Till.— On two Gold Ornaments of the time of Theodoric, preserved in the Museum at Ravenna. By COUNT FERDINAND DE LASTEYRJE, Membre deVInstitut; Hon. F.S.A.

Read May 2, 1878.

THE city of Ravenna possesses a museum adjoining the municipal library, and known by the name of " Museo Classense." It is not often visited by foreigners, whose attention is generally absorbed by the splendid ancient build- ings of which that town is still so full. The Museo Classense, it is true, is not to be compared with many others in Italy. It is not a large one; it contains however some very curious antiquities. One, among many others, especially arrested my attention when I visited the collection. It is a pair of gold ornaments, inlaid with very thin laminae of oriental garnet, the form of which would be very difficult to describe excepting by a drawing. It will however be seen from the drawing which accompanies this account (Plate VII.), that the two pieces are of irregular but symmetrical form. They are generally considered as being costly ornaments fastened on the fore- part of a cuirass or of some leather garment, some kind of lorica. It is said that a metallic cuirass was found in the same excavation. That would decide the question. But at the first moment of the discovery, some workmen, escaping the too remiss vigilance of the archseological committee appointed to watch over them, stole nearly all the valuable objects found in the sepulture, three of which only could be recovered, viz. the two above-mentioned ornaments and an irre- gular piece of similar work considered as having formerly belonged to the orna- ments of the same warrior's helmet. The two cuirass ornaments are the most perfect specimens of workmanship of the kind that I have ever seen. They are not flat, but consist of a central raised band with a border on each side. The pattern throughout is the same, composed 238 On two Gold Ornaments of the time of Theodoric. of nine fillets, of various designs, running symmetrically so as to make the transverse section of any part of the bands the same. Nothing can give an adequate idea of the regularity and delicacy of the work, in which thousands of minute pieces of oriental garnets are inlaid and separated from each other by thin gold partitions. It has been remarked that the exterior border of the band on both sides pre- sents to the eye the same pattern as. the cornice of the well-known mausoleum of Theodoric, which the Italians call the Rotonda.3 To what particular art those magnificent ornaments belong, is, in my opinion, not doubtful. They constitute one monument more of that special art whose traces we find in all the countries which were successively overrun by the Goths, first in Vallachia at Petrossa, then in Hungary, and in Burgundy; which we discover in Italy with the Ostrogoths, in Spain with the Visigoths, and a little later in England with the Saxons. Ravenna, it must be borne in mind, was successively the capital of an Exarchate, with which Odoacer, King of the Herules, was invested,1" and the seat of the new kingdom founded by his fortunate competitor Tbeodoric at the end of the fifth century. Both of these rivals were of Gothic origin, although of different branches of that wide-spread nationality. Consequently, the valuable jewels kept in the Museo Classense, whoever may have been their first owner, must be considered as specimens of Gothic art. The Italian savants, and especially Signor Giaccomo Zabberoni, who published an account of these ornaments, incline to consider them as a part of the armour of Odoacer. Indeed, from the richness of the work the relics could only belong to a prince or to some other eminent personage. But is there any sufficient reason to attribute them to Odoacer himself rather than to any of the Goths of Theodoric ? • To decide the question, it is necessary to record not only the principal facts which took place at that time in Ravenna, but also the exact spot where this most interesting discovery was made. We all know that Ravenna was, in ancient times, situated on the sea-shore, being only separated from the open sea by several lines of islands forming a kind of lagoon. In the course of time, the channels which separated these islands from

a See an account of this mausoleum by Sydney Smirke, Esq. F.S.A. in Archieologia xxiii. p. 323, plates xxix. xxx. . • < • b A title which Sismondi denies to him. Vol. XLVI. PI. VII.

JEWELLED ORNAMENTS RAVENNA.

Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1880. W. GRIGGS, PHOTO L1TH. LONDON. S. E. On two Gold Ornaments of the time of Theodoric. 239 each other were filled up hy a succession of alluvial deposits, and soldered (if we may use that term) to the mainland, in such a manner that Ravenna is now, relatively speaking, far from the sea, and communicates with it but hy tiny canals. The most important among them is known hy the name of navilio grande. Some twenty or thirty years ago, works most urgently needed were undertaken to improve it, and it was in the course of those works that the several pieces which make the subject of the present memoir were discovered in a large tomb, among many other sepultures. It was very near the city, in the parish of San Eusebio, and not far from the Rotonda, in that part of the district which was formerly the eastern island, the highest land above the level of the sea, and therefore the best fitted for a burial- place. Many human bones were found lying on the soil; then appeared several tombs in stone or brick, generally of ordinary structure and without cement; and finally, at the further part of the cemetery, a larger and more carefully executed tomb, more than six feet long, well built in regular bricks with cement. That place was certainly not one in which dead bodies could have been hastily and promiscuously buried after a battle. By its situation and the numerous tombs still remaining, it exhibits all the signs of an ordinary cemetery. It is generally known that Odoacer, after having finally overthrown the Roman empire, obtained the title of Patrician and Exarch of Ravenna, and became the only real master of Italy when that unfortunate country was once more overrun by the whole nation of the Goths under the command of Theodoric. Odoacer resisted at first with great energy; but, after having fought several important battles, he was compelled to withdraw, with the last remains of his army, behind the walls of Ravenna, where he was soon besieged by Theodoric, who however, instead of immediate hostilities, proposed to his still powerful enemy to conclude an arrangement on the understanding that each should have a share in the supreme power. It was in the course of these negociations that Odoacer, invited to a sumptuous banquet, was treacherously murdered, if not by the hand at least under the eyes of Theodoric. Odoacer, it is said, was secretly buried, and the crime concealed as long as possible. Such being the circum- stances, two or three questions may be raised. First, Odoacer in repairing trustfully to a banquet to which he had been invited by this same Theodoric, who offered to him a share of the supreme power, would scarcely have gone there in full armour, with his helmet and cuirass, instead of wearing some gorgeous costume, all covered with embroideries and jewels such as those princes used to wear ? 240 On two Gold Ornaments of the time of Theodoric. After the murder, is it probable that the wretched people who had the charge of secretly burying Odoacer would have been particular and respectful enough not to strip their dead enemy of his richest ornaments ? In short, is it probable that the unfortunate prince, whose death was to be kept secret, was thus buried in an ordinary cemetery, and in a well-built tomb prepared beforehand to receive his body ? These objections are perhaps not strong enough to invalidate the conjectures of Signor Zabberoni, but they seem to me to be sufficient to give rise at least to some doubts. If not of Odoacer, that sepulture did certainly contain the mortal remains of some eminent chief of the Goths, of some lieutenant of Theodoric, whose splendid monument, known under the name of the Rotonda, is to be seen in the neighbour- hood. The perfect similitude of the ornaments with which both the cornice of that last monument and the double border of the curious jewels now kept in the Museo Classense are decorated, seem to make them appear as the product of the same art and of the same civilisation. Who may have been the real owner of these jewels, is, in my opinion, a secondary question. Their true importance resides in their perfect workmanship^ delicacy, and admirable state of preservation. I do not think any other monu- ment of the same art can be considered as superior to those under consideration. For that reason I have been induced to offer to the Society, as a matter of interesting research, a faithful reproduction of the ornaments.