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The contribution intends to retrace the history of Pavia’s famous equestrian statue, known as the “Regisole”, destroyed in 1796. The statue, in gilded bronze, represented a Roman emperor and was transferred from Rome to Ravenna, most likely by Theoderic. At a certain point, probably between the eighth and tenth centuries, the Regisole arrived in Pavia, even if it is difficult to establish who was responsible for that. The most logical solution is to attribute the transfer of the monument to a Lombard king, specifically to Aistulf, who conquered Ravenna in 751. It is possible to argue that by transferring the Regisole – which was believed to represent Theoderic – to the capital of the Lombard kingdom, Aistulf intended to promote an imperial image of himself, at a time when the conquest of the Exarchate raised him to the rank of “new Theoderic”.

Lothar looms large in the Liber pontificalis of Ravenna, an episcopal gesta composed after 846 by a local cleric of that city named Agnellus. In its prefatory verse, Lothar was tied to the memory of his grandfather Charlemagne, and afterwards was presented as an ally of the city and its church, a relationship sealed by the service of the bishop George (837-846) as godfather to Lothar’s daughter Rotruda. Furthermore, upon the death of Louis the Pious, as part of an embassy attempting to resolve the conflicts between Lothar and his brothers, George sought to affirm Ravenna privileges on the eve of the battle of Fontenoy, an event described quite differently from other sources. Completed following these struggles, the Liber pontificalis of Ravenna used this image of Lothar to further claims of the special status of the city, especially in its independence from Rome and longstanding imperial connections, and actively sought to legitimize Lothar’s own position through a juxtaposition with Charlemagne. Although preserved in the accounts of the bishops of Ravenna, the singular efforts to elevate and memorialize Lothar differ from other contemporary institutional chronicles, and underscore the tension inherent in the narrative.

Ravenna is the place which preserves the highest number of historical evidence among all centres featuring the late Roman Mediterranean. Its cultural heritage is vast and composite, ranging from papyri to inscriptions, from ivories to marbles. Starting from concrete typologies of hand-manufactured goods existing in the Ravennate milieu, the book aims to explore the multifaceted traditions of late antique and early Byzantine handicraft.