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• History
of Christianization of Europe
• Soviet
Union, Communist influence
• Map
of European ethnic groups
• Map of Fascism
in Europe (1922-75)
• History
of Islamic conquest in Europe
• Religions
& ethnic groups in Russia
--MORE &
NON-ENGLISH--
• Muhammad cartoon crisis in pictures
• Stalin's private summer home
• Ravenna: capital of Gothic empire
• Czar Nicholas II's Ukrainian palace
• European traditional costumes/dress
• Inside the Vatican, house of all wealth
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--
• Islamic Mujahidin
vs. Spain & El Cid
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
• Mussolini vs. Libyan Islamic fighters
• Qadafi: Europe will soon be Islamic
• Ivan the Terrible vs. Muslim Tatars
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--
• Inside Albania, Europe's only Muslim culture (with rare pictures)
• History of Jihad in Chechnya
& Caucasus vs. Russians
• History of the Muslim Tatars in Russia
• Ethnic & religious history of Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
• History of Italy: from Roman rule to Germanic barbarian
• The cost & bloodshed of the Serb-Albanian conflict in Kosovo
• Inside Bulgaria, 1st Slavic nation,
land of Thracian masters of gold
• Visual history of Yugoslavia
• Inside Muslim Turkey: right for the European Union?
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH-- |
|
A history of Italy:
from Roman rule to Germanic barbarian
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
 Print
this Article • About
the Author • Bibliography/Sources
This essay is twofold: firstly,
a thorough historical background into the decline and conquest
of the Roman empire by "barbarian" Germanic, Hunnish,
and Slavic peoples and the shift of historical control and
advancement of Europe from Italian to Germanic empires. Secondly,
a first-hand look at the ancient Roman and Gothic Germanic
capital of Ravenna complete with exclusive photos from my
recent vacation into the heart of this historical shift of
political supremacy over western Europe from Italians to Germanics.
Note that in this article the terms "German" and
"Germanic" are used interchangeably because both
terms refer to a common ancestory, language, culture, and
religion despite not all Germanic peoples living in what is
now Germany.
Decline and Conquest of
the Roman Empire, or the Germanic Political Annexation of
Roman Western Europe:
By 100CE, the Romans had
exerted authority over a domain stretching from the southern
moors of Scotland to Iberia, from Dacia (Romania) to Jordan,
and from the Greek city-states to Algeria. Despite ruling
nearly all of the known world, the Romans were never able
to conquer two enemies: the reborn Zoroastrian Iranian state
under the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties, and the German
"barbarian" tribes and confederations to the north.
The military invincibility of the Romans ended in embarrassing
disaster in 9CE when several Roman legions marching into central
Germania were butchered and sent back to Rome after the German
cultural hero Hermann (in Latin "Arminius") united
German military confederated states and tribes into a cultural
defensive front against the coming Romans. They never were
able to press further. Other peoples outside of "barbarian
Germania", however, quickly fell victim to the military,
economic, and political supremacy of the Romans for the next
several hundred years.
My photo of a wall-map in Rome of the historical expansion
of the Roman Empire. (click to enlarge)
The period of 200-500CE were
a period of gradual decline, schism, internal dispute, pretending
leaders, and perceived moral decay. The issue of immorality
of the Roman people was allegedly so abhorrent that it encouraged
the Roman historian Tacitus to describe the Germanics of Germania
as admirable role models. The Germans were portrayed as simple,
honest, sexually and socially moral, not adulterous, religiously
pious, well-disciplined, less advanced, and talented warriors.
