KADISH LEMASHIAJ
NE’ILAH: EL CIERRE DE LAS PUERTAS
Much has been written about the rise of the bishop in the wake of the ‘fall of Rome’, and in the case of Ravenna, in particular, a lot of interest has focused on the status of the archbishops of the sixth and seventh centuries. Going back to the fifth century, however, a period when Ravenna experienced a somewhat uncertain political status, the bishops have received less attention, with the exception of Peter Chrysologus. And yet, there is as much evidence about episcopal activity in this period as for later centuries, and in the context of the developing city, the space occupied by the bishops was even more fascinating. In this chapter, therefore, I will consider the building and commemorative activity of Ravenna’s bishops from 450 to 493, especially in light of developments that were taking place in Rome at
the same time.1 Examination of the evidence will show that some of the
same impulses clearly seen in the sixth century, such as rivalry with Rome, can also be traced back to the fifth.
Historical background
For half a century after the year 402, the emperors of the Western Roman
Empire had resided primarily in Ravenna.2 As a result, a city that had
been something of a half‑ruined shell with a harbour to the south had been transformed, at least in part, into a monumental showplace. A wall was built to surround what was probably a new palace and a new set of administrative buildings. A large double‑aisled cathedral, slightly smaller than those in Milan and Rome, but on the scale of Aquileia’s, was built
and lavishly decorated, and had an octagonal baptistery.3 The emperors
and other wealthy patrons built additional churches throughout the area enclosed by the new walls, dedicated to such universal Christian saints and
1 See C. Rizzardi, ‘L’attività edilizia del vescovo Neone a Ravenna’, Corso di cultura
sull’arte Ravennate e Bizantine, xliii (1997), 781–801, which describes the monuments that
were built, but does not consider the inscriptions, nor place them in a broader context.
2 See A. Gillett, ‘Rome, Ravenna, and the last western emperors’, PBSR, lxix (2001),
131–67.
concepts as the Holy Cross, St. John the Evangelist and St. Agatha; outside the walls was a large basilica in honour of St. Lawrence, and to the south of the harbour, the port city of Classe had been surrounded by a wall by
the early fifth century.4 Much of this construction was sponsored by Galla
Placidia, the sister of Honorius and mother of his heir Valentinian III, in whose name she ruled from 424 to 437.
Andrew Gillett has carefully traced the evidence for imperial residence in the fifth century, noting that after 450 emperors are rarely attested in Ravenna, but instead lived in Rome or elsewhere. After the assassination of Valentinian III in 455 and the subsequent sack of Rome by the Vandals, a series of short‑lived emperors resided either in Ravenna or in Rome or
even outside these cities, until the deposition of Romulus in 476.5 It is
notable that those emperors with strong connections to the senate and/or the eastern empire were proclaimed emperor and ruled in Rome (Petronius Maximus, Avitus, Anthemius, Olybrius, Nepos), while those who were generals, or heavily supported by generals (Majorian, Libius Severus, Glycerius, Romulus Augustulus), carried out many of their significant
actions in Ravenna.6 Romulus’s successor Odovacer, who ruled Italy for the
next fourteen years, also seems to have been based in Ravenna, but there is almost no information available about his reign, and there is no evidence for any building activity under his patronage in the city.
Thus, it seems that while Ravenna’s status was transformed between 402 and 450, what the new infrastructure and institutions would mean for the city was far from clear. Ravenna, which had only recently gained its status as an imperial residence, seemed in danger of losing that status; at times there must have been something of a power vacuum in the city.
The bishops of Ravenna, 450–93
Despite a lack of information about the secular rulers of Ravenna from 450 to 493, we are reasonably well informed about the bishops. This is due largely to the information provided about them by the ninth‑ century historian of Ravenna, Agnellus, whose Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis has lengthy, if chronologically problematic, sections on this
period.7 Agnellus relied, and we today also rely, on the monumental and
4 V. Manzelli, ‘La forma urbis di Ravenna in età romana’, in Ravenna Romana, ed. M.
Mauro (Ravenna, 2001), pp. 45–62, 54; and V. Manzelli, Ravenna (Rome, 2000), pp. 236–8.
