Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  [6] [1] And there was a Roman fortress beside the Euphrates River on the frontier of Mesopotamia at the point where the Aborrhas River mingles with the Euphrates, into which it empties. [2] This is called Circesium, and was built by Emperor Diocletian in ancient times. [3] And our present Emperor Justinian, finding it dilapidated through the passage of time and neglected besides and in general unguarded, transformed it into a very strong fortress and brought it about that it became a city conspicuous for its size and beauty. [4] For Diocletian, when he constructed this fortress, did not surround it with a wall on all sides, but carried out the construction of the circuit-wall only as far as the River Euphrates, and he finished off the work at each of the two ends with a terminal tower, but after that he left that side of the site wholly unwalled, believing, I suppose, that the water of the river would serve as a protection for the fort on that side. [5] However, as time went on, the terminal tower which faced toward the south was undermined by the ceaseless wash of the water, and entirely wrecked, and it became evident that, unless someone brought help with the greatest speed, it would collapse immediately. [6] Then appeared the Emperor Justinian, entrusted by God with this commission, to watch over the whole Roman Empire and, so far as was possible, to remake it. [7] Indeed he not only preserved the damaged tower by rebuilding it with hard stone, such as would be suitable for making mill-stones, but he also enclosed the entire unwalled side of the fortress with a wall of the greatest strength, thus doubling its stability by adding the protection given by the circuit-wall to that afforded by the river. [8] In addition to this, he added very strong outworks to the defences of the city, and especially where the junction of the two rivers forms a triangle he thus made any attack by the enemy impossible. [9] And he stationed here a commander of select troops, one whom they call a Duke or “leader,” who was to be stationed there permanently, and he thus constituted the place an adequate bulwark of the government of the State. [10] The bath, too, which serves the common use of all the people living in the city, had become entirely useless because of the incursion of the river, with the result that it was no longer capable of providing its usual service; and so he transformed it to its present state of splendour. [11] For all the receptacles which previously were poised on solid masonry and were destined to serve the purposes of the bath (it is beneath these that fire is kept burning, and they are wont to call them cauldrons) — all these, he found, had already been exposed to the invasion of the water, and consequently the bath had been rendered useless; so he strengthened with courses of stone all that had formerly been poised there, as I have explained, and built another structure above it, where the river cannot reach it, and thus he restored to the troops there the enjoyment which they gained from the bath. In such a way was the work at Circesium carried out by this Emperor.

  [12] Beyond Circesium is an ancient fort, Annoucas by name, whose wall, which he found a ruin, the Emperor Justinian rebuilt in such magnificent style that thereafter it took second place in point of strength to no single one of the most notable cities. [13] In the same way those forts which lie about the city of Theodosiopolis, some of which had previously been without walls, while some were walled with mud and the ridiculous construction that goes with mud-work, like a wall made of loose stones, he made truly formidable, as they now are, and altogether unapproachable for their assailants; [14] these include Magdalathôn with two others which chance to be on either side of it, and two named Thannourios, one large and one small, and Vimisdeôn, and Themeres, as well as Vidamas, Dausarôn, Thiolla, Phichas and Zamarthas, and, one may say, all the rest. [15] And there was a certain spot near the larger Thannourios at which the hostile Saracens, after crossing the Aborrhas River, had complete freedom to resort, and making that their headquarters they would scatter through the thick leafy forest and over the mountain which rises there, and then they would descend with impunity upon the Romans who lived in the places round about. [16] But now the Emperor Justinian has built a very large tower of hard stone at this point, in which he has established a very considerable garrison, and thus has succeeded completely in checking the inroads of the enemy by devising this bulwark against them.