This may simply be the "grass is greener on the other
side of the fence" phenomenon that was an attempt to
explain a perceived political and moral decline in the Roman
empire, or may be true. Nonetheless, a gradual political,
social, and moral decline was detected by the Romans in their
own lands even whilst military expansion of Rome was at its
height of this most magnificent empire that built much of
Europe practically from nothing into advancement. The Romans
left their mark on most of the "developed" world
for all time thereafter, and their empire survived in a form
of the Byzantine "Eastern empire" for a thousand
years after the death of Rome, but the prestige and stability
of the West gradually disintegrated to be carved up from all
directions. It is untrue to say that the Roman empire fell
as a result of a victorious campaign by Germanic peoples or
any other "barbarian". Rather, the unavoidable and
ever-intensifying Roman empire's internal decline and schism
made the empire vulnerable for the barbarians to destroy it,
and they ultimately did with little difficulty.
In the early 4th century,
a new and near mythified enemy emerged from the plains of
the east. Whilst the Germans were deemed too unorganized to
directly annex or assault the Romans (though they did both
multiple times), this strange force was united under a common
banner and leader wise with military and tactical advancement.
These were the Hunnish tribes of Atli (or
Attila). Their ethnic origin and linguistic roots are today
debated. In reality, the steppes of Central Asia from Ukraine
and eastern pre-Slavic Poland to the borders of modern China
and down to today's Armenia were populated by Iranian peoples
called Sarmatians and Scythians. From 400 onward, Turkic peoples
began to appear whilst the Iranians of Central Asia declined
to insignificance (most dying or returning southward to their
ethnic homeland of Sassanid Iran), expelled by the superior
and unified hordes of the Turkic peoples. As the Huns meet
this timeframe, it is appropriate to imply that the Huns were
a pre-Islamic Turkic people with a Turkic-based or isolated
language. Mongol people like the Uzbeks and Kazakhs entered
Central Asia much later. These Huns were military geniuses
well-versed in equestrian tactics. They soon became the triumphal
power of Eurasia. Whilst the Romans were unable to conquer
the Germans, the Huns quickly succeeded. The military conquest
by the Huns of Central and Southern Europe (all of which the
German Gothic peoples previously exerted almost universal
authority) triggered a migration known as the Age of Migrations.
This caused Germans (who were the buffer between the invincible
Huns and the Romans to the south) to not only move westward,
northward, and southward, but also to coalesce, advance, and
culturally and politically unify in the face of foreign annihilation.
The Slavic peoples of Russia also began to move westward,
also attacking the Romans on occasion.
A map showing the rough expanse of the Hunnish Turkic empire
The Hunnish advance ended
and declined quickly and stunningly after the death of Attila,
but the legacy of their reign could not be reversed, all at
the expense of the Romans. Nonetheless, the Huns can be blamed
as the main external cause of the death of the Western Roman
state (of the Italians) because it pushed the Germanics deeper
into Roman land. Agitated by famine, and now living as second-class
citizens under the rule of the hated Roman foreigners as hostages,
perceived social injustice further united the Germanics in
an effort to repel the corrupt and self-interested rule of
the Italians. Within 100 years, the Germanic peoples (tribes,
confederations, and states) had conquered, populated, and
developed a variety of nations and states in Celtic England
and Scotland, in Roman-ruled Iberia (Spain and Portugal),
in modern France, in all of Germany, in nearly all of the
Balkans and southern Europe, had conquered the rich trade
city of Carthage in Tunisia, and had conquered most of northern
Italy. The new growing superpower in western Europe -- the
massive German empire of the Merovingians -- quickly annexed
nearly all of France and Germany. Political decline and internal
squabbling of the Romans, as well as the Hunnish invasion
had quickly caused economic and political control over Europe
to shift from the unified Roman empire into a number of non-unified
ethnic German-ruled states all across Europe. The Germans
-- previously adherents of the religion of Odin, Thor, Tyr,
and Baldr -- quickly began to convert to Christendom as a
result of internal conversion by their leaders. The duty to
spread the faith in Christ and the one true God also accelerated
the unification and exertion of force of other previously-tribal
Germans into full political states.
