' Magisterial - an outstanding book that shines a bright light one of the most important
interesting and under-studied cities in European history. A masterpiece. ' Peter Frankopan 'A
wonderful new history of the Mediterranean from the fifth to eighth centuries through a lens
focussed on Ravenna gracefully and clearly written which reconceptualises what was 'East' and
what was 'West'. ' Caroline Goodson ' A masterwork by one of our greatest historians of
Byzantium and early Christianity. Judith Herrin tells a story that is at once gripping and
authoritative and full of wonderful detail about every element in the life of Ravenna.
Impossible to put down. ' David Freedberg In 402 AD after invading tribes broke through the
Alpine frontiers of Italy and threatened the imperial government in Milan the young Emperor
Honorius made the momentous decision to move his capital to a small easy defendable city in
the Po estuary - Ravenna. From then until 751 AD Ravenna was first the capital of the Western
Roman Empire then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of
Byzantine power in Italy. In this engrossing account Judith Herrin explains how scholars
lawyers doctors craftsmen cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where
they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic.
As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers chroniclers and inhabitants Herrin shows how the
city became the pivot between East and West and the meeting place of Greek Latin Christian
and barbarian cultures. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome the Gothic and
Lombard invasions the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It
argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from
antiquity but rather thanks to Byzantium as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early
Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe. While Ravenna's palaces have
crumbled its churches have survived. In them Catholic Romans and Arian Goths competed to
produce an unrivalled concentration of spectacular mosaics many of which still astonish
visitors today. Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs and drawing on
the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries Ravenna: Capital of Empire Crucible of
Europe brings the early Middle Ages to life through the history of this dazzling city.
