Charlemagne's silver tables: the ideology of an imperial capital

Abstract

Charlemagne's last will and testament says that a silver table with a picture of Constantinople was to be sent to St Peter's at Rome, and a table with a picture of Rome was to be sent to the bishopric of Ravenna. The imagery on these tables seems to reflect a late antique tradition of depicting pairs of cities; the pairings Rome–Constantinople and Rome–Ravenna offer insights into the importance of Ravenna for Charlemagne's imperial ideology, and specifically how Ravenna functioned as a model for Charle‐magne's imperial capital at Aachen.