Quick-sighted, sagacious, and bold, it must have followed the prehistoric fisher and hunter, and generally without molestation from them, to prey on the refuse of their spoils, just as it now waits, with the same intent, on the movements of their successors; while it must have likewise attended the earliest herdsmen, who could not have regarded it with equal indifference, since its now notorious character for attacking and putting to death a weakly animal was doubtless in those days manifested. Yet the Raven is no mere dependant upon man, being always able to get a living for itself; and moreover a sentiment of veneration or superstition has from very remote ages and among many races of men attached to it—a sentiment so strong as often to overcome the feeling of distrust not to say of hatred which its deeds inspired, and, though rapidly decreasing, even to survive in some places until the present day. There is no need to dwell on the association of this bird with well-known characters of history sacred or profane—Noah or Elijah, Odin or Flokki, the last of whom by its means discovered Iceland. The Raven is even said to have played its part in the mythology of the Red Indian; and none can wonder that all this should be so, since, wherever it occurs and more especially wherever it is numerous, as in ancient times and in thinly peopled countries it must have been, its size, appearance, and fearless habits would be sure to attract especial attention. Nor has this attention wholly ceased with the advance of enlightenment, for both in prose and verse, from the time of Shakespeare to that of Poe and Dickens, the Raven has often figured, and generally without the amount of misrepresentation which is the fate of most animals which celebrated writers condescend to notice. Notwithstanding all this, however, the Raven has now fallen upon evil days. The superstitious reverence with which it was once regarded has all but vanished and has been very generally succeeded by persecution, which in many districts has produced actual extirpation, so that it is threatened with extinction, save in the wildest and most unpeopled districts.

The Raven breeds very early in the year, in England resorting to its nest, which is usually an ancient if not an ancestral structure, about the middle or towards the end of January. Therein are laid from five to seven eggs of the common Corvine coloration (see Crow, vol. vi. pp. 617, 618), and the young are hatched before the end of February. In more northern countries the breeding-season is naturally delayed, but everywhere this species is almost if not quite the earliest of birds to enter upon the business of perpetuating its kind. The Raven measures about 26 inches in length, and has an expanse of wing considerably exceeding a yard. Its bill and feet are black, and the same may be said of its whole plumage, but the feathers of the upper parts as well as of the breast are very glossy, reflecting a bright purple or steel-blue. The species inhabits the whole of Europe, and the northern if not the central parts of Asia; but in the latter continent its southern range is not well determined. In America it is, or used to be, found from the shores of the Polar Sea to Guatemala if not to Honduras, but is said hardly to be found of late years in the eastern part of the United States. In Africa its place is taken by three allied but well-differentiated species, two of which ( Corvus umbrvnus, readily distinguished by its brown neck, and C. affinis, having its superior nasal bristles upturned vertically) also occur in South-Western Asia, while the third ( C. leptoηyx or C. tingitanus, a smaller species characterized by several slight differences) inhabits Barbary and the Atlantic Islands. Further to the southward in the Ethiopian Region three more species appear, whose plumage is varied with white —C. seapulatus, C. albicollis, and C. crαssirostris— the first two of small size, but the last rivalling the real Raven in that respect. (a. n.)

The one transcendent interest of Ravenna to a modern traveller consists in its churches. No other city in the world offers so many and such striking examples of the ecclesiastical architecture of the centuries from the 4th to the 8th. The stylo is commonly called Byzantine, and no doubt from the close connexion of Ravenna with Constantinople considerable influence was exerted by the latter city on the former; but some of the most striking features of the churches of Ravenna—the colonnades, the mosaics, perhaps the cupolas—are not so much Byzantine as representative of early Christian art generally. It is truly said by Mr Freeman:

“The outside of a Ravennese basilica is an unadorned and unattractive pile of brick. If it has any architectural grouping or outline about it, it owes it to the campanile which a later age has added. But if the churches of Ravenna are thus unattractive without, they are emphatically all glorious within. The eye dwells with genuine artistic delight on the long unbroken rows of pillars and arches, their marble shafts, their floriated capitals, sometimes the work of the Christian craftsman, sometimes the spoils of heathendom pressed into the service of the sanctuary. . . . The whole plan of these buildings allows a great field for void spaces; but the void spaces thus left are filled up by these wonderful mosaic paintings which look down upon us as fresh as they were thirteen hundred years back.”

