Long Wall of Thrace
Anastasian Wall
View of the Long Wall of Thrace by Evcik cliffs near church ruins
The Long Wall of Thrace, also known as the Anastasian Wall, was built in the early sixth century to protect Constantinople and its Thracian hinterland. Comparable only with Hadrian’s Wall, the Long Wall stretched around 46 km from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.
History
The Long Wall (Μακρὸν Τεῖχος) of Thrace, also known as the Anastasian Wall, was constructed to protect the Thracian hinterland of Constantinople, which was increasingly under attack during the fifth and sixth centuries. The general consensus is that Anastasius I (491-518) built the Long Wall of Thrace, though it has also been argued that it was first built in the mid-fifth century by Theodosius II (402-450) and then later repaired by Anastasius I. For an earlier date, it has been suggested that the Long Wall was built in the aftermath of the Hunnic invasion of Thrace and the earthquake of 447 that damaged sections of the Theodosian Walls. However, the earlier date is generally rejected, since Byzantine sources generally attributed its construction to Anastasius I and often refer to it as the Anastasian Wall. The Long Wall was likely built in response to the Bulgar victories in Thrace in 493, 499, and 502.
The Long Wall is frequently mentioned in Byzantine sources in the next three centuries. It appears in the Novels of Justinian (527-565), when the new office of the praetor of Thrace was established by combining two separate roles of the civil and military vicars of the Long Walls in 535. Procopius records extensive repairs to the Long Walls by Justinian when access to the towers was reduced and staircases were made inaccessible. In 559, a major raid led by Zabergan and the Kutrigurs (also called “Huns”) penetrated the Long Walls and reached the outskirts of Constantinople, after discovering sections of the wall had collapsed in the earthquake of 557/558. The general Belisarius, who was recalled from retirement, successfully turned back the Kutrigurs, who subsequently retreated across the Danube. After the victory, Justinian set up his court in Selymbria to personally oversee the restoration of the Long Walls. After being repaired, the Long Wall repelled numerous attacks by Slavs and Avars in the following decades.
Around 600, Maurice (582-602) led troops and circus factions to defend the Long Wall after the Byzantine general Komentiolos was defeated in Thrace by the Avars. Domentziolos, brother of Phokas, was dispatched to the Long Wall when news that Heraclius’ fleet had arrived in the Dardanelles; Domentziolos then fled to Constantinople when he learned Heraclius had reached Abydos. An inscription discovered at Evcik records repairs by the patrician Smaragdus and Emperor Heraclius (610-641), which were probably made shortly after 610. Around 619, Heraclius travelled outside the Long Wall to negotiate with the Avars. The Avar Khagan, though, ambushed Heraclius, who narrowly escaped and fled back to Constantinople. It seems that the Long Wall had been completely abandoned sometime before the Avar siege of 626.
The Long Wall is mentioned during the reign of Constantine V (741-775) when the Bulgars attacked Thrace around 755. As the Bulgars easily approached the walls of Constantinople during this period, making it improbably that Constantine V repaired the Long Wall, as has been suggested. It subsequently disappears from history, though it was mentioned much later by theologian Matthew of Ephesus, who came across its ruins in 1332.
Architecture
The Long Wall was built in the early sixth century by Anastasius I (491-518), probably in response to the increasing threat of the Bulgars. Also known as the Long Wall of Thrace, the Anastasian Wall, and even the Wall of Constantinople, it was the most celebrated building achievement of Anastasius I. Comparable only to Hadrian’s Wall, it was the last monumental Roman fortification of its kind. Located around 65 km west of Constantinople, it supplemented the Theodosian Walls and guarded the western approach of Constantinople, protecting its Thracian hinterland, including its settlements and farmland. The Long Wall stretches 58 km from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, making it roughly half the length of Hadrian’s Wall and comparable to the Antonine Wall. It has been suggested that its construction required a workforce of 10,000 working for over five years. While there were multiple repairs in the sixth and seventh centuries, it was likely completely abandoned before the Avar siege of Constantinople in 626.
