Ravenna was one of the most significant administrative, political, and
religious centres of the late antique period. This book focuses on the
period between the transfer of the imperial court to Ravenna (402) and
the last western emperor Romulus Augustus' deposition by the Germanic
commander Odoacer (476), a period when Ravenna was the seat of western
emperors. The book is premised on the author's conviction that
individual surviving examples of architecture, along with their
decoration, sarcophagi, ivory, and gold objects, can be best understood
not only by examining their historical context and iconography, but also
looking at the very material of these objects and how their production
was organised. The book therefore focuses primarily on craftsmen and
their traditions, and deliberate breaks with tradition, and on the way
workmen moved about the late antique world and thereby fostered the
exchange and spread of technology and artistic models. It thus present
Ravenna not as an isolated phenomenon (as Ravenna is very often
presented in the literature) but as one of many players in the
political, ecclesiastical, and social games of the late antique world.