5 Gillett, ‘Rome, Ravenna’, traces at Ravenna only Majorian in 457–8, the accession of Livius
Severus in 461, Glycerius in 473, Nepos, briefly in 474–5, and Romulus Augustulus in 476.
6 Gillett, ‘Rome, Ravenna’, pp. 148–57, 162–5.
7 On the problematic chronology, see Andreas Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis,
inscription evidence, quite a bit of which survives. This testifies to bishops who were making their mark on the city and participating in episcopal trends emanating from cities such as Rome.
The earliest bishop of Ravenna attested in an external source was Severus, who attended the Council of Sardica of 343. There is no other evidence for bishops of Ravenna until the cathedral was constructed; Ravenna’s bishop was not among those addressed in a letter written by John Chrysostom in 404, nor recorded as attending a synod at Rome called by Pope Innocent
I.8 But in 431, Theodoret of Cyrrhus said that he had sent a letter about the
Council of Ephesus to the bishops of Milan, Aquileia and Ravenna, so in these twenty years, Ravenna’s status had been raised dramatically, and the
see was now considered equal to the other northern Italian metropolitans.9
At some point, probably with both papal and imperial approval, Ravenna’s bishop was made a metropolitan, with jurisdiction over fourteen other
cities, at the expense of the bishop of Milan.10
While the document purporting to record this elevation has long been
known to be a later forgery,11 we know from the content of some of his
surviving sermons that Bishop Peter Chrysologus (c.431–50), later to be
revered as a saint, was acting in a metropolitan capacity.12 We also know
from Chrysologus’s sermons that he worked closely with the imperial
family, particularly Galla Placidia.13 Chrysologus seems to have been the
pivotal figure, and the Ravennate tradition, as recorded by Agnellus, noted that he was from the subordinate see of Imola, but personally appointed to
Ravenna’s throne by Pope Sixtus III.14 As we will see, there were to be other
links between Sixtus and Ravenna in these decades.
Final evidence for the elevation of the status of Ravenna’s bishop comes from 495, when Pope Gelasius (who, notably, was writing at a time when there was no longer an emperor in Italy), in the context of the status of the
patriarch of Constantinople, argued:15
8 V. Zangara, ‘Una predicazione alla presenza dei principi: la chiesa di Ravenna nella
prima metà del sec. V’, AT, viii (2000), 265–304, at p. 272 n. 30.
9 Zangara, ‘Una predicazione’, p. 273 n. 38; Theodoret ep. 112, ed. Y. Azéma, iii, S.C., cxi
(Paris, 1965), 52.
10 See Zangara, ‘Una predicazione’, esp. pp. 298–304.
11 See LPR, p. 102. The diploma of Valentinian is found in the Codex Estensis, fol. 44r, and
is published in I papiri diplomatici raccolti ed illustrati, ed. L. G. Marini (Rome, 1805), no. 57 (p. 94); Agnellus used it as a source (LPR, ch. 40).
12 Peter Chrysologus, Sermones 165 and 175, were given on occasions when he was consecrating
bishops for other cities (see LPR, pp. 102–3, and Zangara, p. 273).
13 Chrysologus, Sermones 85b and 130. 14 LPR, ch. 49.
15 Gelasius, ep. 26.10 (Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum Genuinae, ed. A. Thiel (Braunsberg,
Risimus autem, quod praerogativam volunt Acacio comparari, quia episcopus fuerit regiae civitatis. Numquid apud Mediolanum, apud Ravennam, apud Sirmium, apud Treviros multis temporibus non constitit imperator? Numquidnam harum urbium sacerdotes ultra mensuram sibimet antiquitus deputatam quidpiam suis dignitatibus usurparunt?
Thus, through the period of instability and the reign of Odovacer, Ravenna’s bishops had retained their claims to high episcopal rank.
