At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. For three centuries, the city attracted scholars, lawyers, craftsmen, and religious luminaries, becoming a true cultural and political capital. Bringing this extraordinary history marvelously to life, Judith Herrin rewrites the history of East and West in the Mediterranean world before the rise of Islam and shows how, thanks to Byzantine influence, Ravenna played a crucial role in the development of medieval Christendom.
Drawing on deep, original research, Herrin tells the personal stories of Ravenna while setting them in a sweeping synthesis of Mediterranean and Christian history. She narrates the lives of the Empress Galla Placidia and the Gothic king Theoderic and describes the achievements of an amazing cosmographer and a doctor who revived Greek medical knowledge in Italy, demolishing the idea that the West just descended into the medieval “Dark Ages.”
Based on the latest archaeological findings, this monumental book provides a bold new interpretation of Ravenna’s lasting influence on the culture of Europe and the West.
Awards and Recognition
- Winner of the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize
- Winner of the PROSE Award in European History, Association of American Publishers
- Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, Wolfson Foundation
- Shortlisted for the London Hellenic Prize, The Hellenic Centre
- Longlisted for the Cundill History Prize, McGill University
Judith Herrin is professor emeritus in the Department of Classics at King’s College London. Her books include Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire; Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium; Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire; Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium; and The Formation of Christendom (all Princeton). Phyllida Nash is an actor who has appeared in numerous plays and television and BBC Radio productions. She is the narrator of hundreds of audiobooks, including Mary Beard’s SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, an AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year.
"Magisterial—an outstanding book that shines a bright light on one of the most important, interesting, and under-studied cities in European history. A masterpiece."—Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
"A meticulous guide to a fascinating historical period. Particularly impressive is Herrin's treatment of some of the great characters associated with Ravenna, whose lives she examines with insight, empathy, and an eye for revealing detail."—T. S. Brown, author of Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy, AD 554–800
"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, author of The Power of Images
"This brilliant biography of Ravenna is essential reading for anyone who would understand the transformation of the Roman world."—Patrick Geary, author of The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe
"A wonderful new history of the Mediterranean from the fifth to eighth century through a lens focused on Ravenna, gracefully and clearly written, which reconceptualizes what was 'East' and what was 'West.'"—Caroline Goodson, author of The Rome of Pope Paschal I
"This is a masterful study as splendid as Ravenna's mosaics. Bringing to new life the city and the people who shaped it, Herrin explores Ravenna's role as a rival of Rome, a Byzantine outpost in the West, and a model for Charlemagne's imperial aspirations—in short, as a crucible of Europe."—Claudia Rapp, author of Brother-Making in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: Monks, Laymen, and Christian Ritual