Ravenna Timeline
To put its many ancient monuments into context, below is a timeline of the history of Ravenna. It is not comprehensive and will be further developed over time. You may also be interested in our Timeline of Medieval Europe.
| 1st cent. BC | Strabo describes Ravenna as "built entirely on piles, and traversed by canals which you cross by ferryboats" |
| 49 BC | Julius Caesar marches south from Ravenna across the border of his realm (the Rubicon River) to confront the Senate. |
| c.30 BC | Emperor Augustus founds the imperial military harbor at Classe |
| c.400 AD | Bishop Ursus (c.399-c.426) begins construction on the Orthodox Baptistery |
| 401 AD | Emperor Honorius moves the imperial court and administrative capital to Ravenna. |
| 410 | Sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth. |
| 424 | Galla Placidia sails from Constantinople to Ravenna to assume leadership of the western empire on behalf of her young son. Her ship is tossed by a great storm at sea; she prays to St. John the Evangelist and vows to build him a church if she is saved. Upon arriving safely, she finances construction of San Giovanni Evangelista. |
| 425-37 | Galla Placidia rules the Roman empire from Ravenna as regent for her son, Emperor Valentinian III. |
| 430 | Approximate date of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, built as an oratory of Santa Croce next door. |
| 450 | Galla Placidia dies in Rome. Contrary to tradition, she was never buried in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. |
| 476 | Defeat of the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, by the barbarian Odoacer. He takes Ravenna as his capital. |
| 493 | At a banquet in Ravenna, the Ostrogoth Theodoric murders Odoacer and assumes power |
| end 5th cent. | Theodoric builds the Basilica Spirito Santo and the adjacent Arian Baptistery. |
| 500 | Approximate date of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, built by Theodoric as an Arian church. Many original mosaics survive from this period, including 26 scenes from the life of Christ. The Arian mosaics show a traditional Roman artistic style and represent Christ naturalistically. The Crucifixion is notably not depicted, but other scenes from the Passion and Resurrection are. |
| 526 | Death of Theodoric |
| 527 | Byzantine Emperor Justinian invades Italy in an attempt to reclaim the western empire |
| 540 | Ravenna falls to the Byzantine general Belisarius |
| 540-742 | Ravenna under Byzantine rule |
| 547 | San Vitale is completed |
| c.550 | Justinian gives Theodoric's Arian Baptistery to the Catholic community of Ravenna, who rename it Santa Maria in Cosmedin. |
| c.670 | Emperor Constantine IV (668-685) grants tax immunity to the Archbishop of Ravenna. This is celebrated in a contemporary mosaic in Sant'Apollinare in Classe. |
| 751 | Ravenna falls to the Lombards |
| 757 | The pope calls on the Franks to retake Ravenna. They are successful and Ravenna becomes part of the papal territories. |
| 13th-14th cent. | Ravenna is governed by the da Polenta family, patrons of Dante. The beautiful Francesca da Rimini, a member of that family, was married off to a hunchback lord and took his brother as her lover. When the unfortunate husband found out, he murdered them both. The story features in Dante's Divine Comedy. Also in this period, an elaborate fraud was set up involving Galla Placidia's supposed body in a sarcophagus in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. |
| 1318 | Exiled Florentine poet Dante Alighieri settles in Ravenna at the invitation of a local prince. Here he lived out the remaining three years of his life and completed the Paradiso. |
| 1321 | Dante dies in Ravenna at the age of 56. His funeral is held at the Basilica of St. Francis in Ravenna and his body is buried in the church. He was moved to the neoclassical Tomb of Dante next to the church in 1730. |
| 1441-1509 | Ravenna prospers under Venetian rule |
| 1509 | Venice loses Ravenna at the Battle of Agnadello |
| 1512 | Invading French armies massacre Ravenna's citizens |
| 1577 | Two boys anxious to get a better look at the body in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia throw lit candles into the sarcophagus, burning the contents to ashes. |
| 1730 | Dante is interred in the neoclassical Tomb of Dante next to the Basilica of St. Francis. Despite many requests from Florence, the exiled poet's body has never been returned to his original hometown. |
| 1819-21 | Lord Byron lives in Ravenna in pursuit of a local aristocratic married woman, Teresa Guiccioli. He continues work on Don Juan and writes the Ravenna Diary, My Dictionary and Recollections. |
| 1861 | Ravenna becomes part of the kingdom of Italy |
