Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/43

 traces remained of the sacred edifices which had adorned old Byzantium.

After the age of Constantine the progress of New Rome as metropolis of the east was extremely rapid, the suburbs became densely populous, and in 413 Theodosius II gave a commission to Anthemius, the Praetorian Prefect, to build a new wall in advance of the old one nearly a mile further down the peninsula. The intramural space was thus increased by an area more than equal to half its former dimensions; and, with the exception of some small additions on the Propontis and the Golden Horn, this wall marked the utmost limit of Constantinople in ancient or modern times. In 447 a series of earthquakes, which lasted for three months, laid the greater part of the new wall in ruins, fifty-seven of the towers, according to one account, having collapsed during the period of commotion. This was the age of Attila and the Huns, to whom Theodosius, sooner than offer a military resistance, had already agreed to pay an annual tribute of seven hundred pounds of gold. With the rumour that the barbarians were approaching the undefended