Who were these bishops? The successor of Peter Chrysologus was Neon,
followed by Exuperantius, followed by John.16 John’s epitaph survives,
and we therefore know that he reigned for sixteen years, ten months and
seventeen days, from 477 to 94.17 The dates of Neon and Exuperantius
therefore filled the period 450–77, but the only external piece of evidence that we have for either of them is that Pope Leo I wrote a letter to Neon in
458.18 Agnellus knew almost nothing about Exuperantius, and there is no
other reliable information about him.19 Every scholar who has produced a
chronology for the fifth century attributes to Neon a reign of 450–73 and to
Exuperantius 473–77, but these dates are entirely conjectural.20
Regardless of exactly how long he reigned, Neon was, at least, bishop during the removal of the emperor to Rome (450), the invasion of Attila the Hun (452), and the sack of Rome by the Vandals (455), among other momentous events. Moreover, the building activity associated with Neon was grandiose in scale, continuing the momentum that had been begun by Peter Chrysologus. Neon clearly undertook a conscious programme intended to underscore the importance of the episcopal office, and if this is compared to similar activities taking place in Rome, significant facts emerge.
16 John is said to have negotiated the surrender of Odovacer to Theoderic at Ravenna in
393 (in LPR, ch. 39, but also Procopius, Bello Gothico V.1.24).
17 CIL, xi, no. 304. 18 Ep. 166, PL 54, col. 1191.
19 An epitaph that survives in the Museo Arcivescovile in Ravenna names him as an
archbishop; this title was not used for the bishops of Ravenna until the mid 6th century, so this inscription cannot be original (see The Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna, trans. D. M. Deliyannis (Washington, DC, 2004), p. 135 n. 6; and F. W. Deichmann, Ravenna,
Hauptstadt des spätantiken Abendlandes, ii (Wiesbaden, 1976), 299).
20 G. Orioli, ‘Cronotassi dei vescovi di Ravenna’, Felix Ravenna, cxxvii–cxxx (1984–5), 323–
32, at p. 325 n. 9. This is because Neon is said by Agnellus to have had an obit of the 3 Id. February (LPR, ch. 29); most of the obits in the 5th century correspond to Sundays, and the only years in which 3 Id. Feb. was a Sunday in the period 458–77 are 462, 468 and 473. Because Neon was a busy bishop and Exuperantius was not, most scholars have given Neon the longest possible reign, but this is entirely arbitrary; Orioli says that he prefers the date of 468.
Baptism and the baptistery
The meaning and rituals of baptism were of great interest to church leaders in the fourth and fifth centuries, and the baptistery, as the space in which the ritual was performed, was therefore an important part of an episcopal complex. Octagonal baptisteries were an invention of the fourth century,
and by the fifth century, every major episcopal see had one.21 The Lateran
Cathedral in Rome, built at the time of Constantine, apparently had a separate baptistery as part of its original conception, a centralized space
with an octagonal ground plan.22 Ambrose of Milan, in addition to building
a new octagonal baptistery next to the cathedral of Milan in the 370s, wrote extensively on the meaning of baptism. Aquileia also acquired an octagonal baptistery, to replace (or supplement) earlier less notable structures, in the
late fourth century.23 Ravenna’s Orthodox baptistery is likewise one of the
earliest attested; it was initially built at the same time as the cathedral, in the early years of the fifth century.24
Then, under Neon, Ravenna’s baptistery underwent an extensive programme of rebuilding and redecoration. The original baptistery had a
wooden roof approximately 11m above the floor;25 the new structure had
a dome, made of hollow tubi fittili and blocks of pumice, that rose to an
apex of 14.6m.26 The interior decoration was re‑done, and included marble,
mosaic inscriptions, stucco and mosaics, much still surviving. Agnellus says
of Bishop Neon:27
Fontes Ursianae ecclesiae pulcherrime decoravit; musiva et auratis tessellis apostolorum imagines et nomina camera circumfinxit, parietes promiscuis lapidibus cinxit. Nomen ipsius lapideis descriptum est elementis:
21 For a comprehensive analysis, see G. Cantino Wataghin, M. Trinci Cecchelli and L.
Pani Ermini, ‘L’edificio battesimale nel tessuto della città tardoantica e altomedievale in Italia’, in L’edificio battesimale in Italia: aspetti e problemi: atti dell’VIII Congresso nazionale
di archeologia cristiana: Genova, Sarzana, Albenga, Finale Ligure, Ventimiglia, 21–26 settembre 1998 (Bordighera, 2001), pp. 231–65, 234–42.
