Ravenna

a city of northeastern Italy. Venice and Ravenna occupy similar positions-the former north of the mouth of the Po, the latter south-save that the lagoons of Ravenna have filled with silt, leaving the city five miles inland. The ancient walls still bear iron rings to which ships were once moored. Communication with the Adriatic is maintained by a canal. The city has manufactures of lace, wine, and implements; but interest centers chiefly in its history. In the fifth century the Emperor Honorius, being alarmed by the inroads of Alaric, thought it well to take up his residence here within the protection of the lagoons. Ravenna was the chief seat of the Roman emperors for three quarters of a century. "Here Stilicho was slain; here Honorius and his sister caressed and quarreled; here Valentinian spent the greater part of his useless life; here Marjorian was proclaimed; here the little Romulus donned his purple robe, and here, in the pine wood outside of the city, Pontus received his decisive defeat from Odoacer." The last named ruler surrendered the city to Theodoric the Ostrogoth. Ravenna was the last spot to which the Ostrogoths clung in Italy.

Ravenna is a city of ancient churches. There are no less than thirteen dating between 370 and 535. They are built on the basilica pattern. Beautiful rows of marble pillars, long series of arches, fresco paintings undimmed by the centuries, and mosaics testify to the former wealth of the city and its devotion to Christian art. Charlemagne got the plan of his cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle here. Dante died and was buried here. Byron, who lingered here in 1820-1, when he should have been elsewhere, wrote of the great poet's marble urn as a "cupola more neat than solemn."