A rough map of the Germanic migration age. (click
to enlarge)
In 476, the Gothic German
king Audawakar (Odoacer in Latin) formally destroyed the western
Roman Empire forever when he expelled and overthrew the last
Roman emperor Romulus Augustus (ROMVLVS AVGVSTVS). This unfathomable
triumph was eased by the reality that the Roman state was
basically a dead horse for centuries prior due to as much
internal decline as external conquest. The Roman Empire was
in such decline, calamity, and bankruptcy that many Italian
leaders and priests encouraged German invasion due to their
ability to enforce widespread military authority and control
over peoples on the brink of anarchy. The German king Alarik
the Great had previously taken Rome in the early 5th century
temporarily, revealing that the former Roman superpower was
practically in a state of collapse. After Audawakar's conquest,
formerly-Roman ruled Italy was then ruled by several German
Gothic nations-states. Before the murder of the Roman Empire,
the capital had been moved from Rome to Milan, and then again
south to Ravenna. This capital of Ravenna became the capital
of the new German kingdoms therein. By the 4th century, most
of the German leaders had converted from Odinism and Tyrism
(today called "Norse Mythology") to Arian Christendom,
and many had shifted from writing in Runic to Latin-based
script. Arianism is a type of heretical Christendom which
dictates that Jesus and God cannot possibly be equal, a doctrine
formally deemed incomprehensible by the Catholics and the
Orthodox. By 500, a German king to the north called Theodoric
the Great (Theidareik) of another Gothic kingdom near modern
Slavic Slovenia and Croatia offered his service to the church
in Italy, promising that he would unify and contain the various
German kingdoms in Italy and protect the supremacy of the
growing Papacy. Theodoric quickly conquered nearly all of
the Germanic nations in southern Europe (killing Odoacer with
them), annexing all of Italy. Therefore, from his capital
at Ravenna, Theodoric became King of Italy and King of the
Goths, and the most powerful man in Western Europe. This domain
was short-lived; the Byzantines returned to save their destroyed
Roman partners' lands and conquered all of Italy under the
glorious Greek (Byzantine) king Justinian I. This authority
would soon also be supplanted as another German nation marched
westward. These Germanic Lombarden (also Arian-faith Christians
by majority) expelled the Greeks, ruling again from Ravenna
until they were conquered by the Catholic German emperor Karl
the Great (Charlemagne) of his Holy "Roman" Empire
of the German Nation (heiliges roemisches Reich deutscher
Nation) in the 9th century for the final period of German
rule in Italy.
A rough map of Europe 500CE, after Rome's obliteration. (click
to enlarge)
With the Roman empire dissolved,
modern-day Spain, Portugal, England, Germany, France, Italy,
the Balkans, and Central Europe became ruled by Germanic princes
and kings. From the corrupted, unstable, and broken Roman
lands came the consolidation of most of Europe under new and
stable, local authorities. Though the new Germanic leaders
are criticized as being self-interested, unjust, and completely
indifferent to the local cultures they conquered, they nonetheless
brought stability and nationhood to the crippled and staggering
wastelands of the dead horse that was Rome. With the Romans
destroyed, the wildernesses of the Balkans and Eastern Europe
became new thriving states of the new Slavic cultures. There
would not be a unified nation ever again in history until
the 19th century; Italian dominance over the history of Europe
had ended forever, to be replaced largely by the authority
of Germanic peoples for the next 1000 years: the Holy Roman
Empire, the Merowinger and Karolinger empires ruling Central
Europe, the British empire, the Visigothic empires of Iberia,
and the Habsburg empire that controlled most of Europe for
over 500 years. This
dramatic historic shift of authority over Europe inspired
German philosopher Hegel to refer to the historical period
from 500 onward as "the Germanic Era", as the creation
of Western Europe's great powers England, France, the Holy
Roman Empire (Germany), the Slavs' Kievan Rus, and the nexus
of future Spain were all believed to have been created by
the Germanic peoples, by the post-Roman Germanic barbarian
sword. A dramatic twist of fate.