22 O. Brandt, ‘Il battistero lateranense da Costantino a Ilaro: un riesame degli scavi’,
Opuscula Romana, xxii–xxiii (1997–8), 7–66, at p. 8.
23 S. Ristow, Frühchristliche Baptisterien (Münster, 1998), pp. 35–8.
24 S. Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna (New Haven, Conn., 1965), and
Deliyannis, Ravenna, pp. 88–100.
25 Identified by the remains of a stucco cornice found inside the exterior walls and just
above the level of the springing of the dome (see Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery, pp. 39–40 and Deichmann, Ravenna, ii. 18).
26 For bibliography on the various reconstructions, see Deliyannis, Ravenna, pp. 92, 338 n.
309.
Cede, vetus nomen, novitati cede vetustas! Pulchrius ecce nitet renovati gloria Fontis.
Magnanimus hunc namque Neon summusque sacerdos Excoluit, pulchro componens omnia cultu.
Among other things, this is the first dedication inscription attested from Ravenna that attributes construction to a bishop.
Neon’s reconstruction project is most notable because of the several ways that one can see it is linked to Rome and to the activities of popes Sixtus III (432–40) and Leo I (440–61). In the first place, Sixtus had famously
reconstructed and redecorated the Lateran baptistery in the 430s,28 and Pope
Hilarus (461–68) made further additions and donations to the structure;29
thus Neon’s reconstruction at Ravenna can be seen as a response to the
Roman example.30 That this was indeed the case is underscored by the fact
that the first line of Neon’s dedicatory poem is a direct copy of one that
had been placed in San Pietro in Vincoli by Sixtus himself.31 Pope Damasus
in the mid fourth century had begun a tradition of poetic inscriptions that named the pope as a founder, but Sixtus III was the next to develop it in a substantial way, as there is a similar inscription from Santa Maria
Maggiore.32 Thus, Neon was borrowing from Rome both the concept of
including dedicatory inscriptions in praise of the founding bishop, and the specific wording.33
Moreover, in the Roman Liber Pontificalis, Sixtus is said to have included
verses on the entablatures of the redecorated Lateran baptistery.34 The
28 See, e.g., B. B. Eichberg, ‘Die Erneuerung des Lateranbaptisteriums durch Sixtus III.
(432–440) als Sinnbild päpstlicher Tauftheologie und Taufpolitik: Die Apsismosaiken des Vestibüls und das Taufgedicht Sixtus III’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, xxx (2003), 7–34.
29 Roman Liber pontificalis, Vita Hilari 2–5 (LP, i. 242–3). 30 Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery, p. 43.
31 G. B. de Rossi, Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores (2
vols., Rome, 1888), ii, pt. 1, 110: ‘Cede prius nomen novitati cede vetustas / Regia laetanter vota dicare libet. / Haec Petri Paulique simul nunc nomine signo / Xystus apostolicae sedis honore fruens / unum quaeso pares unum duo sumite munus / unus honor celebret quos habet una fides / presbyteri tamen hic labor est et cura Philippi / postquam Ephesi Christus icit utrique polo / praemia discipulis meruit vincente mgistro / hanc palmam fidei rettulit inde senex.’
