Ravenna: From Imperial Capital to Byzantine Outpost (original) (raw)
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FROM THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE MIDDLE AGES: THE STRUGGLE FOR RAVENNA IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY
2012
Through an analysis of both literary and non-literary materials, this dissertation considers the multiple levels of Ravenna’s value that drove the fight to acquire it. I argue that by conquering Ravenna, the Lombards took possession of a city full of specifically Christian imperial imagery, built up by the city’s archbishops to further their own ambitions. Seizing the city was fundamental to legitimize the Lombard kings as the rightful rulers of the entire Italian peninsula. The Lombard kings were also able to take advantage of the economic, religious and political status of Ravenna and of tensions among the archbishops of Ravenna, the Byzantine exarchs and the popes. Thus the city played a crucial role in the kings' attempt to create a Lombard kingdom of Italy. My dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach and integrates documentary and material sources regarding one city, Ravenna, during the crucial transition period of the late seventh and eighth centuries. I analyze the different aspects of Ravenna’s value that drove the fight to acquire it, normally studied separately, in order to highlight the interconnectedness of political, religious and economic trends, of the Byzantines and Lombards as well as of regional and international networks in Italy in this period. This approach has allowed me to call into question the interpretive dichotomies and simplifications of the master narrative of the end of late antiquity and the beginning of the middle ages, specifically the differences, both cultural and economic, between the 'barbarian' Lombards and the Byzantines, as I argue that political and economic interests crossed cultural lines. This perspective has also enabled me to contribute to the debate over the end of the antique trade pattern and the beginning of the medieval pattern. I argue that the growth of new trading centers in Italy in the upper Adriatic was a result of the privileged position of Ravenna in the Byzantine state and economy, and therefore, at least in this region, there is an important relationship, not a clear dichotomy, between the late antique trade system and the new medieval one.
2016
Ravenna had a special character as a Mediterranean port city in several aspects. The aim is to trace some of these traits and how they affected the city. Ravenna’s development was in some ways typical of Mediterranean ports of its era, but also almost unique through its combination of military, commercial and political importance. Ravenna had an important geographic position at the mouth of the Po, was connected to a series of navigable coastal lagoons and a major road, and possessed a huge natural harbour basin. It was defensible, could be supplied from the sea and was close to the eastern Alpine passes, though still protected by the barrier of the Po. These advantages propelled it on a path of gradually increasing importance, first as a naval base, to which was later added considerable commercial importance, until it eventually became the political centre of the Roman Empire in the west.
Archaeological Institute of America, Annual Meeting, 2023
Ravenna became a major Roman political and military center in the 1st c. CE, when the Emperor Augustus established the Empire's military fleet, the classis Ravennatis, in the city. In 402 CE, Ravenna was chosen as the capital of the Western Empire, and it remained a central place throughout the following centuries as part of Byzantine Exarchate and, after the 8th c. CE, as the center of one of the most powerful Archbishoprics in Italy. The dynamic landscape around Ravenna, geomorphologically unstable and mainly composed of wetlands, deeply influenced the political and economic fortunes of the city over these periods. In this paper, we present the results of several archaeological investigations (artifact surveys, extensive geophysics, manual and mechanical coring, excavations, archaeobotanical investigations, and archival document analysis), which shed new light on the relationship between Ravenna and its hinterland during Late Antiquity and the first half of the Middle Ages (5th-11th c. CE). In particular, we focus on the complex dynamics between the urban and rural communities in relation to environmental factors and socio-economic change; contrary to recent deterministic interpretations, our preliminary results clearly show that environmental change was only one of many elements that influenced the history of this local socio-ecological system.