GALLA PLACIDIA

GALLA PLACIDIA. — Daughter of Theodosius I, born around 386; in 402 she followed her brother Honorius to Ravenna, after he had become emperor of the West. Taken captive by Alaric, she was given to his brother-in-law Ataulf, who married her after Alaric’s death, perhaps in order to advance claims to the imperial throne. After Ataulf was assassinated in 415 by Sigeric, G. P. was received by her brother Honorius at Ravenna and given in marriage to the patrician Constantius (416?). On 8 February 421 Honorius granted Constantius and G. P. the dignity of Augusti and raised the young Valentinian, G. P.’s son, to princely rank. After Constantius’ death (September 421 or 422), G. P., perhaps as a result of a journey to Byzantium, broke with Honorius. She returned to Italy after August 423 in order to secure the succession rights of her son Valentinian, who had been raised to the rank of Caesar by Theodosius II after Honorius’ death.

During the minority of Valentinian III, G. P., from the royal palace at Ravenna, directed the affairs of the Western Empire. Intrigues and murders disturbed her government until February 450, when she is found in Rome together with Valentinian and his wife Eudoxia. On 22 February, Leo the Great delivered before the dynasts a homily in which he alluded to Theodosius II’s support for the Monophysite heresy. Following this appeal, Valentinian, Eudoxia, and G. P. wrote letters to Theodosius. That of G. P. is particularly animated, and is the last trace of her political activity. She died on 27 November

of the year 450 and was buried in the imperial mausoleum near S. Pietro in Vaticano.

According to later sources, G. P.’s remains are said to have been transferred to Ravenna, to the celebrated mausoleum that bears her name, a distinguished monument of Byzantine art. C. Cecchelli mentions the likelihood that Constantius, G. P.’s husband, was buried in the mausoleum. G. P.’s name is engraved on the triumphal arch of the basilica of S. Paolo in Rome, which she restored in the time of s. Leone Magno.

THE MAUSOLEUM OF G. P. — In Ravenna. To the south, and connected with the narthex of the basilica of S. Croce, which arose in Ravenna around 420, in the second quarter of the 5th century, the small chapel was erected that has come down to us through the centuries under the name of the mausoleum of G. P. After the front part of the basilica was demolished in 1602, it is now buried for almost two metres, as though lost in the green meadow, made to seem even smaller by the proximity of the Justinian Basilica of S. Vitale. It has a cruciform plan, slightly inclined towards the west, and is surmounted by the central dome, which has earthenware vessels in its pendentives and the marble pinecone at its summit. The exterior, simple in its reddish curtain wall of characteristic large bricks, is enlivened in its lower part by blind arches and pilasters, resting on a socle now completely underground. The interior, on the other hand, in the vaults and lunette arches, is entirely covered with mosaics, still classical in their ornamentation and figures, which are among the best preserved in Ravenna and among the finest that early Christian art has left us. The conception underlying this entire mosaic decoration is directed towards funerary worship and the exaltation of the Cross, which dominates the centre of the dome in an azure sky resplendent with golden stars. In the pendentives are the symbols of the four Evangelists; inside, the figures of the Apostles. In the lunette above the door is Christ the Good Shepherd, who in Io. 10 said of himself: « I am the door of the sheep... whoever passes through me will be saved ». In those of the lateral arms, amid gilded foliage, are the stags at the spring; and in the lunette opposite the entrance is a representation whose interpretation has been, and still is, the most debated. S. Lorenzo or Christ the Judge? For most, it represents the holy Roman deacon, in a white tunic with clavus, holding the Cross and the book, standing before the gridiron of his martyrdom and a cabinet containing the four Gospels. For all those, however, who see in the mosaic cycle of this small chapel nothing but the development of an apocalyptic and eschatological conception—not least Seston—it represents the Divine Judge, who through the Gospels will open the way of salvation to the righteous, while sinners will find punishment upon the altar of holocausts (the gridiron beneath which the fire burns). Despite all the arguments, the simplest and most obvious interpretation remains that of S. Lorenzo, to whom the small chapel seems to have been dedicated from its origin. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the funerary conception of our mosaics, one may advance the hypothesis that the Old Testament scene, so common in funerary art and depicting the Three Youths in the furnace, was here deliberately replaced by that of the Christian martyr victorious over fire, who through this victory attained heaven and glory. In the small « monasterium » which ancient documents call that of S. Lorenzo, of SS. Nazario and Celso, and finally also of SS. Gervasio and Protasio, was G. P., who died in Rome on 27 November 450, ever buried there? It is very difficult to prove; indeed, everything seems to favour the negative thesis. Despite this, the historians of Ravenna have, almost unanimously, always identified the large, crude Greek-marble sarcophagus as the tomb of the Augusta, and the other two, ancient and well made—one certainly later than the 5th century—as those of her relatives (Costanzo [her husband?], Onorio [?], Valentiniano [her son]); but there is no trace of their presence in the chapel’s original pavement, and certainly they were not originally where they now stand. — Vedi tav. CXXVIII.