The Age of Justinian and Theodora (Vol.1&2)

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William Gordon Holmes. The Age of Justinian and Theodora (Vol.1&2)

The Age of Justinian and Theodora (Vols. 1&2)

Table of Contents

VOLUME 1

PROEM

ADDITIONAL CORRECTIONS

CHAPTER I. CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY3

I. History

II. Topography

III. Sociology

CHAPTER II. THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER ANASTASIUS: THE INHERITANCE OF JUSTINIAN

I. Political

II. Educational

III. Religious

CHAPTER III. BIRTH AND FORTUNES OF THE ELDER JUSTIN: THE ORIGINS OF JUSTINIAN

CHAPTER IV. PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN

ADDITIONS

FOOTNOTES

VOLUME 2

CHAPTER V. THE PERSIANS AND JUSTINIAN'S FIRST WAR WITH THEM

CHAPTER VI. THE SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY AT ATHENS AND THEIR ABOLITION BY JUSTINIAN

CHAPTER VII. THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMPIRE: INSURRECTION OF THE CIRCUS FACTIONS IN THE CAPITAL

CHAPTER VIII. CARTHAGE UNDER THE ROMANS: RECOVERY OF AFRICA FROM THE VANDALS

CHAPTER IX. THE BUILDING OF ST. SOPHIA: THE ARCHITECTURAL WORK OF JUSTINIAN

CHAPTER X. ROME IN THE SIXTH CENTURY: WAR WITH THE GOTHS IN ITALY

CHAPTER XI. THE SECOND PERSIAN WAR: FALL OF ANTIOCH: MILITARY OPERATIONS IN LAZICA

CHAPTER XII. PRIVATE LIFE IN THE IMPERIAL CIRCLE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

CHAPTER XIII. THE FINAL CONQUEST OF ITALY AND ITS ANNEXATION TO THE EMPIRE

CHAPTER XIV. RELIGION IN THE SIXTH CENTURY: JUSTINIAN AS A THEOLOGIAN

CHAPTER XV. PECULIARITIES OF ROMAN LAW: THE LEGISLATION OF JUSTINIAN

CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST DAYS OF JUSTINIAN: LITERATURE AND ART IN THE SIXTH CENTURY: SUMMARY AND REVIEW OF THE REIGN

Отрывок из книги

William Gordon Holmes

History of Byzantine Empire in Sixth Century A.D.

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(2) At a distance of about twenty yards from the inner edge of the moat, rising to a height of nearly thirty feet, with dentated parapets, stands the lesser wall. Towers of various shapes, square, round, and octagonal, project from its external face at intervals of about fifty yards. Each tower overtops the wall and possesses small front and lateral windows, which overlook the level tract95 stretching from the foss. High up in each tower is a floorway having an exit on the intramural space behind, and they have also steps outside which lead to the roof. The vacant interval between the walls is about fifty feet wide, usually called the peribolos.96 It has been artificially raised to within a few feet of the top of the wall by pouring into it the earth recovered in excavating the moat.97 This is the special vantage-ground of the defenders of the city during a siege: from hence mainly they launch their missiles against the enemy or engage them in a hand-to-hand fight should they succeed in crossing the moat and planting their scaling-ladders against the wall.98

(3) Bounding the peribolos posteriorly lies the main land-wall of Constantinople, the great and indisputable work of Theodosius II. In architectural configuration it is almost similar to the outer wall, but its height is much greater, and its towers, placed so as to alternate with the smaller ones in front, occupy more than four times as much ground. Built as separate structures, but adherent to the wall behind, they rise above it and project forwards into the interspace for more than half its breadth. Most of the towers are square, but those of circular or octagonal shape are not infrequent. In level places offering facilities for attack the wall has a general height of seventy feet, but in less accessible situations, on rising or rugged ground, it attains to little more than half that elevation.99 As in the case of the outer defences, the wall and towers are crested by an uninterrupted series of crenellated battlements.

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