Review: Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe

Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe by Judith Herrin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book starts off extremely well. Ravenna was the Italian successor to Rome in so many ways, and it is fascinating to learn about Galla Placidia and Theodoric, as well as the rise of Ravenna as a tri-lingual center, and the clashes between Easterners, Westerners and Goths. 

However, not everyone who had anything to do with Ravenna is necessarily worth learning about. And others, like Gregory the Great and Charlemagne, were obviously interesting, but their ties to Ravenna were tangential at best. 

Also, I was kind of hoping this would be a history of Ravenna, and not just a history of Ravenna in the early middle ages (late antiquity). I’m certain other things happened and other people were in Ravenna after these times. In fact, the author mentions how Dante is buried in Ravenna since he was there in exile when he died, but this is just mentioned briefly in the introduction and never touched upon again. The book basically ends at around 800 CE. 

This book did make me want to read more about the Goths, Longobards and Franks, however. Their advance and influence throughout Europe is fascinating. 

Also, why does she refer to Charlemagne as Charles? There are a number of other Charles’s throughout the book (including Charlemagne’s grandfather, Charles Martel), so it was a tad confusing at first. 

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