A TOMB AT RAVENNA 



" Morte bella parea nel suo bel viso." PETRARCH. 



RAVENNA belongs more than any other Italian 

 city to the early ages, when the Christian Church 

 was in her first vigour and the Roman Empire was 

 tottering to its fall. Her great churches and noble 

 tombs had their origin in that troubled period when 

 the old order was slowly giving place to the new, 

 and the human race was entering on a fresh phase 

 in its career. The mosaic pictures of Galla Placidia's 

 shrine, the portraits of Justinian and Theodora in the 

 apse of San Vitale, the long procession of virgins and 

 martyrs in the nave of S. Apollinare, and the sculp- 

 tures of the ancient sarcophagi that meet us at every 

 turn, all tell the same story. The enthusiasm of 

 apostolic days breathes in the types and symbols that 

 we see carved in stone or set forth in the jewelled 

 tints of mosaic the Cross of salvation and peacock of 

 the resurrection, the Good Shepherd leading his flock to 

 rest in the green pastures, the hart no longer panting 

 after, but at length tasting, the water-brooks. These 

 things make Ravenna unique among the cities of Italy. 

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