Ravenna, Last Capital of the Western Roman Empire Quiz

Answer: The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

The building is generally referred to as The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, although in fact it's not a mausoleum at all - rather, it's a chapel that was built as part of the former Church of Santa Croce, nothing else of which survives. The building does contain a number of empty sarcophagi, but Galla Placidia herself is probably buried in the Mausoleum of the Emperor Honorius in Rome. The mosaic decoration is beautiful, featuring pictures of the Four Evangelists and of Christ the Good Shepherd among his flock.
Galla Placidia (circa 389 - 450) was an immensely powerful and influential woman.

In addition to ruling the Empire as Regent for her young son in the early 400s, she built or renovated churches in Rome and Jerusalem. She also built the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna, in thanks for her surviving a shipwreck in the Adriatic. Sadly the church was bombed during WWII and the mosaics inside were destroyed.

Answer: Saint Lawrence

Saint Lawrence was a deacon in Rome until he was martyred during the persecution of Christians by Valerian in 258. It is said that he was placed on a red-hot grill, and that after he'd suffered for a long time he said "I'm well-done on this side. Turn me over!" - a remark that made him being judged worthy of being associated with comedians.

Sadly, this story is disputed and is now thought to have stemmed from a mistake in transcription in early times. Rather than his death being recorded as "passus est" ("he was martyred", the most common way of recording such a death), Lawrence's death was recorded as "assus est" ("he was roasted"). It's possible that the story of his death thus arises from a missing "p". It is thought that the Church of Santa Croce that once stood on the site, but which no longer survives, was dedicated to him.

Answer: Arianism

The Ostrogoths were Arian Christians, believing that, as Jesus Christ was begotten by God, he was thus separate from God and subordinate to him. These arguments within early Christianity may sound like debating about the number of angels on a pinhead, but they were massively important to people at that time.

The picture is of a detail of the mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Appolinare showing Theoderic's Palace ("Palatium"). When these were created they would have shown various important people of the time, with King Theoderic in the middle. However, after the fall of the Gothic Kingdom and the taking of Ravenna by the (Greek Orthodox) Byzantines in 540, the church was reconsecrated and these images were all removed. It's still possible to see the hands and arms of some of the "deleted" people.

Answer: Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar

The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of the Three Wise Men - or the Three Kings or the Three Magi - who visited Jesus after his birth to present him with gifts. The mosaic depicts them and gives their names: Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar. Reading from left to right on the mosaic, Balthazar is a young black man giving myrrh from Yemen, Melchior is middle-aged and gives frankincense from Arabia, and the elderly Caspar gives gold.

Balthazar is shown wearing some very fashionable leopard-skin leggings. Perhaps these would have helped ameliorate the backache that the Magis' peculiar crouching posture would have brought on!

Answer: The Mausoleum of Theoderic

The building is known as the Mausoleum of Theoderic, and, unlike the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, it is an actual mausoleum. The building has two floors: a downstairs chapel and an upstairs room housing Theoderic's tomb. It's built of stone from Istria, about 250 miles away; the roof is one solid piece of stone that's 10 metres (33 feet) in diameter and weighs about 230 tonnes. Sadly, the roof stone cracked on the day it was installed - not a day to have been one of the builders!

The building is notable in particular because of its Gothic-style architecture and decoration, owing nothing to either late Roman or Byzantine art. Theoderic's remains were originally housed there after he died, but after the city was taken by the Byzantines in 540 they were removed and thrown away.

Answer: Porphyry

The tomb is carved out of porphyry, the imperial stone that was widely used for buildings and monuments in imperial Rome and Byzantium, and is used for decorative effect in all the royal buildings in Ravenna. It's a very rare rock, found only in one quarry in the Eastern Egyptian desert that was discovered during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius.

Keen-eyed quizzers will have noticed that the tomb wasn't originally meant to be a tomb; rather it was a bathtub, probably from a luxurious Roman bath complex.

Answer: The Basilica of San Vitale

The wonderful Basilica of San Vitale was started in 526 and finished in 547 by the Bishop Maximian. It's a large octagonal building, similar to Haghia Sophia in Istanbul, and holds up to 2,000 people. The apse holding the altar is covered in the most beautiful, richly-coloured mosaics depicting scenes from the Bible set amidst landscape pictures, plants and birds.

It is truly awe-inspiring.

Answer: Emperor Justinian I

The central figure of the panel is the Emperor Justinian I, known as Justinian the Great (482 - 565, reigned 527-565). He is shown with his two most prominent generals (Belisarius and Narses), Bishop Maximian, court officials, soldiers, and clergy.

During Justinian's reign the Eastern Empire regained control over North Africa, Southern Spain, Sicily and Italy; Justinian also re-wrote the Roman legal code and built Haghia Sophia. He was a man of his times: a series of riots in Constantinople (the Nika Riots) ended when he ordered his troops to kill about 30,000 rioters in the Hippodrome.

Note that the halo around Justinian's head is not intended as an attribute of divinity; rather, it was traditional to portray the imperial family with halos.

Answer: Empress Theodora

The figure in the panel is the Empress Theodora (circa 500 - 548, reigned 527-548). She's shown with her court women and eunuchs; she holds a Eucharistic vessel for the sacramental wine.
Theodora was from a humble background, but the almost pornographic stories about her behaviour related in the "Secret History by Procopius in around 550 are almost certainly slanderous and unreliable. She was a strong supporter of her husband's policies, especially in relation to the Nika Riots and the reconquest of the western Mediterranean areas lost by the Western Roman Empire.

This mosaic is arguably superior to the one depicting Justinian, with more elaborate design in the silks and textiles and a more complex background.

Answer: Carved elephant ivory

The throne is made of panels of carved elephant ivory, with the great majority surviving. It was constructed in about 545, as a gift from the Emperor Justinian to Bishop Maximian. The carving is very detailed and precise.

The Chapel itself is small, but it has a wonderful mosaic of Christ dressed as a Byzantine army general. The iconography is strongly anti-Arian.