Читать книгу The Antiquities of Constantinople - Gilles Pierre - Страница 24

THE Suburbs and Fields adjoining were inclosed with Walls of such an immoderate Length, that they extended themselves from the City to the Distance of a two Days Journey. They were built by Anastasius the Emperor to prevent the Incursions of the Scythians and Bulgarians, reach’d from the Black Sea to the Propontis, were forty thousand Paces remote from the City, and twenty Roman Foot in Breadth. These Walls were often taken and batter’d by the barbarous Nations, but repair’d by Justinian; and that the Soldiers garrisoned there might defend them to the best Advantage, he order’d the Passages of one Tower to another to be stopp’d up, no Entrance being allow’d, but the Door at the Bottom of the Steps, by which it was ascended; so that by this means it was sufficiently guarded, though the Enemies Forces were in the Heart of the City. Evagrius the sacred Historian tells us, that Anastasius built the long Wall, which was two hundred and eighty Furlongs distant from the City, that it reach’d from Sea to Sea, was four hundred Furlongs in Length, that it was a good Security to those who sail’d out of the Black Sea to the Propontis, and that it put a Stop to the Excursions of the barbarous Nations.

The End of the First Book