  [7] [1] Such were the works of the Emperor Justinian in Mesopotamia. And it is necessary for me at this point in my narrative to mention Edessa and Carrhae and Callinicum and all the other towns which chance to lie in that region, for these too are situated between the two rivers. [2] The city of Edessa is situated on a river of small volume, Scirtus by name, which collects its water from a wide area and flows into the middle of the city. [3] And after leaving the city, it flows on further, after it has furnished the city with an abundant supply, effecting its entrance and its exit through channels in the wall constructed by men of former times. [4] On one occasion this river, swollen by heavy rains, rose to an altogether extraordinary height and came upon the city as if bent on destroying it. [5] Consequently it levelled to the ground a large part of the outworks and of the circuit-wall and covered practically the whole city, doing irreparable damage. For in a moment it wiped out completely the finest of the buildings and caused the death of one third of the population. [6] But the Emperor Justinian immediately not only restored all the ruined parts of the city, including the church of the Christians and the structure called Antiphorus, but also made effective provision that such a calamity should not occur again. [7] For he succeeded in making a new channel for the river before the circuit-wall, circumventing it by the following device. [8] The land on the right of the river was formerly both flat and low, while on the left stood a steep hill, which did not permit the stream to turn aside at all or deviate from its customary course, but drove it against the city by sheer compulsion; for on the right there was nothing to check it when it rushed straight towards the city. [9] So he cut down this whole hill, and while making the land on the left of the river hollow deeper than its own bed, on the right he set up a huge wall of stones, each a load for a waggon, so that as long as the river flowed with its usual temperate stream, the city would never be deprived of its benefit, but whenever by any chance it rose to a great height and overflowed, a moderate portion of it would flow as usual into the city, while the excess of the stream would pass under constraint into the channel devised by Justinian and be led behind the hippodrome which is not far away, thus being vanquished, contrary to all expectation, by human skill and foresight. [10] In addition to this, he also compelled the river to follow a practically straight course after it gets inside the city, and above it he raised a structure resting on either bank so that it could not be diverted from its course, and he thus not only preserved the benefit which the city gained from the river, but also freed the city from the fear of it. [11] Moreover, it happened that the main wall of Edessa and its outworks had suffered from the passage of time no less than they had from the flood and for the most part were fit only to be called ruins. [12] Therefore the Emperor rebuilt both of them and made them new and much stronger than they had been formerly. [13] And a certain section of the circuit-wall of Edessa contains a fort outside of which rose a hill, which stood very close by and commanded the city spread out beneath it. [14] The inhabitants of early times, perceiving that this hill constituted a threat to the city-wall, had brought it inside the circuit-wall, so that it might not render the city vulnerable. [15] But by this they caused the city to be actually much more vulnerable, for a very small cross-wall, lying on the exposed ground, was an easy thing to capture even for children playing at storming a wall. [16] So after this had been torn down, another wall was built on the crest of the hill, the work of the Emperor Justinian, which did not have to fear any attack to be made from a higher position, and this descended along the slope as far as the level ground at either end and was joined to the circuit-wall.

  [17] Furthermore, he also took down the walls and the outworks of Carrhae and of the city of Callinicum, which were falling into ruin because of their great age, and once more made them, as they now are, entire and completely invulnerable. [18] He a
lso surrounded with very strong walls the fortress at Batnae which previously had been unwalled and neglected, and transformed it into the fine condition in which it is now seen.

  [8] [1] So these structures were erected by the Emperor Justinian in the manner which I have described in Mesopotamia and in Osroenê, as it is called. [2] And I shall describe the fashion in which his work was carried out on the right of the Euphrates River. [3] The other boundaries between the Romans and the Persians are in general of such a sort that the territories of the two peoples are adjacent to each other, and both peoples push out from their own territory and either fight with each other or compose their differences, as people will whenever nations differing in customs and in government hold any land on a common boundary. [4] However, in the territory anciently called Commagenê, but now known as Euphratesia, they do not live close to each other at all. For a land which is altogether bare and unproductive separates the Roman and the Persian territory for a great distance, and this contains nothing worth fighting for. [5] Both of them, however, have built forts carelessly of unbaked brick in the desert which chances to lie nearest to the land which they inhabit; [6] these forts never suffered attack from their neighbours, for both peoples lived there without enmity, since they possessed nothing which their adversaries might desire. [7] The Emperor Diocletian had built three forts, such as I have described, in this desert, one of which, Mambri by name, had fallen into decay in the long course of time and was restored by the Emperor Justinian.

  [8] At a distance of •about five miles from this fort on the road to Roman territory, Zenobia, wife of Odonathus, who was ruler of the Saracens in that district, once founded a small city in earlier times and gave her name to it; [9] for the name she gave it was Zenobia, as was fitting. But the long period of time that had elapsed since those events had reduced its circuit-wall to a ruin, since the Romans were quite unwilling to take care of it, and thus it had come to be altogether destitute of inhabitants. [10] So it was possible for the Persians freely, whenever they wished, to get into the middle of Roman territory before the Romans had word of the hostile inroad. [11] But the Emperor Justinian rebuilt Zenobia completely and he filled it quite full of inhabitants, and he stationed there a commander of select troops and a thoroughly adequate garrison, and made it a bulwark of the Roman Empire and a frontier barrier against the Persians; [12] indeed he did not simply restore its previous form, but he actually made it very much stronger than it was before. [13] It is surrounded by cliffs which stand very close to the city, and for this reason it was possible for the enemy to shoot down from their summits upon the heads of the defenders of the circuit-wall. [14] This he was anxious to prevent, and so he built a certain additional structure on the top of the circuit-wall, at precisely the place where the cliffs are nearest, designed to serve permanently as a shelter for the men fighting there. Such a structure they call “wings” (ptera), because it appears to droop, as it were, from the wall. [15] However, it is impossible to describe all that the Emperor accomplished at Zenobia, since, seeing that it occupies a site far removed from any neighbour and on this account is sure to be always in danger, and that it is unable to secure succour because there are no Romans who live near at hand, the Emperor considered the city worthy, as well he might, of his unceasing attention above all other places. Nevertheless I shall describe a few of the things that were done there.

