'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.