First-hand look at the Roman and Gothic capital of Ravenna,
with my photos
Though his wealthy and thriving reign was short-lived in the
Roman, Gothic German, and Byzantine regional capital of Ravenna,
Theodoric the Great built a number of fantastic and ancient
treasures that make this tiny Italian city a historical gem,
and one of the only remnants of anti-Trinity Christian (Arian)
churches in Europe that survived Catholic and Orthodox persecution.
Due to the constant international wars and regional conflicts
that wrought Italy just after the Roman collapse, the exchange
of authority over the region by dozens of nations, and brutal
purges of Gothic and heretical Christian monuments, nowhere
but in Ravenna can a historian or tourist experience the achievements
of Gothic states with such preservation. The city of Ravenna
today remains distinctly Italian -- as ethnic Germans have
not held political authority here for nearly 800 years --
but offers a wide array of Roman, German, and to a lesser
extent Byzantine monuments in all their glory, allowing a
visitor to directly study this fascinating shift from Roman
authority to Gothic, then to Byzantine, then again to German
Lombard, and then finally back to the native Italians. This
quiet, comfortable, and clean city (unusually so for an Italian
big city) offers the chance to walk from a tomb built 1,000
years ago to a restaurant built yesterday, and to a church
built 1,500 years ago, and to experience Greek, Italian, and
German architecture in the same city. Its ancient loins and
structures remain upright today with fantastic preservation,
though many deemed 'heretical' were of course burnt or looted.
Ravenna today is relatively
clean with little graffiti, few cars, little crime, and a
generally politically and socially conservative population
in comparison with some of the local Communist-plagued cities
in northern Italy like Bologna whose Communist youth have
virtually crippled that once-great city's society and economy
with graffiti on literally every wall of the city. The center
of the city of Ravenna is notably old and ancient, whilst
the outer expanded portions of the city are upright and modern.
Cars are not allowed in some parts. The city of Ravenna, having
been the former capital of so many regional conquering empires,
takes great pride its treasures and history with signs to
monuments all over the city. Tourist groups can be seen in
Ravenna daily, usually ethnic Germans investigating their
early ethnic heritage of the growing Germanic world empires.
The city today is primarily Italian, but interestingly has
quite a huge black immigrant population along with a smaller
Arab minority. There are few black youths and few women; most
are older and noticeably well-composed and well-dressed immigrants
from Senegal, Nigeria, Niger, and Muslim black West Africa.
The local Italians were keen to point out their distaste for
the booming immigration to their city, and blame the immigrants
for a sudden spike in drug abuse, unemployment, crime, and
illiteracy which only increased after the immigrant influx.
Some locals blame Arab Muslim immigrants for more of the problems
in Ravenna because of their near-militant opposition to Italian
politicians and authority, or so it is said by many locals.
The African immigrants here attempt integration more so than
the rest of Italian cities (though the acceptance is not mutual
with the Italians). The growth in social problems are, as
in the rest of Europe, also blamed on the white Slavic Albanians
and Romanians whom more and more are exploiting the open job
market of the wealthier west. Each group is considered an
economic and social drain, whether or not any of this clash
is warranted or necessary. Many come from big cities here
to work. Though there is far from general cultural tolerance
between the two groups, this social clash is noticed by most
of the immigrants who try hard to gain acceptance typically
to no avail, a feature unheard of in many of Europe's big
cities.
A single fee paid at a historical
center offers entry over the course of several days to all
of the city's major historical sites on one pass. A five-minute
walk down a few blocks of the city center reveal a horde of
unique other churches, monasteries, and tombs. As Italians
are a Catholic ethnic group, all of the city's churches have
been firmly Catholic or converted from Arian Christendom (anti-Trinity
or "Messianic fallibility" faiths) to Catholicism.
There are a number of "modern" churches built around
1000 or 1400 for public entry, with Catholic chants playing
from loudspeakers. This was very unusual for Christendom,
and generally only experienced in Hindu or Islamic societies.
