The Suburbs and Fields adjoining were inclosed with Walls of such an immoderate Length, that they extended themselves from the City to the Distance of a two Days Journey. They were built by _Anastasius_ the Emperor to prevent the Incursions of the _Scythians_ and _Bulgarians_, reach’d from the _Black Sea_ to the _Propontis_, were forty thousand Paces remote from the City, and twenty _Roman_ Foot in Breadth. These Walls were often taken and batter’d by the barbarous Nations, but repair’d by _Justinian_; and that the Soldiers garrisoned there might defend them to the best Advantage, he order’d the Passages of one Tower to another to be stopp’d up, no Entrance being allow’d, but the Door at the Bottom of the Steps, by which it was ascended; so that by this means it was sufficiently guarded, though the Enemies Forces were in the Heart of the City. _Evagrius_ the sacred Historian tells us, that _Anastasius_ built the long Wall, which was two hundred and eighty Furlongs distant from the City, that it reach’d from Sea to Sea, was four hundred Furlongs in Length, that it was a good Security to those who sail’d out of the _Black Sea_ to the _Propontis_, and that it put a Stop to the Excursions of the barbarous Nations. _The End of the First Book._ [Illustration: Page Header Decoration] THE ANTIQUITIES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. BOOK II. CHAP. I. _Of the Buildings and Monuments of Old_ Byzantium _and_ Constantinople, _called_ New Rome. Having describ’d the Figure and Extent of the City, and having particularized the Situation of the _seven Hills_, I shall proceed to consider what Buildings and Monuments _Constantinople_ anciently had, or now has, and into how many _Wards_ it was divided. For when I accidentally fell upon this Division of the City into _Wards_, in an ancient _Manuscript_ written above one thousand Years ago, by a Gentleman more noble by his Birth than his Writings, I was in hopes, with some Ease, to have traced out the ancient City; but the barbarous _Mahometans_ have either so demolish’d those venerable and truly heroick Ornaments which distinguish’d it, to adorn their own paultry Houses, or entirely buried them in their own Ruins, that in very few Places you shall see any Remains of an old Foundation. I omit to mention the Fires and other Devastations, committed not only by the Savages of other Countries, but the great Havock lately made by the _Turks_ themselves, who for the last hundred Years have incessantly endeavour’d entirely to deface and destroy it, by building upon it in so different a Manner, that those who have formerly seen some parts of it, scarce know its ancient Situation. Consider farther the profound Ignorance of the _Greeks_ at present. There is scarce a Man of them who either knows, or has so much as an Inclination to know, where their _Antiquities_ are. Nay, their Priests are so heedless and negligent in this Respect, that they will not make the least Enquiry themselves