The charge of keeping the fortifications in repair was given to special officers, known under the titles, Domestic of the Walls (ὁ Δομέστικος τῶν Τειχέων),[[392]] Governor of the Wall (Ἄρχων τοῦ Τείχους),[[393]] Count of the Walls (Κόμης τῶν Τειχέων).[[394]]
(1) The earliest record of repairs is, probably, the Latin inscription on the lintel of the inner gateway of the Porta of the Pempton. It reads:
PORTARUM VALID † DO FIRMAVIT LIMINE MUROS
PUSAEUS MAGNO NON MINOR ANTHEMIO.
The age of the inscription cannot be precisely determined, but the employment of Latin, the Gothic form of the D in the word valido, the allusion to Anthemius, and the situation of the legend upon the Inner Wall, taken together, point to an early date.
Inscriptions on the Gate of Rhegium.
From the statement of the inscription it would seem that soon after the erection of the wall by Anthemius, either this gate or all the gates in the line of the new fortifications had to be strengthened. The only Pusæus known in history who could have presumed to compare himself with Anthemius was consul in 467, in the reign of Leo I.[[395]] There may, however, have been an earlier personage of that name.
(2) A considerable portion of the Inner Wall (τὰ ἔσω τείχη) was injured by an earthquake in 578, the fourth year of the reign of Zeno;[[396]] but no record of the repairs executed in consequence of the disaster has been preserved.
(3) The frequent shocks of earthquake felt in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian the Great damaged the walls on, at least, three occasions; in 542 and 554, when the injury done was most serious in the neighbourhood of the Golden Gate;[[397]] and again in 558, when both the Constantinian and the Theodosian Walls were rudely shaken, the latter suffering chiefly in the portion between the Golden Gate and the Porta Rhousiou.[[398]] So great was the damage sustained by the city and vicinity on the last occasion that for thirty days the emperor refused to wear his crown.