ABSTRACT
Arresting yet simultaneously elusive, the Arian Baptistery in Ravenna occupies a marginal place in scholarship. The Arian Baptistery stands before the western facade of the Ostrogothic-period basilica known as Santo Spirito. Agnellus reports that the Arian bishops possessed multiple episcopia in addition to the churches under their care. A striking aspect of the sources for Theoderic's Ravenna is the absence of evidence for tension between Romans and Goths on religious grounds for most of his reign. Scholarly consensus holds that the Arian Church was an "ethnic rallying point" for the Goths, a concretized focus of their ethnic distinction based on their religious affiliation. The priority given to explaining stylistic difference between the Arian and Neonian Baptistery has perhaps missed the significance of the obvious: that the mosaics of the Arian Baptistery are, despite adaptation, fundamentally similar to those of its counterpart.
