Of the Buildings of Justinian

by Procopius

He also very strongly rebuilt the entire circuit of the walls of Chalcis,[57] which had fallen into ruin down to its very foundation and was altogether indefensible, and he strengthened it with an outwork; he also restored all the other towns and forts in Syria in an admirable fashion.

Thus did the Emperor Justinian provide for the security of Syria; there is, too, in Phœnicia, by the side of Lebanon, a city named Palmyra, which was built in the desert in ancient times, and which was conveniently placed on the road by which our enemies the Saracens would enter our country. It was, indeed, originally built for this purpose; namely, in order to prevent the barbarians making unexpected inroads into the Roman territory. This place, which through lapse of time had become almost entirely deserted, was strongly fortified by the Emperor Justinian, who supplied it abundantly with water, and filled it with a garrison of soldiers, so as to check the inroads of the Saracens.

BOOK III.

I. The Emperor Justinian fortified the eastern country in the manner which I have described in a former part of this work. Now as I started from the Persian frontier in my description of his work upon the fortresses, I think it will be convenient to proceed from thence to that of Armenia, which skirts the Persian territory from the city of Amida as far as that of Theodosiopolis. Before describing the buildings in that quarter, I think it would be advisable to give some account of how our Emperor brought the Armenians out of a condition of danger and terror into their present state of settled security; for he did not preserve these his subjects by buildings alone, but also by his foresight in other matters, as I shall presently explain. To do this I must refer for a short time to ancient history.

In old times the Armenians had a king of their own nation, as we are told by the historians of remotest antiquity. When, however, Alexander of Macedon overthrew the King of Persia, the Persians remained quiet under his yoke, but the Parthians revolted against the Macedonians, conquered them in war, drove them out of their country, and pushed their frontier as far as the river Tigris. Subsequently the Persians remained subject to them for five hundred years, up to the time when Alexander, the son of Mamæa, ruled over the Romans. At this time one of the kings of the Parthians made his brother, named Arsaces, King of the Armenians, as the history of the Armenians tells us; for let no one suppose that the Arsacidæ are Armenians. Now for five hundred years there was peace between them in consequence of their relationship. The King of the Armenians dwelt in what is called Greater Armenia, having been from ancient times subject to the Emperor of the Romans; but afterwards one Arsaces, King of Armenia, had two sons, named Tigranes and Arsaces. When this King was about to die, he made a will by which he left the succession to his kingdom to both his sons, not dividing its power equally between them, but giving a fourfold greater share to Tigranes. The elder Arsaces, after making this division of his kingdom, passed away, but Arsaces his son, grieved and enraged at the inferiority of his position, laid the matter before the Roman Empire, hoping that by using all means in his power he might drive his brother from the kingdom, and render his father’s unjust wishes of no effect. At this time Theodosius, the son of Arcadius, ruled over the Romans, being still a child. Tigranes, fearing the Emperor’s vengeance, put himself in the hands of the Persians and handed over his kingdom to them, preferring to live as a private man amongst the Persians, rather than to make an equitable arrangement with his brother, and rule jointly over the Armenians with him in good faith and honour. Arsaces, being equally afraid of the attacks of the Persians and of his brother, abdicated his own kingdom in favour of the Emperor Theodosius, on certain conditions, which I have explained at length in my History of the Wars. For some time the country of the Armenians was an object of contention between the Romans and the Persians, but they finally agreed that the Persians should possess the share of Tigranes, and the Romans that of Arsaces. Both parties signed a treaty on these conditions, and henceforth the Emperor of the Romans appointed whom he pleased, and at what time he thought proper, to rule over the Armenians. This ruler was called the Count of Armenia down to my own time.

However, since such a kingdom as this was not capable of repelling the incursions of the enemy, because it possessed no regular army, the Emperor Justinian, perceiving that Armenia was always in a disorderly condition, and therefore was an easy prey to the barbarians, put an end to this form of government, and placed a general in command of the Armenians, giving him a sufficient number of regular soldiers to repel the invasions of the enemy. This was the arrangement which he adopted for what is called Greater Armenia; but the remainder of Armenia, that which reaches from this side of the river Euphrates as far as the city of Amida, was governed by five Armenian satraps, whose offices were hereditary and tenable for life; however, they received the insignia of their office from the hands of the Roman Emperor alone. It is worth while to explain what these insignia were, since they will never again be seen by men: they were a cloak made of wool, not such as grows on sheep, but such as is gathered from the sea. The animal on whom this wool grows is called ‘pinna.’ The cloak was of purple, covered with gold at that part where it was fastened together; there was a gold brooch upon the cloak, containing a precious stone, from which three amethysts were suspended by loose golden chains. The tunic was of silk, entirely covered with the golden ornaments known as ‘feather-work;’ the boots were red-coloured, reaching to the knee, such as it is not lawful for anyone to wear except the Roman Emperors and the Kings of Persia.