Every traveller to Ravenna is impressed by the vividness of these decorations, which were older when Giotto painted his first fresco than Giotto’s frescos are now; but we can here only allude to the subject, referring the reader to the article Mosaic (vol. xvi. p. 852 sq.).

The following are the most important churches of Ravenna, arranged in the order of the dates generally attributed to them :— [table]

The cathedral (No. 1) has been so much modernized as to have lost its interest; but the baptistery adjoining it, decorated by Bishops Neon and Maximian in the δth and 6th centuries, an octagonal building with mosaics of the apostles on the roof, is still unspoiled. SS. Nazario e Celso (No. 6) is a little building in the form of a Latin cross, and is better known as the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, whose tomb and those of three emperors, her husband, brother, and son, are deposited here. It is surmounted with a cupola surrounded with four semi-domes, on which are depicted figures of the Good Shepherd with His sheep, of evangelists, prophets, &c., and two stags drinking at a fountain. S. Apollinare Nuovo (No. 10) has above the arches of the nave what is perhaps the greatest triumph of mosaic art, two processions of virgins and of martyrs marching, the former from the city of Classis, the latter from the palace of Theodoric, to the Saviour. In the former group Christ sits upon the lap of His mother, and the Magi are interposed between Him and the procession of virgins. In the latter He is enthroned in glory and guarded by four ministrant angels. S. Vitale (No. 11) is doubly interesting as having furnished the model after which Charles the Great built his imperial minster at Aix-la-Chapelle and as containing full-length contemporary portraits in mosaic of Justinian and Theodora, surrounded by ecclesiastics, courtiers, and soldiers of the guard. It is surmounted by a dome, is circular in form, and has eight apsidal chapels all round it, one of which, corresponding to the choir in an ordinary church, is prolonged to about four times the length of the other apses. Unfortunately, only in this choir have the mosaics been preserved, but they are of the highest possible interest. S. Apollinare in Classe (No. 13), once the centre of a busy population of sailors, shopkeepers, and dock-labourers, now stands absolutely alone in a wide and desolate expanse 2 miles from the sea. The decorations of the church have suffered from damp —there are frequently some inches of water on the pavement—but the twenty-four stately marble columns with Corinthian capitals form a magnificent prelude to an apse covered with mosaics, among which is conspicuous a great jewelled cross, symbolizing the Saviour on the Mount of Transfiguration; Moses and Elias lean forth from the clouds on either side, and in the valley below the apostles wait, represented symbolically as sheep. Many mosaic portraits of bishops of Ravenna are on the walls of the church, and a mosaic picture, representing Constantine Pogonatus and his brothers be-stowing a privilegium on Bishop Reparatus about the year 670.