The Long Wall consisted of a single line of a curtain wall with towers, forts, and an earthen ditch, which were documented in the surveys of 1995-2003. The southern sector of the wall passed through gently rolling hills and open farmland, though little survives apart from scattered stone and brick in the ploughed soil. The south end of the wall is around 4 km west of Selymbria (modern Silivri). While there is little trace of the wall on the beach, a long mole less than 2 m below the water can be seen in the sea. The wall continues north towards the high ridges and densely forested hills, which made it difficult for armies from any period to approach. The wall ends in the north at the cliffs of Evcik overlooking the Black Sea. The ruins of the Church of St. George are also located a few meters from the part of the wall that protrudes from the cliff.
The surviving curtain wall, forts, and towers have a mortar and rubble core faced with various types of stone. Some sections have limestone ashlar similar to the nearby fifth-century aqueduct bridges, while other types of masonry, including coarse sandstone, can be found other sections. The fragments of brick in the vicinity of Silivri suggest that the southern section of the wall could have had alternating brick courses. While much of the wall has been lost, some sections have a height of 5 m, while significant sections in the north are often preserved to a height of around 3 m. It has been estimated that its height exceeded 10 m and its width was over 3 m. Some sections were narrowed to less than 2 m with a series of internal arcades.
The surviving evidence indicates its towers had a variety of rectangular or polygonal designs, while its forts had regular plans built behind the wall. The towers were located at distances of 80-120 m apart, suggesting that there would have been at least 340 towers along the total length of the wall. The towers were typically polygonal in shape at the points where the line of the wall changes direction. They were massive structures, projecting over 11.5 m, and were intended to provide platforms for torsion artillery. The evidence indicates a ditch running the entire length of the wall. It was up to 15 m wide and was located around 23 m in front of the wall.
Six forts around 3.5 km apart were documented in a northern section of the wall. All the forts were built on the inner side of the wall and provided the main access points through the wall. Two documented forts, Kücük Bedesten and Büyük Bedesten, were constructed on the wall’s inner face, extending 32 m to the east and running 64 m parallel to the wall. Each corner of the forts had projecting rectangular towers. A ditched outwork is up to 80 m in front of the fort and gate of the Büyük Bedesten, which is a rare example of Late Antique earthwork defenses. It probably can be associated with invasions in the sixth or seventh century. While they no longer survive, there were likely major gateways for the Via Egnetia and other main roads running across Thrace.
Hadrian’s Wall at Walltown Crags in Northern England
Photo by Carole Raddato
The Long Wall of Thrace was around half the length of the 117-km long Hadrian’s Wall, which was built around 122. Procopius also compares it to the Long Wall of Athens built by Themistocles during the Peloponnesian War.
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.
Solidus of Anastasius I
From The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus
And one very great and memorable work was completed by the same emperor [Anastasius], the so-called Long Wall, which is well positioned in Thrace. This is about 280 stades distant from Constantinople, and links the two seas over a distance of 420 stades in the manner of a channel. It made the city almost an island instead of a peninsula, and for those who wish provides a very safe transit from the so-called Pontus to the Propontis and the Thracian sea, while checking the barbarians who rush forth from the so-called Euxine Sea, and from the Colchians and the Maiotic lake, and from the regions beyond the Caucasus, and those who have poured forth over Europe.
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.
Lead seal of Adrianos vikarios of Thrace (sixth century)
Mosaic of Justinian in San Vitale
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 History of Theophylact Simocatta
So the two then came to the Chagan at Anchialus, and asked about a treaty, as they had been ordered. The Chagan did not act moderately in his crimes, but even added more wilful threats that he would destroy the Long Walls, as they are called.
In the following year, Elpidius was again appointed and sent out on the same mission. When he reached the Chagan, he asked that an ambassador should come with him to the emperor [Maurice], so that he might reanimate the treaty and they should permit the addition of a further twenty thousand gold coins to the agreement. The Chagan adopted the proposal and sent Targitius, a respected man in the tribe of the Avars, to the Caesar with Elpidius. They both came to the emperor, and a covenant and accord was reached, namely that the Romans should pay out twenty thousand gold coins in addition to the eighty thousand, or be repaid with war if they neglected this. Therefore the agreement seemed to have been somewhat revived, and warfare accepted an armistice. After a brief moment of time the wellbeing of the peace was adulterated, and once again the tribe of the Avars attacked the Romans, not openly, however, but in a rather knavish and crafty manner. For the Avars let loose the nation of the Sclavenes, who ravaged very many areas of the Roman territory, suddenly invaded like lightning as far as the Walls named Long, and wrought great slaughter on their captives. Wherefore, in fear, the emperor both garrisoned the Long Walls and led out from the city his personal body of soldiers, instantly devising a most distinguished defence, as it were, around the city.