A major monument in the city center commemorates the sacrifices
of Italian soldiers in their many wars: the wars for unification
of Italy under Giuseppe between Piedmonte-Sardinia and their
rivals to the north, World War I, colonial wars in Africa
(Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, etc.), and World War II. The backdrop
of this monument is shamed by a large red graffiti sentence
that locals say is the work of immigrants or Communist youths.
My photo of the commemoration statue to the many Italians
lost in war. (click to enlarge)
A walk down the street reveals
a very unique and large cathedral with an ancient brick structure
next to a large minaret-like spire tower whose appearance
is uncommon in Christian faith churches. This original church,
built in the 6th century CE, was actually the central main
Church of Theodoric the Great himself. Thus, it is one of
Europe's sole standing non-Trinitarian churches to remain
today as it adhered to the doctrine of Arius, whose heretical
beliefs stipulated that Jesus and God were unequal and completely
incomparable. After the temporary destruction of German rule
of Italy by the Byzantines under the magnificent emperor Justinian
I (an Orthodox Greek Christian), the church was forcibly converted
into an Orthodox church in Justinian's honor. Original mosaics
of Justinian ("JVSTINIANVS") can still be seen in
the church. After the Byzantines were expelled by the succeeding
Lombardic Arian Germans shortly thereafter, and after the
Germans of the Holy Roman Empire (under Karl the Great/Charlemagne)
annexed the capital of Ravenna in the 9th century, the city
and its churches were forcibly converted to Catholicism as
seen ever since. This church, whose spire on the side has
tilted much like the Tower of Pisa in Tuscany, has an interior
that for its time is nearly incomparable in the world. A large
white and wooded ceiling is supported by large pillars with
intricate etchings. Massive mosaics made of pure gold leaf
can be seen wrapping around the entire church. More than 1,500
years old, these fantastic works of art (both made by the
Germans under Theodoric's authority, the later Byzantine Greeks,
and future Italian city-states) are literally in mint condition
it seems. Almost no chipping, smudge, or imperfection can
be seen on these works of art or mosaics that long outlived
the Roman and Greek empires multifold. New murals added by
the Italian Catholics much later can also be seen next to
original 1,500-year-old marble statues, paintings, and frescoes
from the German, Greek, and Italian (non-Roman) periods. No
photography or filming is allowed therein to prevent the entropy
and decay of this bizarrely-unnoticed world monument.
My photo of the exterior of the Church of Theodoric (click
to enlarge)
My photo of the interior of his church (click to enlarge)
My photo of the interior walls with mosaics from 500CE, 1000CE,
1600CE, etc. (click to enlarge)
My photo of a wall in the corner. Statues, gold, marble adorn
this breath-taking cathedral.
My photo of the central ceiling of Theodoric's cathedral.
(click to enlarge)
Leaving the church around
the corner, one may find one of the world's sole Arian-faith
baptisteries, the official Arian-faith Baptistery of Theodoric
the Great sunken into ground next to another large Catholic
church that was originally commissioned by Theodoric also
before its conversion. This is one of the few baptistery buildings
that can be entered in the world, as baptism has since generally
been performed in churches outside of the Mandaean faith in
the Arab world whose faith is believed to have sprung from
John the Baptist himself. John is in this baptistery of Ravenna
praised as its central theme: a massive ceiling mosaic of
gold more than 1,500 years old covers this small building
in original mint condition. The ceiling decoration shows a
number of white-robed holy saints or disciples with halos
atop their heads watching John's baptism of Jesus of Nazareth
with a white dove atop to, allegedly, signify the Holy Ghost's
presence in the man upon this "true birth" (baptism).
In this image, baptism of Jesus was done in the nude at an
adult age with the entire body. This may indicate that this
was the method of baptism in German Arian-faith tradition.
The surrounding room is at this point empty with several recesses
in the corners perhaps to hold separate baptisms at the same
time, often to adult converts instead of infants borne thereof.