  [16] By the side of Zenobia flows the Euphrates River, passing to the east of it and coming very close to the circuit-wall on that side; but since high mountains rise beside the river at this point, the stream cannot spread out at all, but by reason of the proximity of these mountains and because it is constrained by its banks, which are hard, it would gather its stream into an extraordinarily narrow space whenever it chanced that rains caused it to rise in flood, and would pour out against the wall and immediately rise, not only about the foundations but even as far as the battlements. [17] And when the wall had once been soaked through by the water, the result was that the river loosened the courses of stones and thereafter the wall stood upon a dangerous conglomeration of stones. [18] But he constructed a huge protective wall (probolos) of hard stone of equal length with the circuit-wall, and caused this to check at that point the turbulence of the river when it rose, and so freed the wall entirely from harm from this source, even should the river rise to a great height in its most violent state. [19] He also found that portion of the city’s circuit-wall which faces the north dangerously weakened by the passage of time; so he first took it down, along with the outworks, clear to the ground, and then rebuilt it, yet not as it had been before, for at that point the buildings of the city had been especially crowded, causing trouble to those who lived there. [20] But he went beyond the place where the foundations of the circuit-wall and the outworks had formerly stood, even beyond the moat itself, and there he built the wall, which is a remarkable sight in itself and exceptionally beautiful, thus materially increasing the area of Zenobia. [21] Furthermore, a certain hill stood very close to the city on the side toward the west, from which it was possible for the barbarians, whenever they attacked the city, to shoot down with impunity upon the heads of the defenders, and even upon the heads of those who stood in the middle of the city. [22] So the Emperor Justinian connected the fortifications with this hill on both sides, and thus brought it inside Zenobia; and he escarped the whole hill throughout, so that no one might climb it to work harm from there, and placed another fortification on its summit and thus made the city altogether inaccessible to those who wished to assault it. [23] For beyond the hill it chances that the ground is very low and for this reason it is impossible for the enemy to approach it at all closely. [24] And immediately above the depression rise the mountains which face toward the west. Yet this Emperor did not provide only for the safety of this city, but he erected churches there and barracks for the military forces; [25] nay more, he added to it public baths and stoas. For all these operations the master-builders Isidorus and John gave their assistance — John a Byzantine and Isidorus a Milesian by birth, nephew of the Isidorus whom I have mentioned before. Both of them were young men, but they displayed a natural ability beyond their years, and they had come to their full maturity with their experience in the Emperor’s undertakings.

  [9] [1] After Zenobia is the fortress of Sura, situated on the Euphrates River, which had such contemptible defences that when Chosroes, on one occasion, attacked, it did not hold him off for so much as a half-hour, but was captured immediately by the Persians. [2] This too, like Callinicum, was rebuilt by the Emperor Justinian, who surrounded the entire fortress with a very stout wall, which he strengthened by outworks and thus brought it about that it should no longer yield to the enemy’s assaults.

  [3] There is a certain church in Euphratesia, dedicated to Sergius, a famous saint, whom men of former times used to worship and revere, so that they named the place Sergiopolis, and they had surrounded it with a very humble wall, just sufficient to prevent the Saracens of the region from capturing it by storm. [4] For the Saracens are naturally incapable of storming a wall, and the weakest kind of barricade, put together with perhaps nothing but mud, is sufficient to check their assault. [5] At a later time, however, this church, through its acquisition of treasures, came to be powerful and celebrated. [6] And the Emperor Justinian, upon considering this situation, at once gave it careful attention, and he surrounded the church with a most remarkable wall, and he stored up a great quantity of water and thus provided the inhabitants with a bountiful supply. [7] Furthermore, he added to the place houses and stoas and the other buildings which are wont to be the adornments of a city. [8] Besides this he established there a garrison of soldiers who, in case of need, defended the circuit-wall. [9] Chosroes, indeed, the King of the Persians, made a great effort to capture the city, sending a great army to besiege it; but because of the strength of the defences he accomplished nothing and abandoned the investment.

  [10] The Emperor bestowed the same careful attention on all the t
owns and forts which lie on the farthest borders of Euphratesia, namely Barbalissus and Neocaesarea, and Gaboulôn, as it is called, and the Pentacomia which is on the Euphrates River, and Europus. Also he found the walls of the place called Hemerium to be in part carelessly built and of unsafe construction and in part actually to consist of nothing but mud, while the place suffered from great scarcity of water, so that it was in every way an object of contempt to the enemy; so he razed it to the ground and immediately rebuilt it all carefully with courses of very hard stone, rightly giving the work generous proportions of both breadth and height, and he fashioned many cisterns for water in all parts of the defences, filling all these amply with rain-water; moreover, he established a large garrison there and so brought about the state of security which we now see there, and made the city’s dominance sure. [11] And if one should consider these fortresses very carefully, disregarding all the other useful works of the Emperor Justinian, he would say that it was solely for this purpose that he succeeded to the imperial power, since God unceasingly provides for the safety of the Roman people.