Early history

A origins of Ravenna come uncertain. A number one personal injury settlement is diversely attributed to the Tyrrhenians, the Thessalians, or a Umbrians. Ravennthe consisted of houses repose inside piles on the series of little islands in the sloppy lagoon - a situation similar to Venice several centuries later. A Romans ignored it in the period of their conquest of the Po River Delta, but afterwards accepted it as a federate town into a Roman Empire in 89 BC. Around 49 BC, it was a location in which Julius Caesar gathered his forces before crossing a Rubicon. Late, fallowing his battle against Mark Anthony in 45 BC, Emperor Augustus founded the military harbor of Classe. This harbor, protected initially by its have bulwarks was an significant station of the Roman imperial fleet. Present a city is landlocked, however Ravenna remained an crucial seaport on the Adriatic until the early Middle Ages. When you took a German campaigns, Thusnelda, widow of Arminius, and Marbod, King of the Marcomanni, were confined at Ravenna.

Ravenna greatly prospered under Roman rule. Emperor Trajan built a Lxx km yearn aquaduct at the beginning of the Second century. Around 402, Emperor Honorius tranferred the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Milan to Ravenna. A transport was mass produced primarily for defensive purposes: Ravenna was surrounded by lakes & lakes & experienced ease of access to Imperial forces of the Eastern Empire. Nonetheless, around 409, King Alaric of the Visigoths simply bypassed Ravenna, and went in to sack Rome and to take Galla Placidia, daughter of Emperor Theodosius I, hostage. When numbers of vissitudes, Galla Placidia returned to Ravenna by owning her boy, Emperor Valentinian III and the trend lines of her uncle Emperor Theodosius. Ravenna enjoyed a period of unprecedented peace, when you took which period a Christian religon flourished, & the city gained its best known monuments, two lay (dismantled) & Christian (largely preserved).

Around 476, a American Roman Empire fell. Eastern Emperor Zeno sent Ostrogoth King Theodoric to re-take a Italian peninsula. Fallowing a Battle of Verona, Odoacer retreated to Ravenna, where he withstood a siege of triplet years by Theodoric, until the pickings of Rimini deprived Ravenna of supplies. Fallowing Theodoric slew Odoacer, Ravenna was a capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy. Fallowing 493, Theodoric employed Roman designer for lay & religious structures, including a misused palace touching San Apollinare Nuovo; a "Palazzo di Teodorico" was an outbuilding. Theodoic & his followers were Arians, but co-existed peacefully using a Latins. Theodoric died around 526 & was succeeded by his daugher Amalasunta, who was flushed around 535.

Yet, Byzantine Emperor Justinian was fanatically orthodox, & opposed each Ostrogoth rule and a Arian cult. Witharound 535 AD he invaded Italy & in 540 conquered Ravenna. Ravenna became a seat of Byzantine government around Italy.

Exarchate of Ravenna
Resulting a conquests of Belisarius for the Emperor Justinian I in the sixth century, Ravenna became the seat of the Byzantine governor of Italy, the Exarch, and was referred to as a Exarchate of Ravenna. It was at this period that a Ravenna Cosmography was written.

Medieval and Modern history

A Lombards under King Liutprand, occupied Ravenna in 712, however were forced to go to it to the Byzantines. Notwithstanding, withinside 751 a Lombards suceeded within conquering Ravenna, so ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy.

King Pepin of France attacked the Lombards under orders of Pope Stephen II. Ravenna so became territory of the Papal States in 784. Reciprocally, Pope Adrian I authorized King Charlemagne to take away anything from either Ravenna that he liked. Charlemagne mass produced trinity robbery expeditions to Ravennthe, removing a immense quantity of Roman columns, mosaics, statues & more personal things to enrich his capital of Aachen.

Ironically, under Pontifical rule, a archbishop of Ravenna enjoyed autocephaly from the Roman Church - the privilege found under Byzantine rule. Due to donations per Saxon emperors, a archbishop of Ravenna was a richest within Italy fallowing a Pontificate, & was so with success take a breath to challenge the temporal authority of the Pope now and again.

At a prevent of a 12th century, by having the rise of the loose cities, Ravenna misused its hinterland. Power rotated among a influential local families: a Traversarys, Rasponis & Polentarys. One of a virtually all illustrious residents of Ravenna at this period was a exiled poet Dante. Within 1512, when you took a Holy League wars, Ravenna was sacked by the French.

From either 1441-1509, Ravenna was ruled by Venice. Fallowing a Venetian withdrawal, Ravenna was once again ruled by official emissary of the Pope as one of the Papal States. the city was damaged around a wow flood inside Might 1636. Above a next Deuce-ace centuries, a network of canals diverted nearby streams, lakes, & wells throughout & drained nearby lakes, so reducing the possibility of flooding and creating a big belt of farming land in the city.

Ravenna & a encompassing Romagna area became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Sights
Many beautiful late Roman & Byzantine mosaics remain to this day in the following: Arian Baptistry Baptistry of Neon Basilica of San Vitale Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe Archepiscopal Palace Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

Besides worth seeing come: Mausoleum of Theodoric Grave of Dante Church of St Francis National Museum

A Eighter independent monuments of Ravenna come registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.