A certain brigadier Ansimuth (this man was in command of an infantry army stationed in Thrace) collected his host as soon as he learned of the Avar incursion, and retreated for refuge towards the Long Walls. He himself was in fact at the rear of the force, pushing the army inwards; it was this that handed him over alive to the barbarians: for he was captured, and became a spoil ready to hand for the enemy vanguard, since the fool did not have his rear under guard. Shortly afterwards the Chagan also poured the remaining portion of his horde into Thrace, and they made their entry through innumerable points, while Comentiolus’ men were marching from the left. It was for this reason that the Romans hid in die forests of Haemus and the enemy bypassed them to scatter in several sections across Thrace.
From the Chronicon Paschale
Indiction 15, year 16, the 3rd consulship of Anastasius Augustus and that of Venantius. In this year was built the Long Wall which is called Anastasian.
In this year in month Daisius, on June 5th according to the Romans, a Sunday, the emperor Heraclius was in the Thracian regions with certain officials, and not only certain property-owners and clergy, but also shopkeepers and partisans from each of the two factions and a considerable throng of others, when the Chagan of the Avars approached the Long Wall with an innumerable throng, since, as it was supposedly rumoured, peace was about to be made between Romans and Avars, and chariot races were about to be held at Heracleia. An innumerable throng, misled by this rumour, came out from the all-blessed city. And about hour 4 of this Lord’s Day the Chagan of the Avars signalled with his whip, and all who were with him charged and entered the Long Wall, although he remained outside the wall with some of his men; and supposedly he said that he would have both entered the wall and taken the city except that God prevented him. However, his men who entered on this Lord’s Day plundered all whom they found outside the city from the west as far as the Golden Gate, together also with the men and animals of various kinds present for whatever reason in the suburbs. They entered both SS Cosmas and Damian at Blachemae, and the Archangel on the far side in the quarter of Promotus; not only did they remove the ciboria and other treasures, but they also broke up the holy altar itself of the church of the Archangel, and without any opposition transported everyone, along with the things removed, to the far side of the Danube.
And so on the 29th of the month June of the present indiction 14, that is on the day of the Feast of the holy and glorious chief apostles, Peter and Paul, a vanguard of the God-abhorred Chagan arrived, about 30,000. He had spread the rumour by means of reports that he would capture both the Long Wall and the area within it, and as a result, on the same day, which was a Lord’s Day, the excellent cavalry who were present outside the city came inside the new Theodosian wall of this imperial city. The same advance guard remained in the regions of Melantias, while a few of them made sallies at intervals as far as the wall, and prevented anyone from going out or collecting provisions for animals at all.
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.
The emperor [Maurice], out of eagerness for peace, accepted this. [The Chagan] asked for an elephant, an Indian animal, to be sent to him so he could look at it. The emperor sent to him the largest one of all. After gazing at it, the Chagan sent it back to the emperor. Likewise he asked for a golden bed to be sent to him. The emperor sent it and again the Chagan returned it after disparaging it. He then asked for another 20,000 to be added to the 100,000. When the emperor refused, the Chagan marched out, destroyed the city of Singidunum and captured many other cities belonging to Illyricum. He seized Anchialos and threatened to destroy the Long Walls. The emperor sent out the patrician Elpidios with Komentiolos as ambassadors to the Chagan. The barbarian vowed to keep the peace in accordance with the terms of the treaty.
The Chagan hastened to break the peace through treachery. For he armed the tribes of the Sklavini against Thrace. They wrought much devastation, coming as far as the Long Walls. The emperor [Maurice], after leading out the palace guard and the demes from the City, ordered them to protect the Long Walls. He appointed Komentiolos as general, equipped his forces, and sent him out against the barbarians. He fell upon the barbarians unexpectedly, destroyed a great many of them, and drove them back. When he reached Adrianople he came upon Ardagastos who was leading a mass of Sklavini along with their captives. He fell upon him, saved the captives, and gained a great victory.
