capital the public alarm rose to fever-heat, and the Praetorian Prefect of the time, Cyrus Constantine, by an extraordinary effort, not only restored the fortifications of Anthemius, but added externally a second wall on a smaller scale, together with a wide and deep fosse,[1] in the short space of sixty days. To the modern observer it might appear incredible that such a prodigious mass of masonry, extending over a distance of four miles, could be reared within two months, but the fact is attested by two inscriptions still existing on the gates,[2] by the Byzantine historians,[3] and by the practice of antiquity in times of impending hostility.[4]), support the theory. The walls of Theodosius were afterwards called the "new walls" (Cod. Just., I, ii, 18; Novel lix, 5, etc.).], pp. 47, 50). They are preserved in the Anthol. Graec. (Planudes), iv. 28. The gate called Xylocercus, with its inscription, has disappeared.]*
- ↑ The work of Cyrus is not precisely defined by the Byzantine historians, but Déthier (Der Bosph. u. CP., 1873, pp. 12, 50) and Mordtmann (op. cit., p. 11) take this view. The words of one inscription, "he built a wall to a wall" ([Greek: edeimato teichei teichos
- ↑ On the Porta Rhegii or Melandesia, about half-way across. See Paspates ([Greek: Byzantiuai Meletai
- ↑ Marcellinus, loc. cit.; Zonaras, xiii, 22; Nicephorus Cal., xiv, 1, confuses the work of the two men. The Anon. Patria (Banduri), p. 20, says that the two factions of the circus, each containing eight thousand men, were employed on the work. Beginning at either end, they met centrally at a gate hence called "of many men" (Polyandra). Mordtmann (op. cit., p. 28) wholly rejects this tale, as it does not fit in with some of his identifications. It would, however, be well suited to the P. Rhegii, where the existing inscriptions are found. Some local knowledge must be conceded to an author of the twelfth century, who probably lived on the spot. Wall-building was a duty of the factions.
- ↑ Dionysius caused the Syracusans to build the wall of Epipolae, of about the same length, in twenty days (Diod. Sic., xiv, 18). The Peloponnesians built a wall across the isthmus against Xerxes in a short time (Herodotus, viii, 71, etc.). There was much extemporary wall-building at Syracuse during the siege by Nicias (Thucydides, vi, 97, etc.). The
