The relationships between Goths and Romans are a vast field worthy of being explored and full of meaning for our world struggling with the best and worst of multiculturalism. Whether it was the fruit of an inspired plan or a random coming together of different traditions, Ravenna was a tiny experiment that lasted just a few generations. The so-called "Gothic War" (actually, the war of the Byzantines against the Ostrogothic Kingdom, following the recrudescence of the religious conflict during Theodoric's last years) put a bloody end to it, obliterating the Ostrogoths from the face of the earth. We can only speculate about what would have been if the war had not happened; probably a slower dilution of the Germanic element in the Latin majority, leaving behind more numerous fragments of language and tradition, as will happen with the Lombards.

The "fall of the Western Empire" was not istitutionally perceived as such by the Romans living in Italy, who for decades had seen strangers on the Imperial throne. In 404, Emperor Honorius had moved the capital of the Western Empire from Milan to Ravenna, to avoid the threat of barbarians; his sister Galla Placidia, the one who began to enrich it with mosaics, and the Empress Regent for Valentinian III, had been the wife of a Visigothic chieftain. The Germanic people were a part of Roman life and history; Odoacer merely officialized an accomplished fact. The conditions did get worse due to the continuous state of war, but from an institutional point of view the Romans went on living as they had in the last centuries, getting used to the presence of "barbarians" among them. The feeling one gets from reading contemporary sources is that separation was not enforced strictly, but mostly each side kept to themselves spontaneously.

Pinpointing the cultural differences between Romans and Goths is a topic worth of a much wider analysis; the most striking bone of contention was religion. The Goths had been converted to Christianity by Arian bishops such as Wulfila. In a nutshell, the heresy of Arius declared that Christ was not of the same substance of God the Father, and thus inferior to him. It was rebutted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. The Romans adhered to the Nicene Symbol or Creed, a basic part of Catholic lithurgy and belief: We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father, through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven and cometh to judge the living and the dead... They called themselves Catholic, or Apostolic, or Nicene, or Orthodox, and built their own places of worship, often in direct opposition to the Arian churches. For example:

- The Archiepiscopal Chapel was built during Theodoric's times. You can see in the upper left corner of this page its mosaic of a warrior Christ squashing heresies.
- The Orthodox Baptistery, like the Arian Baptistery (which however was built some fifty years later), presents a mosaic with the scene of Christ's baptism in the cupola.
- San Vitale, begun under Theodoric, became the apotheosis of Byzantine rulers Justinian and Theodora: the two mosaic panels with the depiction of the court are among the most beautiful and famous portraits in the world.

Text: Ælfwine Scylding. Background image: Ælfwine Scylding. Other background images: Mix 'n' Match