After the brief Byzantine conquest under Justinian and the
later Catholic authority of the native Italians as seen today,
this blasphemous baptistery was closed and converted into
a Catholic shrine.
My photo of the exterior of the exclusive Arian baptistery.
My photo of the ceiling mosaics from 500CE, with Jesus and
John the Baptist at center. Mint condition some 1,500 years
later. (click to enlarge)
A drive to the outskirts
of the city center reveals easily one of the most magnificent
buildings extant on earth. It was not built by Germans nor
Greeks, but rather the R. native Italians. This allows a visitor
to see not only the importance of Ravenna in history, but
also to see first hand the shift from Roman rule to German,
from German to Greek, from Greek back to German (Lombardic)
and later to the Germans in Germany under Charlemagne, and
finally to the native Italians once again. This church, called
the Basilica di San Vitale, was built by Bishop Ecclesio (522-532)
with the approval of Pope John I for honoring a Roman soldier
who was martyred during the Roman persecution of the Christian
minority centuries prior. Having seen the world over, other
than the Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge perhaps, this single
cathedral easily surpasses all of the cathedrals of Europe,
the Orthodox Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (converted to a mosque
after the Turkish Jihad succeeded), and approaches or even
surpasses the glory of the Vatican's cathedrals. This massive
sunken cathedral, more than 1,400 years old, is breathtaking.
Nearly a hundred feet tall, nearly every inch of this domed
cathedral is covered in original mosaic, gold, gem, jewel,
marble, fresco, or statue easily in mint condition. There
are endless depictions of saints, apostles, biblical scenes,
sacrificial animals (including a strange lamb to symbolize
Jesus of Nazareth), stories of the Crucifixion, Revelations,
the Great Flood, the revelation of the Ten Commandments to
Moses (with a Burning Bush shown), the Assumption of Mary
into heaven, the Nativity scene, the incomplete sacrifice
of Isaac (or as Muslims claim, Ishmail) by Abraham, etc. Staring
at the church's interior for hours would not reveal every
depiction or intricate artistic creation this church has to
offer. It is sad that a building whose majesty rivals any
world wonder is virtually unknown, along with the importance
of the city of Ravenna in history from the Roman period to
the German and onward.
My photo of the exterior of the main church of the pre-German
period. (click to enlarge)
My photo of the main interior domed hall. (click to
enlarge)
My photo of the main ceiling of the cathedral. (click
to enlarge)
My photo of the frontal wall of the cathedral with mosaics
galore. (click to enlarge)
The dark no-photo ceiling is is as stunning as the Vatican.
The central archway of the cathedral is divided into several
arch-set ceilings with separate mosaics (click to
enlarge)
A walk outside to a local
small church, designed in the traditional shape of a cross,
offers a small mausoleum to two figures important to the region.
It too was not built by Germans not Greeks. Built too in the
5th century, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia was intended
to honor the assumption of the daughter of Theodosius the
Great into heaven (the Roman emperor who required Christendom
of all Romans for the first time, with punishment of death
to all pagans and especially Jews who rejected the command).
Her mortal remains are not housed here though. The building
is 12.75 metres long and 10.25 metres wide as a cross. The
interior is small but radiant; there are attractive non-Christian
and Christian mosaics all over the interior, though the artwork
is more faded than in the glorious church. Entrants may not
use cameras and must leave after a few minutes oddly. The
artistic design is interesting in that there is little Greek
influence here (that one would expect for a Byzantine emperor's
daughter's honorary tomb), but rather a pre-Christian Roman
style. There are depictions of the Evangelists (Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John) inside as well as a number of angels and artistic
symbols. The multiple tombs in the room apparently house no
corpses, but once did. They are in the non-Christian style
of the Roman past interestingly, but the original "blasphemous
inscriptions" were forbidden and etched away after the
Byzantine conquest of the city from the Goths of Theodoric.