No Roman soldiers were ever employed either by the King of Armenia or the satraps, but they trusted exclusively to their own resources in war. In later times, however, during the reign of the Emperor Zeno, when Illus and Leontius openly revolted against the Emperor, certain of the satraps took their side; wherefore the Emperor Zeno, after his victory over Illus and Leontius, allowed one of the satraps, whose satrapy—that of the country called Belabitis—was the weakest and least important, to retain his former possession, but deposed all the others, and did not allow these governments any longer to be held by hereditary descent, but filled them by persons chosen by the Emperor, as is the custom with all the other Roman governments. Yet even then Roman soldiers were not placed in them, but Armenian soldiers, as had formerly been customary, and who were quite unable to defend them against the attacks of the enemy. Perceiving this, the Emperor Justinian abolished the title of satrap for all time to come, and appointed two rulers over these nations, with the title of Dukes, giving them a large number of regular Roman soldiers, in order that with them they might defend the Roman frontier. He also built for them strong places, as follows.

II. I shall begin with the country of Mesopotamia, in order to connect my account with what has been described above. He established one of these rulers of the Armenian tribes, who have the title of Duke, in the city which is called Martyropolis,[58] and the other in a fortress which is named Citharizon. I will now describe in what part of the Roman Empire these places are situated. The city of Martyropolis is situated in that part of Armenia which is called Sophanene, close to the river Nymphius, and bordering closely on the enemy’s country; for at that place the river Nymphius divides the Roman and Persian territory. Beyond the river lies the country named Arxanes, which from ancient times has belonged to the Persians. Yet this city was always neglected by the Romans, and lay exposed to the attacks of these barbarians; so that Cabades, the King of the Persians, in the reign of the Emperor Anastasius, invaded the country of the Romans, and led an army through Martyropolis, which is distant from Amida a little more than a day’s journey for a lightly equipped traveller. As a mere incident and unimportant part of his invasion he took this city without any siege, assault, or beleaguerment, but simply by giving out that he was coming; for the inhabitants, who knew well that they could not hold out for a single moment of time against his army, as soon as they saw the Median host near at hand, at once went over to Cabades, with Theodorus—who at that time was satrap of Sophanene—at their head, dressed in the insignia of his office, and delivered themselves and the city of Martyropolis up to him, taking with them the public revenue for two years. Cabades, pleased with this, refrained from ravaging the city and the entire country, which he regarded as part of the Persian Empire. He dismissed the people unhurt, and neither did any injury to them nor altered anything in their city, but replaced Theodorus—whom he regarded as a wise man—as satrap over them, placing in his hands the symbols of authority, and trusting him to protect the Persian territory. After this he led his army onwards, took Amida by a siege, and retired into the Persian territory, as I have described in my ‘History of the Wars.’ The Emperor Anastasius, perceiving that it was not possible for the city of Martyropolis to defend itself without any fortifications against the attacks of the enemy, not only was not angry with Theodorus and the people of Sophanene, but declared that he was very thankful to them for their action. The wall of the city of Martyropolis was in thickness about four feet, and in height about twenty feet; so that it could not only be easily captured by an enemy, who employed siege operations and brought battering engines against it, but could easily be escaladed.

In consequence of this, the Emperor Justinian proceeded as follows. He dug a trench outside the walls, laid foundations in it, and built a new wall of a thickness of four feet, at a distance of four feet from the old wall. He raised this wall also to a height of twenty feet, making it in all respects equal in size to the old one; he then filled up the space between the two walls with stones and mortar, thus forming the whole work into one wall twelve feet in thickness. He then raised it, keeping the thickness the same, to a height twice as great as that which it formerly possessed; moreover, he built an admirable outwork round the city, and built all the other defences of a fortified place.

III. On the west side of Martyropolis is a place named Phison, which also is situated in that part of Armenia which is called Sophanene, and is distant from Martyropolis a little more than one day’s journey. About eight miles beyond this place lie precipitous and altogether impassable mountains, between which are two narrow passes, situated close to one another, which are called Clisuræ. Travellers from Persian Armenia to Sophanene, whether they proceed from the Persian territory or by way of the fortress of Citharizon, must necessarily proceed through these two passes, of which the one is called by the natives Illyrisis, and the other Saphchæ. Each of these ought to be fortified with the utmost care, in order to bar the way against the enemy; in former times, however, they remained entirely unguarded. But the Emperor Justinian, by placing admirable fortifications both at Phison and in the passes, and by establishing sufficient garrisons in them, rendered it altogether impossible for the barbarians to invade the country. These were the works of the Emperor Justinian in that part of the country of Armenia which is called Sophanene.