Accordingly, the troops were split and each man fled through the woods as best he could. Some, who were captured by the barbarians, revealed where Castus was hidden. When he had been taken alive, the barbarians danced around him in exultation. The Chagan, marching by way of Mesembria, moved against Thrace and reached the Long Walls. Komentiolos, who had hidden in the forests of the Haimos, came out with Martin. Having caught the Chagan completely unprepared, with the mass of his barbarians scattered across Thrace, he marched against him at the first watch. He would have won great success from this attempt had he not missed his goal by ill luck.
When Komentiolos reached Byzantium, utter confusion and uproar descended on the city, so much so that the inhabitants out of fear wanted to abandon Europe and move across to Chalcedon in Asia. The emperor [Maurice], taking the excubitors and having assembled an armed band, kept guard at the Long Walls.
When Herakleios had reached Abydos, he found Theodore, comes of Abydos, whom he interrogated and learnt what was happening at Constantinople. Phokas, for his part, dispatched his brother, the magister Domentziolos, to guard the Long Walls; and when the magister learnt that Herakleios had reached Abydos, he abandoned the walls and fled to Constantinople. As for Herakleios, he received at Abydos all (the dignitaries who had been exiled) by Phokas and came with them to Herakleia.
In this year [617/618] the Avars invaded Thrace and Herakleios sent ambassadors to them asking for peace. When the Chagan had agreed to conclude peace, the emperor went outside the Long Wall with the full imperial retinue and many costly gifts so as to meet the Chagan after receiving from him pledges that they would make a peace settlement with one another. But the barbarian, transgressing the agreements and oaths, suddenly attacked the emperor in a treacherous manner. Discomfited by this unexpected event, the emperor took to flight and returned to the City. As for the barbarian, he captured the imperial baggage and retinue and as many men as he could take by surprise (deceived as they were by the hope of peace) and returned home after devastating many villages of Thrace.
The same year [754/755] the Bulgarians asked for tribute because of the forts that had been built, and when the emperor [Constantine V] had treated their emissary dishonourably, they made a military expedition and came as far as the Long Walls in an advance on the Imperial City. After causing much destruction and taking many prisoners, they returned home unharmed.
From that time on the pious began to speak freely. God’s word spread about, those who sought salvation were able to renounce the world without hindrance, God’s praises rose up to heaven, the monasteries recovered, and all good things were manifested. During this year [780/781] a man who was digging by the Long Walls of Thrace found a coffin and, after cleaning it and removing its lid, he discovered a corpse inside and, engraved on the coffin, an inscription conceived as follows: “Christ will be born of the Virgin Mary and I believe in Him. Ο sun, you will see me again in the reign of Constantine and Irene.”
Solidus of Maurice
Solidus of Heraclius
From The Suda
The emperor Anastasios himself built the long wall 60 miles from the city, extending from the sea on the north to the south for a length of 50 miles and with a width of 20 feet; and he placed moles on the harbour of Julian. The same man also built the great dining hall, the one in Blachernai, which is called “Anastasian” even to this day; and the Mocisian cistern. (Translated by Jennifer Benedict)
Preliminary translation of the Evcik inscription by C. Mango
Ἀνένεοθι έπί Ἡράκ- | λιου το θεοστεφ- | ούς ἱμον δεσποτου κ- | ε Ζμαράγδου του ἑν- | δοξότατου κε πᾰνύφιμου πατρίκιου
“Renewed under Heraclius, our lord crowned by God, and Smaragdus the most glorious and most renowned patrician”.
The ruins of a Middle Byzantine church are around 10 meters from the cliffs of the Black Sea coast in Eastern Thrace. The church ruins are located at the northern end of the Long Wall at Evcik in the Province of Istanbul. Its identification as the Church of St. George comes from a list of Seven Wonders made in the late 15th century, where the Long Wall is described as running from the Sea of Marmara to the Church of St. George.