History.— Strabo mentions a tradition that Ravenna was founded by Thessalians, who afterwards, finding themselves pressed on by the Etrurians, called in their Umbrian neighbours and eventually departed, leaving the city to their allies. Throughout the valley of the Po the Gauls took the place of the Etrurians as a conquering power; but Ravenna may possibly have retained its Umbrian character until, about the year 191 b.c., by the conquest of the Boii the whole of this region passed definitely under the dominion of Rome. Either as a colonia or a municipium, Ravenna remained for more than two centuries an inconsiderable city of Gallia Cis-alpina, chiefly noticeable as the place to which Caesar during his ten years’ command in Gaul frequently resorted in order to confer with his friends from Rome. At length under Augustus it suddenly rose into importance, when that emperor selected it as the station for his fleet on “the upper sea.” Two hundred and fifty ships, said Dion (in a lost passage quoted by Jordanes), could ride at anchor in its harbour. Strabo, writing probably a few years after Ravenna had been thus selected as a naval arsenal, gives us a description of its appearance which certainly corresponds more closely with modern Venice than with modern Ravenna. “It is the largest of all the cities built in the lagunes, but entirely composed of wooden houses, penetrated in all directions by canals, wherefore bridges and boats are needed for the wayfarer. At the flow of the tide a large part of the sea comes sweeping into it, and thus, while all the muddy deposit of the rivers is swept away, the malaria is at the same time removed, and by this means the city enjoys so good a sanitary reputation that the Government has fixed on it as a place for the reception and training of gladiators.” On the other hand, good water was proverbially difficult to obtain at Ravenna,—dearer than wine, says Martial, who has two epigrams on the subject. And Sidonius, writing in the 5th century, complains bitterly of the “feculent gruel” (cloacalis puls) which filled the canals of the city, and which gave forth fetid odours when stirred by the poles of the bargemen. The port of Ravenna, situated about 3 miles from the city, was named Classis. A long line of houses called Caesarea connected it with Ravenna, and in process of time there was such a continuous series of buildings that the three towns seemed like one.

The great historical impoi־tance of Ravenna begins early in the 5th century, when Honorius, alarmed by the progress of Alaric in the north of Italy, transferred his court to the city in the lagunes. From this date (c. 402) to the fall of the Western empire in 476 Ravenna was, though not the exclusive, the chief residence of the Roman emperors and the centre of the elaborate machinery of the state. Here Stilicho was slain; here Honorius and his sister Placidia caressed and quarrelled; here Valentinian III. spent the greater part of his useless life; here Majorian w r as proclaimed; here the Little Romulus donned his purple robe; here in the pine-wood outside the city his uncle Paulus received his decisive defeat from Odoacer. Through all these changes Ravenna maintained its character as an impregnable “city in the sea,” not easily to be attacked even by a naval power on account of the shallowness and devious nature of the channels by which it had to be approached. On becoming supreme ruler of Italy Odoacer, like the emperors who had gone before him, made Ravenna his chief place of residence, and here after thirteen years of kingship he shut himself up when Theodoric the Ostrogoth had invaded Italy and defeated him in two battles. Theodorie’s siege of Ravenna lasted for three years (489-492) and was marked by one bloody encounter in the pine-wood on the east of it. The Ostrogoth collected a fleet and established a severe blockade, which at length caused Odoacer to surrender the city. The terms, arranged through the intervention of John, archbishop of Ravenna, were not observed by Theodoric, who, ten days after his entry into the city, slew his rival at a banquet in the palace of the Laurel Grove (15th March 493). Ravenna was Theodoric’s chief place of residence, and the thirty-three years of the reign of the great Ostrogoth (493-526) may probably be considered the time of its greatest splendour. In the eastern part of the city he built for himself a large palace, which probably occupied about a sixth of the space now enclosed within the city walls, or nearly the whole of the rectangle enclosed by Strada di Porta Alberoni on the south, Strada Nuova di Porta Serrata on. the west, and the line of the city walls on the north and east. There still remains close to the first-named street and fronting the Corso Garibaldi a high wall built of square Roman bricks, with pillars and arched recesses in the upper portion, which goes by the name of Palazzo di Teodorico. Freeman, on account of the Romanesque character of the architecture, thinks it probable that it really belongs to the time of the Lombard kings; but at any rate it is of the very early mediré val period, and it marks the spot where part of the Ostrogothic palace once stood. A more memorable and clearly authentic monument of Theodoric is furnished by his tomb, a massive mausoleum in the style of the tomb of Hadrian at Rome, which stands still perfect outside the walls near the north-east corner of the city. It is of circular shape and surmounted by an enormous monolith, brought from the quarries of Istria and weighing more than 300 tons. In this mausoleum Theodoric was buried, but his body was cast forth from it, perhaps during the troublous times of the siege of Ravenna by the imperial troops, and the Rotunda (as it is now generally called) was converted into a church dedicated to the Virgin.

