A review by siria
Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe by Judith Herrin

3.0

As Rome declined in the later years of the Roman Empire, various other cities grew to rival it for power and influence. Constantinople is the most famous of these, of course, but Ravenna was another of the "New Romes." It benefited from an enviable location as a port city on the Adriatic that was surrounded by marshy land which made it difficult to besiege. Judith Herrin here recounts the city's history from the fifth through to the ninth century, arguing for its importance to understanding the development of early medieval Europe.

It's an argument which I think has some merit to it, but I'm not sure that the structure of the book was the best way for Herrin to make it. The need to provide framing political context meant that the narrative was constantly jumping away from Ravenna for extended stretches, while the written sources that survive from the city are fairly fragmentary. I came away from Ravenna with a clearer picture of some of the key political figures associated with it over the centuries than I did of what it might have been like to walk the city's streets—though undoubtedly with the wish to visit the city and see some of the magnificent buildings and mosaics about which Herrin writes with such knowledge and affection.