Long Wall of Thrace
Anastasian Wall
The Long Wall of Thrace, also called the Anastasian Wall, was a system of fortifications erected west of Constantinople. The remains of walls, which are about 65 km from Constantinople, extended from Selymbria (modern Silivri) to the Black Sea. The Wall is part of the additional defenses for Constantinople constructed during the 5th century AD and probably continued in use until the 7th century. Originally the Wall was around 56 km long, but less than half of the total length now survives above ground. It is best preserved in the rolling woodland of the northern sector where the Wall stands in place up to 4m in height. Associated with the Wall is a well preserved ditch, outerwork, gates and forts. As it survives it is the most monumental linear fortification dating from antiquity in continental Europe, comparable only with Hadrian's Wall in its complexity and preservation. Recent road construction and other developments associated with the expansion of Greater Istanbul are now posing a major threat to the surviving remains.The wall proved ineffective (probably because of its length and the lack of a sufficient garrison to man it) and was many times penetrated by invaders, beginning in 559. According to the preface to novel 26 of Justinian I, there were two vicarii of the Long Walls: one for military affairs, the other for civil administration. In later centuries the commander responsible for the defense of the wall was the Komes ton Teicheon.
Panegyric on the Long Wall of Thrace by Procopius of Gaza
What was the grandest and passes all imagination was to raise a high and powerful wall crossing all of Thrace. It passes from sea to sea, barring the route of barbarians, an obstacle to enemy aggression. The wall of Themistocles in Athens was smaller by report.
From The Novels of Justinian
Thrace: praetor
Emperor Justinian Augustus to John, for the second time Most Illustrious prefect of the sacred praetoria of the East, ex-consul, patrician
It is an admitted fact that any mention of the province of Thrace is at once accompanied by some talk of its courage, its vast forces, and its preoccupation with wars and battles, those being its native, traditional characteristics. We have thus had it in mind – not for the first time – to set that region’s affairs in order; and it is on the basis of those deliberations that we are now making the present law.
As we all know, there are two persons, known as vicarii, in position at the Long Walls, one in command of the military units, there being numerous forces in that area, and the other in charge of civil affairs. The function of this pair is to discharge, in one case, the office of the Most Illustrious prefects, and in the other, that of the most gallant generals; but they are never in agreement with each other. While the public treasury pays both of them their stipends and the rest of their remuneration, they have just one perpetual, endless activity, which is quarrelling with each other everlastingly.
From On Buildings by Procopius
Thus, when it comes about that any of the enemy overrun the land of the Romans suddenly, the damage caused there is much greater than in other places, and the region is then overwhelmed with irreparable calamities. The Emperor Anastasius had determined to put a stop to this and so built long walls at a distance of not less than forty miles from Byzantium, uniting the two shores of the sea on a line where they are separated by about a two-days' journey. By this means he thought that everything inside was placed in security. But in fact this was the cause of greater calamities. For neither was it possible to make safe a structure of such great length nor could it be guarded rigorously. And whenever the enemy descended on any portion of these long walls, they both overpowered all the guards with no difficulty, and falling unexpectedly upon the other people they inflicted loss not easy to describe.
But the Emperor [Justinian] rebuilt those portions of these walls which had suffered, and making the weak parts very strong for the sake of the guards, he added the following devices. He blocked up all the exits from each tower leading to those adjoining it; and he built from the ground up a single ascent inside each individual tower, which the guards there can close in case of emergency and scorn the enemy if they have penetrated inside the circuit-wall, since each tower by itself was sufficient to ensure safety for its guards. Also inside these walls he diligently made provision for safety, not only doing what has just been mentioned, but also restoring all the parts of the circuit-wall of the city of Selymbria which happened to have been damaged. These things then were done by the Emperor Justinian at the long walls.
From The Histories of Agathias
Indeed the fortunes of the Roman state had sunk so low that on the very outskirts of the Imperial City such atrocities were being committed by a handful of barbarians. But that was not the limit of their audacity: pressing on they passed without difficulty inside the Long Walls and approached the inner fortifications. Age and neglect had in fact caused the structure of the great wall to crumble and collapse in many places. Some parts of it the barbarians themselves knocked down, setting about their task with the nonchalant air of men demolishing their own property. There was nothing to stop them, no sentries, no engines of defence, nobody to man them. There was not even the sound of a dog barking, as would at least have been the case with a pig-sty or a sheep-cot.
At first the Huns, under the impression that they were being pursued, fled in consternation from the Long Walls. But when they discovered that Belisarius had been recalled and that no one else had been sent out against them, they slowly began to drift back.
From The Chronicle of John Malalas
In the month of March of the 7th indiction [559] the Huns and the Slavs made an attack on Thrace. They killed many in battle and took some captives, including the magister militum Sergius, the son of Bacchus, and Edemas, major domo of Kalopodios, making them prisoners. They found parts of the wall of Constantinople had collapsed and, entering there, they raided as far as St Stratonikos. Everyone fled with their possessions into the city. On being informed of this, the emperor conscripted many and sent them to the Long Wall. They engaged the enemy and many Romans, especially the scholarii, were killed. When the emperor saw that the barbarians were staying put, he ordered the patrician Belisarius to march out against them with some other members of the senate.
From The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor
In the same year the Huns and Slavs—a great mass of them—rose up against Thrace, made war there, and killed or captured many people. They caught Sergius, the magister militum, son of the presbyter Bakchos, and Edermas, the general, [in the service of] Kalopodios, the most glorious cubicularius and praepositus. Having discovered that some parts of the Anastasian wall had collapsed from the earthquakes, they got in and took prisoners as far as Drypia and Nymphai and the village of Chiton. Everyone fled with their possessions into the city. On being informed of this, the emperor conscripted many and sent them to the Long Wall. They engaged the enemy there and many Romans, especially scholarii, were killed. Then the emperor ordered that the silver ciboria and silver altar tables that were outside the city be removed while the scholae, the protectores, the numeri, and the whole Senate guarded all the gates of the Theodosian wall. When the emperor saw that the barbarians were persisting, he ordered the patrician Belisarius to march out against them with some other members of the Senate. Belisarius took every horse, including those of the emperor, of the Hippodrome, of religious establishments, and from every ordinary man who had a horse. He armed his troops and led them out to the village of Chiton. He made an entrenched camp and began to capture some of the enemy and kill them. Next he ordered trees to be cut and dragged behind the army. The wind blew up a cloud of dust, which drifted over the barbarians. They, thinking that an enormous force was there, fled and went to the district of St. Stratonikos at Dekaton. When they learned from scouts that a great garrison force was at the walls of Constantinople, they went to the region of Tzouroulon, Arkadioupolis, and St. Alexander of Zoupara and remained encamped there until holy Easter. After the Easter festival, the emperor went out to Selymbria and everyone from the city went with him to rebuild the Long Wall where the barbarians had entered. The emperor remained there until August. Likewise the barbarians wandered about outside the city until August. Then the emperor ordered double-prowed ships to be built to go to the Danube and oppose the barbarians as they crossed and make war on them. When the barbarians discovered this, they asked through an envoy to be allowed to cross the Danube safely. The emperor sent Justin, his nephew, the curopalates, to conduct them.
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