[519] The octagonal basilica of San Vitale does, in fact, recall Constantinople, because it was built, under Justinian, in imitation of St. Sophia. Charlemagne caused it to be copied for the Church of Aix-la-Chapelle.—B.
[520] The Church of San Apollinare, erected under Theodoric at the commencement of the sixth century, also presents the Byzantine type in all its oriental brilliancy. The twenty-four columns of Greek marble which divide the church into three aisles were brought to Ravenna from Constantinople.—T.
[521] Honorius Flavius Emperor of the West (384-423). His love for a hen called Roma forms an anecdote related by Procopius.—B.
[522] Galla Placidia (circa 388-450 or 451), daughter of Theodosius the Great, sister of Honorius and mother of Valentinian III. Her adventures indeed form the strangest of romances. Born at Constantinople, she was taken prisoner at the siege of Rome by Alaric and carried off in captivity. Atawulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, became smitten with her and married her. After his death, she married Constantius, one of Honorius' generals, who soon assumed the title of Constantius III. After being first the slave and then the Queen of the Visigoths, she governed the Western Empire in the name of her infant son. Her tomb is at Ravenna.—B.
[523] Theodoric the Great (circa 454-526), King of the Ostrogoths and, after 493, sole ruler of Italy.—T.
[524] Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (circa 475—circa 524), a Roman philosopher, author of De Consolatione Philosophiæ. He was put to death by Theodoric, without trial, on the charge of treason and magic.—T.
[525] Amalasontha (498-535), daughter of Theodoric the Great, and Regent during the minority of her son Athalric King of the Ostrogoths (526). Athalric died in 534, and Amalasontha divided the authority with her cousin Theodatus, whom she married, and who ordered her to be strangled in 535.—T.
[526] Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (circa 468—circa 560), a wise administrative officer under Odoacer, Theodoric and Amalasontha. He retired to a monastery in Calabria in 538, where he wrote his History of the Goths and other works.—T.
[527] The Exarchate of Ravenna was instituted in 568, after the conquest of the Ostrogothic Kingdom by the Byzantines. It at first comprised all Italy, but was soon confined to the district round Ravenna and, in 755, was taken from the Lombards by Pepin the Short, and granted to Rome.—T.
[528] Astolf King of the Lombards (d. 756). His conquest of the Exarchate of Ravenna (752) was wrested from him by Pepin the Short in 755.—T.