Old women abound in Ravenna; at least, she was not young who showed us the mausoleum of Galla Placidia.Placidia was also prudent and foreseeing, and built this once magnificent sepulcher for her own occupation.It is in the form of a Latin cross, forty-six feet in length by about forty in width.The floor is paved with rich marbles; the cupola is covered with mosaics of the time of the empress; and in the arch over the door is a fine representation of the Good Shepherd.Behind the altar is the massive sarcophagus of marble (its cover of silver plates was long ago torn off) in which are literally the ashes of the empress.She was immured in it as a mummy, in a sitting position, clothed in imperial robes; and there the ghastly corpse sat in a cypress-wood chair, to be looked at by anybody who chose to peep through the aperture, for more than eleven hundred years, till one day, in 1577, some children introduced a lighted candle, perhaps out of compassion for her who sat so long in darkness, when her clothes caught fire, and she was burned up,--a warning to all children not to play with a dead and dry empress.In this resting-place are also the tombs of Honorius II., her brother, of Constantius III., her second husband, and of Honoria, her daughter.
There are no other undisturbed tombs of the Caesars in existence.
Hers is almost the last, and the very small last, of a great succession.What thoughts of a great empire in ruins do not force themselves on one in the confined walls of this little chamber!
What a woman was she whose ashes lie there! She saw and aided the ruin of the empire; but it may be said of her, that her vices were greater than her misfortunes.And what a story is her life! Born to the purple, educated in the palace at Constantinople, accomplished but not handsome, at the age of twenty she was in Rome when Alaric besieged it.Carried off captive by the Goths, she became the not unwilling object of the passion of King Adolphus, who at length married her at Narbonne.At the nuptials the king, in a Roman habit, occupied a seat lower than hers, while she sat on a throne habited as a Roman empress, and received homage.Fifty handsome youths bore to her in each hand a dish of gold, one filled with coin, and the other with precious stones,--a small part only, these hundred vessels of treasure, of the spoils the Goths brought from her country.When Adolphus, who never abated his fondness for his Roman bride, was assassinated at Barcelona, she was treated like a slave by his assassins, and driven twelve miles on foot before the horse of his murderer.Ransomed at length for six hundred thousand measures of wheat by her brother Honorius, who handed her over struggling to Constantius, one of his generals.But, once married, her reluctance ceased; and she set herself to advance the interests of herself and husband, ruling him as she had done the first one.Her purpose was accomplished when he was declared joint emperor with Honorius.He died shortly after; and scandalous stories of her intimacy with her brother caused her removal to Constantinople; but she came back again, and reigned long as the regent of her son, Valentinian III.,--a feeble youth, who never grew to have either passions or talents, and was very likely, as was said, enervated by his mother in dissolute indulgence, so that she might be supreme.But she died at Rome in 450, much praised for her orthodoxy and her devotion to the Trinity.And there was her daughter, Honoria, who ran off with a chamberlain, and afterward offered to throw herself into the arms of Attila who wouldn't take her as a gift at first, but afterward demanded her, and fought to win her and her supposed inheritance.
But they were a bad lot altogether; and it is no credit to a Christian of the nineteenth century to stay in this tomb so long.
Near this mausoleum is the magnificent Basilica of St.Vitale, built in the reign of Justinian, and consecrated in 547, I was interested to see it because it was erected in confessed imitation of St.Sophia at Constantinople, is in the octagonal form, and has all the accessories of Eastern splendor, according to the architectural authorities.Its effect is really rich and splendid; and it rather dazzled us with its maze of pillars, its upper and lower columns, its galleries, complicated capitals, arches on arches, and Byzantine intricacies.To the student of the very early ecclesiastical art, it must be an object of more interest than even of wonder.But what Icared most to see were the mosaics in the choir, executed in the time of Justinian, and as fresh and beautiful as on the day they were made.The mosaics and the exquisite arabesques on the roof of the choir, taken together, are certainly unequaled by any other early church decoration I have seen; and they are as interesting as they are beautiful.Any description of them is impossible; but mention may be made of two characteristic groups, remarkable for execution, and having yet a deeper interest.