acanthus leaves; but the rest of the church is due to native
architects. The lofty presbytery and the crypt under it belong
to the 12th century. The walls of the interior were stripped
of their marble panelling by Sigismondo Malatesta in 1449, for
the adornment of his church at Rimini. The apse has mosaics
of the 6th and 7th centuries. The 18th-century series of portraits
of the archbishops of Ravenna is no doubt copied from
an earlier original. There are a number of fine carved sarcophagi
in the church (5th to 8th century). The building activity of
the Gothic kings was continued by Justinian, to whose time we
owe the completion of S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe, and
some of the mosaics in S. Appollinare Nuovo.
The buildings of a subsequent period are of minor importance, but the basilica of S. Maria in Porto near the ancient harbour (1096 sqq.), a basilica with open roof, with frescoes by masters of the Rimini school, may be noticed. The massive concrete substructures of the campanile are attributed to an old lighthouse. The tomb of Dante, who died at Ravenna in 1321, is close to S. Francesco; it is a square-domed structure, with a relief by Pietro Lombardo (1482) representing the poet, and a sarcophagus below, in an urn within which lie the poet's remains. Close by is a small court with early Christian sarcophagi, containing the remains of the Braccioforte family. The secularized monastery of Classe, in the town, built by the monks of S. Apollinare in Classe in 155 sqq. as a refuge from the malaria, which prevailed at Classe itself, with fine 17th-century cloisters, contains the important museum, which has Roman and Byzantine antiquities, inscriptions, sculptures, jewelry, &c.—including the possible remains of a suit of gold armour of Theodoric—and a collection of Italian woodcuts; also the library with rare MSS. and incunabula (among the former the best extant MS. of Aristophanes). The Accademia, close by, has a few pictures by local masters, e.g. N. Rondinelli (end of 15th century), of no great importance, and a fine recumbent statue of Guidarello Guidarelli, a condottiero of Ravenna, and a partisan of Caesar Borgia (d. 1501), by Tullio Lombardo (?) or Severo da Ravenna (?).
In the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele are two granite columns erected by the Venetians, in 1483, with statues of SS. Apollinaris and Vitalis. The cloisters of S. Maria di Porto erected in the town in the 16th century (owing to malaria, as in the case of those of Classe), and of S. Vitale, are pleasing 16th-century structures. The 15th-century castle in the north-east corner of the town erected by the Venetians is a picturesque brick building. The famous pinelo or pinewood of Ravenna, which already existed in Odoacer's time, and has been sung by poets since Dante, lies some 5 m. south of Ravenna.
History.—Strabo mentions a tradition that Ravenna was founded by Thessalians, who afterwards, finding themselves pressed by the Etrurians, called in their Umbrian neighbours and eventually departed, leaving the city to their allies. Pliny, on the other hand, calls it Sabine. Throughout the valley of the Po the Gauls took the place of the Etrurians as a conquering power; but Ravenna may possibly have retained its Umbrian character until, about the year 191 B.C., by the conquest of the Boii, the whole of this region passed definitely under the dominion of Rome. Either as a colonia or a municipium, Ravenna remained for more than two centuries an inconsiderable city of Gallia Cisalpina, chiefly noticeable as the place in which Caesar during his ten years' command in Gaul frequently resorted in order to confer with his friends from Rome, and from which he started for his advance into Italy. At length under Augustus it suddenly rose into importance, when that emperor selected it as the station for his fleet on “ the upper sea.” Two hundred and fifty ships, said Dion (in a lost passage quoted by Jordanes), could ride at anchor in its harbour. At the same time Augustus conducted a branch of the Po (the fossa Augusta) through the city into the sea. It also became important for the export of timber from the Alps. Strabo, writing probably a few years after Ravenna had been thus selected as a naval arsenal, gives us a description of its appearance which certainly corresponds more closely with modern Venice than with modern Ravenna. “ It is the largest of all the cities built in the lagoons, but entirely composed of wooden houses, penetrated in all directions by canals, wherefore bridges and boats are needed for the wayfarer. At the flow of the tide a large part of the sea comes sweeping into it; and thus, while all the muddy deposit of the rivers is swept away, the malaria is at the same time removed, and by this means the city enjoys so good a sanitary reputation that the government has fixed on it as a place for the reception and training of gladiators.” On the other hand, good water was proverbially difficult to obtain at Ravenna—dearer than wine, says Martial, who has two epigrams on the subject. Trajan, however, built an aqueduct nearly 20 miles long, which was restored by Theodoric in 503. Of this some traces still exist in the bed of the Ronco above Ravenna. Flies and frogs were also complained of, and Sidonius, writing in the 5th century, complains bitterly of the “ feculent gruel ” (cloucalis puls) which filled the canals of the city, and gave forth fetid odours when stirred by the poles of the bargemen. The port of Ravenna, situated about 3 miles from the city, was named Classis. A long line of houses called Caesarea connected it with Ravenna, and in process of time there was such a continuous series of buildings that the three towns seemed like one. It was a municipium under the Empire, as the inscriptions show, but it seems to have had magistrates rather suited to a vicus or village, its importance being due entirely to the naval station (cf. the state of things at Mediolanum, Milan). It had large gilds of fabri (smiths and carpenters) and centonarii (firemen).
Of Roman Ravenna nothing remains above ground, though a little has been found by excavation, including a mosaic pavement at Classe near S. Severo (Ricci, op. cit. p. 50). Among the tombs many of the poorer under the Empire were simply formed of amphorae, in which the body was placed. A prehistoric station was found in 1894 at S. Zaccaria near Ravenna, belonging to a Terramare (E. Brizio in Notizie degli Scavi, 1896, 85). In A.D. 339 it is spoken of as having previously been the chief town of Picenum, but having recently been assigned to Aemilia. It was connected with Ariminum, 33 miles to the south by the coast road, the Via Popillia, which ran on north to Hatria, and joined the road between Patavium and Altinum at Ad Portum.
The great historical importance of Ravenna begins early in the 5th century, when Honorius, alarmed by the progress of Alaric in the north of Italy, transferred his court hither. From this date (404) to the fall of the Western Empire in 476 Ravenna was the chief residence of the Roman emperors. Here Stilicho was slain; here Honorius and his sister Placidia caressed and quarrelled; here Valentinian III. spent the greater part of his life; here Majorian was proclaimed; here the little Romulus donned his purple robe; here in the pinewood[1] outside the city his uncle Paulus received his decisive defeat from Odoacer. Through all these changes Ravenna maintained its character as an impregnable “ city in the sea,” not easily to be attacked even by a naval power on account of the shallowness and devious nature of the channels by which it had to be approached. Odoacer, like the emperors who had gone before him, made Ravenna his chief place of residence, and here he shut himself up when Theodoric the Ostrogoth had invaded Italy and defeated him in two battles. Theodoric's siege of Ravenna lasted for three years (489–492), and was marked by one bloody encounter in the pinewood on the east of it. The Ostrogoth collected a fleet and established severe blockade, which at length, caused Odoacer to surrender the city. The terms, arranged through the intervention
of John, archbishop of Ravenna, were not observed by
- ↑ The great pinewood to the east of the city, which is still one
of the great glories of Ravenna, must therefore have been in existence
already in the 5th century. Byron's description,
“ [The] immemorial wood
Rooted where once the Adrian wave flowed o'er,"
is probably true; but there is no evidence that it was in historic time that this change took place. It may be conjectured that the Pineta grew on a large peninsula somewhat resembling the Lido of Venice.
