Ravenna and Aquileia in the Late Antiquity

Authors

ŠTĚPÁNEK Tomáš

Year of publication 2018
Type Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Description The cities formed, form and most likely will form the cornerstones of the civilized world. In the Roman Empire there are many changes in the Late Antiquity (4th-6th century AD). And these changes affected mostly its basic elements (cities). Some cities "survived" to the Early Middle Ages, some were transformed, and many of them lost their former (economical, political, cultural) shine. In this paper I am comparing two major Roman cities, Aquileia and Ravenna, with different late antiquity - early medieval fates. While Aquileia represented the classical ancient city, which in the Late Antiquity failed to build on its previous economic and cultural achievements, Ravenna stood on the opposite side. From no less important classical city, Ravenna in the late antiquity became the most important city of the declining Roman Empire. And remained in this role even in the Early Middle Ages, when northern Italy is conquered first by the Ostrogoths and then by the Langobards. What changes that caused their further different development took place in these two ancient Roman cities? Can we find specific causes for these changes (political, military, economic, cultural)? How did these processes evolve (suddenly, slowly, gradually, without an external cause)? The answers to this question we can find in written sources (narrative and legal issues), but also physically in archaeological contexts. In this paper I was combining both written and archaeological findings.
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