“ [The] immemorial wood Rooted where once the Adrian wave flowed o’er,” is probably true; but there is no evidence that it was in historic time that this change took place. Our conjecture is that the Pineta grew on a large peninsula somewhat resembling the Lido of Venice.

Nine years after the death of Theodoric Justinian sent an army to Italy, nominally in order to avenge the murder of Theodoric’s daughter Amalasuntlia, but in fact to destroy the Gothic monarchy and restore Italy to the empire. Long after the Goths had lost Rome they still clung to Ravenna, till at length, weary of the feebleness and ill-success of their own kin״, Vitiges, and struck with admiration of their heroic conqueror, they offered to transfer their allegiance to Belisarius on condition of his assuming the diadem of the Western empire. Belisarius dallied with the proposal until he had obtained an entrance for himself and his troops within the walls of the capital, and then threw off the mask and proclaimed his inviolable fidelity to Justinian. Thus in the year 540 was Ravenna re-united to the Roman empire. Its connexion with that empire—or, in other words, its dependence upon Constantinople—lasted for more than 200 years, during which period, under the rule of Narses and his successors the exarchs, Ravenna was the seat of Byzantine dominion in Italy. In 728 the Lombard king Luitprand took the suburb Classis; about 752 the city itself fell into the hands of his successor Aistulf, from whom a few years after it was wrested by Pippin, king of the Franks. By this time the former splendour of the city had probably in great measure departed; the alteration of the coast-line and the filling up of the lagunes which make it now practically an inland city had probably commenced, and no historical importance attaches to its subsequent fortunes. It formed part of the Frankish king’s donation to the pope in the middle of the 8th century. It was an independent republic, generally taking the Guelf side in the 13th century, subject to rulers of the house of Polentani in the 14th, Venetian in the 15th (1441), and papal again in the 16th,—Pope Julius II. having succeeded in wresting it from the hands of the Venetians. From this time (1509) down to our own days, except for the interruptions caused by the wars of the French Revolution, Ravenna continued subject to the papal see and was governed by a cardinal legate. In 1859 it w r as one of the first cities to give its vote in favour of Italian unity, and it has since then formed a part of the kingdom of Italy.

At the beginning of the period thus rapidly sketched Charles the Great visited the city and carried off the brazen statue of Theodoric and the marble columns of his palace to his own new palace at Aix-la-Chapelle. More than five centuries later (1320) Dante became the guest of Guido Novello di Polenta, lord of Ravenna, and here he died on the 14th September of the following year. The marble urn containing the body of the poet still rests at Ravenna, where what Byron calls “a little cupola more neat than solemn” has been erected over it. In 1512 the French army under Gaston de Foix fought a fierce báttle with the Spanish, Venetian, and papal troops on the banks of the Ronco about 2 miles from Ravenna. The French were victorious, but Gaston fell in the act of pursuing the enemy. His death is commemorated by the Colonna dei Frances! erected on the spot where he fell. Lord Byron resided at Ravenna for eighteen months in 1820-21, attracted by the charms of the countess Guiccioli.

Literature.— The most important authority for the history of Ravenna is Bishop Agnellus, who wrote about 840, in very bad Latin, the Liber Pontificalis Ecclesix Ravennatis. It is printed in vol. ii. of Muratori’s Per. Ital. Scriptores, but much the best edition is that by Holder-Egger in the Monumenta Germanise Histórica (1878). Rubeus (Hist. Ravennatum IAhri Decern, Venice, 1599) seems to have had access to some authorities besides Agnellus which are now lost. Ciampini (Vetera Monumenta, 1690-99, and Synopsis Histórica, 1693) gives some fair representations of the mosaics, and Quast’s Ravenna (Berlin, 1842) is a careful and well-illustrated monograph. Dr Ricci, in a popular guide, Ravenna e i tntoi Dintorni (187S), has included some of the results of a very careful study of the antiquities of his native city. Professor Freeman’s essay The Goths at Ravenna is the best account in English of the city in its historical connexion, and Mr J. A. Symonds in his Sketches in Italy and Greece has gracefully touched on its picturesque qualities and literary associations.