(5) The next repairs on record were executed early in the eighth century, in view of the formidable preparations made by the Saracens for a second attack upon Constantinople. Anastasius II. then strengthened the land walls, as well as the other fortifications of the city;[[402]] and thus contributed to the signal repulse of the enemy in 718 by Leo the Isaurian, at that great crisis in the history of Christendom.
(6) Repairs were again demanded in 740, in the reign of Leo the Isaurian, owing to the injuries caused by a long series of earthquakes during eleven months. So extensive was the work of restoration required, that to provide the necessary funds Leo was obliged to increase the taxes.[[403]]
Several inscriptions commemorating the repairs executed by that emperor, in conjunction with his son and colleague Constantine Copronymus, have been found upon towers of the Inner Wall.
(a) One stood on the seventh tower north of the Sea of Marmora:
† ΛΕΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΩ ΣΚΗΠΤΟΥΧΟΙ ΤΟΝΔΕ
ΗΓΕΙΡΑΝ ΠΥΡΓΟΝ ΤΩΝ ΒΑΘΡΩΝ ΣΥΜΠΤΩΘΕΝΤΑ †
“Leo with Constantine, wielders of the sceptre, erected from the foundations this tower which had fallen.”
(b) Another was placed on the ninth tower north of the Golden Gate, in letters formed of brick:
ΙΣ | ΧΣ
—--|-—-