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many ancient cultures like to build
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walls with the goal of Defending Their
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Kingdoms or Empires against foreign
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Invaders the most impressive example is
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quite likely the Chinese wall which
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actually is a series of multiple
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different walls which were built
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throughout various stages of the Chinese
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kingdoms and
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Empire the earliest portions were built
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as early as the 5th Century BC whereas
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the latest portions were built as late
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as the early to mid 17th century ad but
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there are plenty of other examples of
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long fortification walls the Sumerians
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already built a 100 mile long wall in
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the 21st century BC 4,000 years ago even
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the Persians built a wall around the 5th
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Century ad which stretched for over 120
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M or 200 km which came to be known as
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The Great Wall of Gorgon I'm sure there
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are many more examples of impressive
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fortification walls from Antiquity but
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listing them all would probably take an
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entire video and so it is no wonder that
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the Romans too really like to build
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Great Walls some of the most famous ones
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are probably Hadrian's Wall in Northern
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Britain built on orders of Emperor
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hadrien from 122 ad onwards and there is
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also the Lesser known antonine wall
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begun on orders of emperor antoninus in
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ad42 then there is also the Roman lemus
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in today's Southwestern Germany which
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was strictly speaking not a wall but a
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series of ditches ramparts wall sections
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watchtowers and legionary forts
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stretching over a length of about 180 km
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and of course the Romans built very
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impressive City walls such as the
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imposing aelan walls of Rome that are
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still standing to this day in many parts
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of the City and of course the almost
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impregnable theodosian walls of
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Constantinople which had made
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Constantinople an incredible ballark of
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a city thus allowing it to be
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successfully defended against many
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Invaders but a Roman fortification wall
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that has been almost completely
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forgotten is the anastasian
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wall if you happen to be in turkey and
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you drive about 65 km or 4 4 m to the
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west of Istanbul then you will find
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especially towards the Black Sea Coast
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quite well preserved remnant of a wall
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which must have been quite impressive in
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its prime in its Zenith this wall
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boasted a total length of 56 km or 35 Mi
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had a thickness of 3.3 M or 11 ft and a
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height of an average 5 m or 16 ft to put
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this into perspective this was about
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half the length of Hadrian's Wall but it
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was 1 M or 3 ft thicker and over 1 M or
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3 ft taller than Hadrian's Wall
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according to procopius it took 2 days to
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travel from one end of the anastasian
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wall to the other on its top was a
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continuous walkway equipped on both
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sides with battlements serving as
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parapets in front of the wall a ditch
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was dug on the enemy side as an obstacle
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to approaching forces like the older
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City walls of Constantinople the wall
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had Towers placed in regular intervals
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and these towers had either a
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rectangular or a pentagonal base the
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structure itself was built with
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regularly arranged layers of bricks and
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stones small fortresses were spaced 3.5
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km apart along the length of the entire
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wall and housed the guard units in the
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central sector of the wall was also a
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large Fort measuring 250X 300 M so we
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are talking about a quite formidable
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fortification wall which could rival
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even the most impressive walls which the
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Romans had built in their Prime and now
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to something different the spqr shop
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they make amazing Rings amazing pendants
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attributes Terra cotas coin replicas
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they make a lot of wonderful replicas of
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Roman items and it's all 100 100%
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handcrafted let me tell you the level of
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craftsmanship is absolutely incredible
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you can even buy the one and only
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mayanos ring and you can only get it on
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the spqr shop but there are of course
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many other rings and amazing items that
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the spqr shop crafts with an incredible
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attention to detail and with a code in
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the description you will get a 20% I
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repeat a 20% price reduction on every
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purchase on the spqr shop so don't hesit
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and buy something nice for you or
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someone else as a present who also
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happens to like Roman history thanks for
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your attention and back to the
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video but when was this wall built well
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as the name implies most likely during
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the reign of the emperor anastasius
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I some even believe that sections of the
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wall might have been built before that
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in the Vita of St Daniel the stylight
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from the time of emper Leo the as well
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as in a fragment from the historical
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work of the historian malos from the
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late 5th Century there is also mention
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of a long
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wall however in Antiquity several such
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structures existed much earlier such
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just the famous defensive wall of the
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harbor facilities of Athens in pus and
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feron the galipoli peninsula was
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protected from the mainland by a
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defensive wall known as the konus wall
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which was already constructed in the
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late 6th Century BC under miltiades the
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Elder it is likely that the references
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in the vaita of Daniel and by malos