32 De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christianae, ii, pt. 1, 71.
33 The popularity of this model is underscored by the fact that another imitation of Sixtus’s
inscription was discovered in North Africa at Aïn‑Ghorab near Tebessa: ‘Cede prius nomen novitati cede vetustas, / Regia l(a)etan[t]er vota dicare [l]i[b]et. / Haec Petri Paulique sedes Christo [j]ubente resurgit’ (P. Monceaux, ‘Enquête sur l’épigraphie chrétienne d’afrique’, III, Revue archéologique, 4th ser., viii (1906), 126–42, at pp. 126–7).
inscriptions, restored in the seventeenth century, are alternating lines of
hexameter and pentameter, on the theme of baptism.35 At Ravenna, Neon
also included inscriptions related to the theme of baptism, although he did something slightly different. The ground‑level arcade frames absidioles recessed into four sides of the octagon, alternating with flat wall surfaces. In lunettes above the absidioles are mosaic inscriptions that were first recorded
in the late seventeenth century and renewed in the late nineteenth.36
They paraphrase or quote biblical verses that relate to baptism, namely a paraphrase of Matthew 14:29, Psalm 31[32]:1‑2, a paraphrase of John 13:4‑ 5, and Psalm 22[23]:2. It has been suggested that the texts might refer to images originally decorating the absidioles, but there is no evidence either
way.37 In any case, the idea seems to have been the same as in the Lateran
baptistery, to provide texts that could complement the ceremony of baptism taking place in front of them.
What was the context for Neon’s work on the Orthodox baptistery? Interestingly, here too we can find a papal connection. Pope Leo I frequently
wrote about baptism in his various letters.38 In 458, he addressed one letter
on that subject to Neon, specifically the fact that if people taken captive in childhood did not know whether they had been baptized in infancy, they could still be baptized, even thought it might be for the second time, which is otherwise forbidden. There is no indication why this letter was addressed to Neon in particular, as he is not charged with something to do; at the least, it shows that the two leaders had a relationship. Certainly contemporary texts such as the Vita of Severinus of Noricum (c.410–82), written in the 510s by Eugippius, which covers especially the decades after the death of Attila, tell us that Roman Christians are continually being
carried off by marauding barbarians.39 In fact, one of the stories told in the
Vita is about Giso the wicked queen of the Rugii, an Arian who attempted to rebaptize certain Catholics,40 so clearly this was an issue in northern Italy
in the 450s.
Taken together, then, a number of conclusions can be drawn about Neon’s rebuilding of Ravenna’s baptistery. First, he had clearly visited, and
35 De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christianae, ii, pt. 1, 424, 44; see E. Ferguson, Baptism in the
Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids, Mich.,
2009), p. 769.
36 Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery, pp. 59–61, provides a brief analysis of the verses and
interpretations of them; see also Deichmann, Ravenna, ii.1, 28–30.
37 Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery, pp. 61–2; Deichmann, Ravenna, ii.1, 28, says the use of
Bible verses as labels for images would go against what we know of early Christian usage.
38 See Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church, pp. 761–6.
39 See e.g. Eugippius, Vita Severini, ed. P. Knoell (CSEL, ix, Vienna, 1886), chs. 9, 10, 19. 40 Vita Severini, ch. 8.
been influenced by, Rome’s newly built baptistery and the other works undertaken by Sixtus III. Second, along with his contemporary popes and bishops, he recognized that baptism had to be regulated by bishops, and was thus a potent expression of episcopal authority. And finally, Neon was determined that his see was going to imitate and rival Rome even at a moment when it might have seemed that the emperors had left town.
The episcopium
Agnellus tells us that in the episcopal palace of Ravenna, Neon built the
‘house that is called quinque accubita’.41 Quinque accubita means ‘five dining
couches’, and refers to a type of high‑status triclinium, or dining hall, that contains a niche for a number of semi‑circular dining couches. Agnellus describes the dining hall as follows:42
Ex utraque parte triclinii fenestras mirificas struxit, ibique pavimenta triclinii diversis lapidibus ornare praecepit. Historiam psalmi quam cotidie cantamus, id est, Laudate Dominum de caelis, una cum cataclismo, in pariete, parte ecclesiae, pingere iussit; et in alio pariete, qui super amnem posito, exornari coloribus fecit historiam Domini nostri Yhesu Christi, quando de .v. panibus et duobus piscibus tot milia, ut legimus, homines satiavit. Ex una autem parte