It is unclear what type of inscription this was: German Runic,
Greek, Aramaic, or simply a blasphemous or non-Christian passage
in Latin? No photos are allowed here.
Though the city offers several
more monuments dating to the same period more than 1,400 years
ago with equally fantastic glory, the most famous monument
of the city in its hinterlands is the Tomb of Theodoric the
Great, where his physical body was interned after his death.
It shows the classical Gothic style in its preserved original
style. It was erected here because of its location in a local
German cemetery before Christendom was established as the
state faith of the Italians. Unfortunately, this location
was in a swamp, which caused the tomb to be covered in water
for more than 500 years. As a consequence, the exterior is
wondrously in great condition but the interior is literally
vacant and empty. Ethnic hatred for the Germans and religious
hatred for the Arian Christians by the Greeks and Italians
also discouraged any preservation effort, and many of the
glorious gold valuables in the tomb were stolen or collected
by locals later. A massive dome atop the structure, originally
probably entirely covered in gold leaf, was added miraculously
as a 500-ton single piece atop the structure; an architectural
oddity. There is also a cross at the peak. A long path to
the tomb allows one to enter the lower level and the top level;
the lower level is literally empty entirely. None knows what
was housed in the lower level originally: perhaps a holy Bible,
perhaps hordes of sacrificial treasures for the afterlife,
perhaps the bodies of his many slaves who died with him, perhaps
simply massive mosaics on the walls that are now vacant. A
walk up the original stairs to the top level reveals a similar
upsetting fact: the top floor is also nearly empty. Instead
of endless hordes of treasure one would expect from a wealthy
and powerful dictator-king, there is nearly nothing but stone
walls and pigeons. There is, however, blatant evidence that
elaborate frescoes and mosaics of solid gold, gems, jewels,
and marble once adorned this important mausoleum. Faded text
can also be seen wrapping around the room in German in the
Latin and also perhaps originally German Runic scripts (the
script of the Gothic kingdoms and most Germans at the time).
There is a large original cross made of stone in the corner
of the room in a strange recess in the wall perhaps for treasures
or his corpse originally. The ceiling reveals a washed-away
(by the waters of the swamp) "X" shape that was
probably actually a cross or a halo to imply his ascent to
heaven or divine protection. The center of the room (probably
relocated there later) reveals Theodoric's original sarcophagus.
It is a bizarre and unique massive red marble coffin with
a very large and wide interior. The sides are smashed and
cracked; there is no top at this point. The interior is also
empty. His body was removed and desecrated by the Byzantines
after they destroyed his pagan and heretical empire, some
say, though it may have been relocated to protect from erosion
later or was washed away by the swamp waters. The tomb survived
American and British bombing during World War II, an odd target
due to its lack of importance to the war effort, and the fact
that no Italian would care if his tomb were destroyed.
The tomb of Theodoric the Great himself (my photo). (click
to enlarge)
My photo of a romantic view of the tomb. (click to
enlarge)
A close-up of the tomb of this great king (my photo).
My photo of the main view of the tomb room.
My photo of the sarcophagus of Theodoric the Great.
My photo of the ceiling of Theodoric's tomb, once housing
a golden mosaic cross assumably.
My photo of the wall of the main tomb floor. Text can clearly
be seen later washed away or destroyed.
The European continent that
the Romans built from virtually nothing into various degrees
of civilization had declined into virtual anarchy after less
than 600 years of world conquest, and the "barbarian"
Germans had annexed nearly all of their former domains, bringing
a new brand of self-interested continental civilization to
replace the failed Roman one before it. This transition, easily
among the most important historical shift in world history,
can only be studied to such a degree first hand in this quiet
and timeless city of Ravenna, a capital to German and Italian
empires alike for nearly a thousand years.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is the owner
and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working
for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic
and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures,
ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical
evolution in relation to and against each other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
Personal observations.
Click the source links to
view the respective sources.
The respective owners of
the images are shown below the images when necessary.
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