli, C arlo. 1936 .l", Gil/cd,." Ji Mnssjllli'lllo. Rl)me: La Lihrcri ~ dello Stato. ~ 1960. "L'Ari ~ ll es imo I.' Ie chiese uri:111e." In & (lii,'s,' IIri ,·rglli ,MI"£lIrQP" IK(idrlll,"" l i /11/"0 "'PfX'l1i (011 ROIIIll rim iI"~'OO: 74 ]-7+ Spokto: C"ntro Italiano di $m di ~1l11'"lro mcdioc,·o. Cecchdl i, ,\-h rghitllir imprri,,/r "'''pitalr rfli77air, [: 405- 'H 4. Spolcto: l'ond.,ione Centro lhu""lec de G.Il. Ploeidi •. ·· Cllbit", Arrbrologiq"" 3: 3' If. _;:;--; [!)69. [,m Lotin Writ"' and TbdT Grttl: S""rrtS. T ... nsl.,ed by 1·lorry E. Wedeck. Combridge, ,\1A: rd lIniversity I'ress. Croke, lIri.n. '987, ·C. s:
H."..
11 7-'34· Cununins, Sheila. '99+ The Ari.n H' p,isle ry of Ravenn •. lIloomington: PhD diss., Indim. lInive rsity. Curci63 173· de Fronoovich, Goh •. 1958-mJllllltia. ' Vi~sb3 ,kn : F. Sreiner. Ddipnnis. Dd)nGlh I\ \. 1996 . ~Ag"dl\l5 nf l{:wcnn;\ ;H\d ]cQnoclasnl: '111cology and Poli tks in a N in th Century Historic~ l Tc:.:t:' Spmlllllll 71: 559-576. _ __ . HXX' . ~Bury Me in ({,lI'enn;li .'\ppropri:lting Galb P bddb's Body in th.. Middle Ages." Srlldi 'lJlt't/in:llli, 11 .. ill H~nn 1" cf Creif L Sfrikn', ed. Debo r~h , .,. De1iy:mnis: 37- .:P ' .\binz: Verlag Philipp von Z.1lxm. _ _ _ cd. ~006. I I"IIIII"I".IS AgIII'//I/J, l .ib..,. pOllfijimlis udr.HIII" Rlli'c/llwrii. eee,\!. TUnlhout: BrerH)ls. ___ .1008. "ALout the Lib~r pUlllijiriJli,. of the Ch urch of Ran:nn a: Its Re btion with the RQ!llan .\·lodeJ." In LiM,., Gn/II, HisIQi,.e: &rirr f'hi>l!>irr: drs h '(1I1CJ (I ,{I'$ Pilprl, de I'ml/i~lIitl llll XX!c sikh', ed. Fr=IlI~.ois lioug'lrtl. T urnho1lt: Brt: pols. ___ . ~ oo 9. ~Ra\'enn a , St._\hrrin alld the Battle ofVouillc. "l/JillOisCianicJ11 SllIdirs 33: fiHthcoming. Ddl'Aqu:l, Fr:mccsca. l ooS' MEnhandng Luxury tllrough StaineJ Gbss, from Asi:! Minor to Ibly:' DlIIllba/7lJ1l Oal:;' P"p'>1'1 59 ' ! 9 3 - ~ I !. Dl'mus, Otto. 1Y(!9' "Zu den " l'sisllwsnih' n \"()Il sn11l 'Al'01linare in CbSS,":']ilhrllllfh '/rriifftlTr/fhirchrlll1.r...ollti llisril· 18: ~~9-~.l8 .
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