Ravenna
A city among marshes and rivers at the head of the Adriatic, hard to attack by land or sea. The last Western emperors resided here, and after them Odoacer and Theoderic.
Procopius describes Ravenna as lying in a level plain at the head of the Adriatic, a short way from the sea, and hard to approach either by ship, because of the shoals, or by a land army (Procopius, Wars 5.1.16–18). Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus here in 476, and here Theoderic besieged Odoacer for three years and killed him (Anonymus Valesianus 8.38; 11.53–55).
What happened here
- AD 476, firm dateThe End of the Western Roman Empire
The general Odoacer deposes the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus at Ravenna and rules Italy as king. No Western emperor follows, and the bishops of Rome begin to deal with distant emperors and with kings of another confession.
- AD 754 to AD 756, firm dateThe Donation of Pepin and the Papal States
Threatened by the Lombards and unaided by the emperor, Pope Stephen II crosses the Alps to the Frankish king Pepin. Pepin defeats the Lombards and gives Ravenna and its cities not to the emperor but to St Peter, making the pope a ruler of territory.
Primary sources
History of the Wars
- Procopius, Wars 5.1.16–18penelope.uchicago.edu