Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/44

 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, 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, by the Byzantine historians, and by the practice of antiquity in times of impending hostility. ), 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.]*