Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/51

 *fenders of the city during a siege: from hence mainly they launch their missiles against the enemy or engage them in a hand-to-hand fight should they succeed in crossing the moat and planting their scaling-ladders against the wall.

(3) Bounding the peribolos posteriorly lies the main land-*wall of Constantinople, the great and indisputable work of Theodosius II. In architectural configuration it is almost similar to the outer wall, but its height is much greater, and its towers, placed so as to alternate with the smaller ones in front, occupy more than four times as much ground. Built as separate structures, but adherent to the wall behind, they rise above it and project forwards into the interspace for more than half its breadth. Most of the towers are square, but those of circular or octagonal shape are not infrequent. In level places offering facilities for attack the wall has a general height of seventy feet, but in less accessible situations, on rising or rugged ground, it attains to little more than half that elevation. As in the case of the outer defences, the wall and towers are crested by an uninterrupted series of crenated battlements.

The towers are entered from the city at the back, and within each one is a winding stone staircase leading to the top. Here, sheltered by the parapet, there is room for sixty or seventy men to assail an enemy with darts or engines of war. There is also a lower floor from which a further body of soldiers can act on the offensive by means of front and side windows or loopholes. At intervals certain of the towers have an exit on the peribolos for the use of those militants have their station on that rampart. In time of peace

etc.]
 * [Footnote: about fifty feet behind in the city. See Middleton's Ancient Rome,