The Seven Wonders of Constantinople
Hagia Sophia
The Hippodrome
The Great Palace
The Kontoskalion
The Aqueduct
The [Theodosian] walls with the ditch
The [Anastasian] Long Wall from the sea [of Marmara] to the church of St George [at Evcik]
From the late 15th-century codex Matritensis graecus 86 (trans. Bardill)
Based on map by Bayliss (Long Wall in red, aqueducts in blue)
References
Crow, J. and Ricci, A. “Anastasian Wall Project 1995,” (Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies 22)
Crow, J. and Ricci, A. “Anastasian Wall Project 1996,” (Anatolian Archaeology 3)
Crow, J. and Ricci, A. “Investigating the Hinterland of Constantinople: Interim Report on the Anastasian Long Wall,” (Journal of Roman Archaeology 10)
Bayliss, B., Crow, J., Bono, P. and Ricci, A. “Anastasian Wall Project 1997,” (Anatolian Archaeology 5)
Bayliss, B., Crow, J. and Bono, P. “The Water Supply of Constantinople: archaeology and hydrogeology of an early medieval city,” (Environmental Geology 40)
Bayliss, B., Crow, J. and Bono, P. “The Water Supply of Constantinople,” (Anatolian Archaeology 7)
Bayliss, B., and Crow, J. “The Water Supply of Constantinople,” (Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies 29)
Crow, J. “The Water Supply of Constantinople,” (Anatolian Archaeology 10)
Bayliss, B., Crow, J. and Bono, P. “The Water Supply of Constantinople Survey 2001-2002,” (Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 21)
Crow, J. and Turner, S. “Silivri and the Thracian hinterland of Istanbul: an historic landscape,” (Anatolian Studies 59)
Bayliss R. “Archaeological survey and visualisation: the view from Byzantium,” (Lavan, L. and Bowden, W. Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology)
Crow, J. “Travels of an exarch: Smaragdus and the Anastasian Walls” from T. MacMaster and N. Matheou. Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean
Crow, J. “The Long Walls of Thrace,” (Mango, C. and G. Dagron, G. Constantinople and Its Hinterland)
Crow, J. and Ricci, A. “Anastasian Wall Project 1994,” (Anatolian Archaeology 1)
Croke, B. “The Date of the ‘Anastasian Long Wall’ in Thrace” (Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 23)
Whitby, M. “The Long Wall of Constantinople” (Byzantion 55.2)
Crow, J. “The Anastasian Wall” (Chronicles of Haemus 1)
Crow, J., Bardill, J. and Bayliss, R. The Water Supply of Byzantine Constantinople
Haarer, K. Anastasius I: Politics and Empire in the Late Roman World
Foss, C. and Winfield, D. Byzantine Fortifications: An Introduction
Kontogiannis, N. Byzantine Fortifications: Protecting the Roman Empire in the East
Millingen, A. Byzantine Constantinople: The Walls of the City and Adjoining Historical Sites
Kulzer, A.Tabula Imperii Byzantini 12: Ostthrakien
Snyder, R. Construction requirements of the Water Supply of Constantinople and Anastasian Wall (Unpublished PhD thesis)
Primary Sources
Dawes, E. (trans) Three Byzantine Saints: Contemporary Biographies of St. Daniel the Stylite, St. Theodore of Sykeon and St. John the Almsgiver
Croke, B. The Chronicle of Marcellinus
Frendo, J. (trans). The Histories of Agathias
Miller, D. and Sarris, P. (ed.) The Novels of Justinian: A Complete Annotated English Translation
Dewing, H. (trans.) The Buildings by Procopius
Whitby, M. (trans.) The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus
Jeffreys, E., Jeffreys, M. and Scott, R. (trans.) The Chronicle of John Malalas
Whitby, M. and Whitby, M. (ed.) The History of Theophylact Simocatta
Mango, C. and Scott, R. (trans.) The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor
Whitby, M. and Whitby, M. (trans.) Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD
Resources
Crow, J. “The Anastasian Wall” (Istanbul City Walls Project)
Long Wall of Thrace Album (Byzantine Legacy Flickr)
Church of St. George at Evcik Album (Byzantine Legacy Flickr)
Byzantine Thrace Album (Byzantine Legacy Flickr)
Hadrian's Wall (Following Hadrian)
Photos of Hadrian's Wall (Following Hadrian)
Anastasian Wall Project (SHCA University of Edinburgh [Wayback Machine])
