Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-12-26
constantinople's Old Walls.

under Mahammed IL, the conqueror,
stormed the great city which has since
then been their capital, as for a thou
sand years and more before it was the
capital of the Roman empire In
those days il was a vast fortified
camp, the strongest fortress in the
world, as it was the greatest city, inn
pregnable so long as if was adequate
! ~ sarrisoned. That was not the case
in 1853; 5000 men could not maintain
nearly IA miles of walls against the
attack of 10000, supported by such an
artillery train as had never previously
been gathered together. Since 1453 the
city has never been actually besieged,
| though more than once threatened.
The mighty walls which for a thous-
ard years held every adversary at bay
were allowed to decay and are now in
ruins.
In $50 Constantine the Great estab-
lished and renamed the city of Byzas
as the new capital of the Roman en-
pire. The population of Constantine's
city soon outgrew the bounds that he
had laid down, and in 413 Anthemius,
the city perfect. statesman, financier,
administrator and military reformer.
raised the first great Theodosian ram
part more than a mile in advance of
that of Constantine.
In AL in the stress of the disastrous
war with Attila an earthquake fell on
Constantine City. overthrow the wall,
and shattered 81 of the towers. The
danger was imminent. The Huns were
in Thrace. The Illyrian provinces had
been wasted from sea to sea. Three
Roman armies had persisted in the at
tempt to hold back. the raging torrent
of Mongol savagery, and Attila, the
"scource of Cod the dread of the
world" was advancing against the
city. Hope there seemed none, but
Constantinople rose grandly to the oc-
casion. Every craftsman in the city
was set to work on the task of restor-
alton; $1,000 citizens served as labor
ers in 90 DAYS the fallen wall had
risen anew. and second line of de-
Tense had been constructed in advance
of it. 1t was indeed wonderful
achievement. On the gate called an
GENTLY Of Rhegium we may read to
this day the simple, proud inscription
which proclaims it to the world: In
go days, by command Of the sceptered
emperor, Konstantinos the Eparch
added wall to WALL
In the succeeding years the work
was completed; the gigantic moat with
its solid embattled scarp. its counter
searp, and dams was eXcavated The
sea walls We're constructed, and when
Ayar and Persian and Saracen began
to beat at Its gates the citadel of the
Roman empire was indeed mighty.
The enemy who came from the side of
Europe was faced by three, or even
four. successive lines of defense. First
came the moat. go feet wide and prob
ably 20 feet deep. with on the further
side masonry scarp topped by solid
stone wall or breastworks some six
| feet or seven feet high, from behind
which arehers and singers could fire
| directly across the ditch The solid
| stone bridges which spanned the latter
were broken down in times of siege
| the great civil gates closed or walled
up. and only the narrower military
gates Which gave access to the es-
pianade behind the breastwork were
used.
This outward esplanade, anciently
known as the Para teichon, is about 40
feet wide. Along its inner side stood
the second wall. fearfully shattered by
the Turkish canronade in 1853, and to-
day largely heaps of ruins. 1t stood
originally about % feet to 30 feet high.
Its solid thickness was about seven
feet, but on its inner side the earth
was banked up against it to within
about Il feet from the top, and the
portion rising above the esplanade
thus formed was strengthened by case
ments of masonry, with loopholes for
archery pierced in the thickness of the
frontal wall. The whole was but
tressed by some 100 towers ranging
from 80 feet to 35 feet in height from
the Parateichon, and usually about 16
feet or Is feet in diameter
The inner and higher esplanade was
known as the Peribolos, or inclosure
il averaged about 60 feet in width. on
it's inner side was the first OF great
wall, a huge barrier rising As feet from
the level of the esplanade and to con-
siderably more on each flank of the
towers. where it was carried up to
protect the stairways which gave ae-
cess to their tops. This wall had a
solid thickness of Is feet, increased in
many places To over 20 feet by the
|staircases which led up to the platforms
There were 81 thanking towers about
60 feet high, projecting from IS to 80
feet into the Peribolos. chiefly of
square or octagonal shape.
This vast bulwark of wall and moat
did not quite cover the land front of
the city, but ended at the hill of
Blachernae, quarter of a mile from
the golden Horn. In front of this hill
which formed a vast natural platform
and embankment to it, a single wall
entends to the Xylo- Portia on the
Golden Horn. This wall though never
apparently covered by any ditch, is in
itself immensely strong, and backed
up as it is by a hill. was judged by the
Turks in 1853 too strong to be at
tackled. Successive emperors gave their
attention To the fertilization of this
quarter, and in some places the ram
part is nearly 20 feet high and So to
60 feet thick.
Thus during the eight centuries of
its pride was the city of Constantine
guarded from attack. Before that vast
buiwark in their myriads lie the bodies
of Huns, Stays and Ayars, of Saracens
and Eulgarldns, of Magyars and of