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refer to this previously existing
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structure Constantinople was attacked
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and besieged several times in the fifth
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century but outlying walls were not
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mentioned by contemporary sources the
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situation was different though around
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the year 500 when the wall of anastasius
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repeatedly played a crucial role in the
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accounts of
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chroniclers archaeological
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investigations have clearly demonstrated
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that this wall dates back to the time of
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anastasius anastasius dissolved the
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dicese of thce and placed the area
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between the wall and Constantinople
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under the authority of two vicari
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officials of the Civil Administration
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who were subordinate to the Pectus proro
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orientis however the division of
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oversight between the two vicari did not
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prove successful in the long run as in
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535 Justinian established the office of
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a pror justinianus in thce thus ending
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again the office of the two vicari not
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long after it had been established by
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anastasius additionally some fortresses
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and cities on the Black Sea Coast and
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the lower danu were rebuilt or
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reinforced as mentioned by procopius of
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kaisera in his work on
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buildings due to its extraordinary
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length it was according to procopius
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very difficult to man the entire length
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of the wall for this reason he praised
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Emperor Justinian in his work for having
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strengthened the guard forces
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nevertheless the Proto bulgarians and
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kgor managed to overcome it without much
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effort in 54 and 559 respectively as the
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Empire suffered from a chronic shortage
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of trained soldiers especially after the
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justinianic plague of 541 and following
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years and in addition an earthquake in
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557 had caused significant damage to the
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wall despite the apparent haste in its
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construction the walls execution meets
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the usual quality standards for late
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antique Roman fortifications as
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evidenced by the inner side that had
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been manufactured by very even
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rectangular stone blocks in 558 it was
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thanks to the masterful Strategic skill
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of flavius belisarius that the emperor
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was spared a catastrophic defeat when in
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his last official act as a general he
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saved the city of Constantinople from a
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katri Invasion but unfortunately in this
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Cur Invasion the n wall proved to be not
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extremely effective because as we
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mentioned before it had been damaged by
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earthquakes in
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557 so after this Justinian personally
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traveled to Cumbria a town directly at
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the southern end of the anastasian wall
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in order to oversee the Reconstruction
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of the long wall himself this indicates
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that the wall held great importance for
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him as the emperor was known to rarely
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leave
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Constantinople later from 500 77 to
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619 attacks by the avars and slaves on
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the wall were repeatedly repelled and in
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the last video I talked about how the
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excubitor under Emperor Maurice
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heroically defended the wall against the
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avars in
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598 however in
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626 the wall was overrun by the avars as
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almost the entire Eastern Roman army
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under Emperor hercus was on a campaign
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against against the Persians this was
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really unfortunate timing and we can
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assume that in that year the wall was
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minimally defended with very few guards
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stationed there the avars then proceeded
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and laid Siege to Constantinople but
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were ultimately repelled with the
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mobilization of all available forces
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although the wall of Anastasia was
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repeatedly mentioned in later sources
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and apparently continued to be
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maintained it seems to have played
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little role in the defense of the
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capital in the following decades so at
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some point in the later 7th Century it
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was finally abandoned as it proved to be
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too ineffective overall and due to the
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increasingly scarce resources of the
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Empire no Personnel or funds could be
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allocated for its upkeep so after the
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8th Century the wall was increasingly
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used as a quarry by the surrounding
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population which sign significantly
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accelerated its
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Decay so this wall too like all other
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great walls that had been built
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throughout human history ultimately
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proved ineffective in decisively
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repelling incoming attacks over the
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course of many centuries for as soon as
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the empires that had built these walls
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faced trouble elsewhere Manning and
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upkeeping these walls would prove more
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and more difficult and so foreign
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Invaders were ultimately able to storm
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them at some point and yet the
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anastasian wall remains until this very
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day a testament to the power and
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Ingenuity of the Eastern Romans and
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their impressive defensive abilities
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rivaling in their scale and precision
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even the construction works of the old
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Romans centuries before
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them if you like this video please
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consider supporting this channel via
00:11:57
patreon or via a YouTube membership
00:11:58
because it is your support which makes
00:12:01
this channel possible and I would
00:12:03
especially like to thank our new Soul
00:12:04
invictor supporter Kyle how thank you so
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much Kyle how for supporting this
00:12:09
channel in such a generous way I really
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can thank you enough and I would also
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like to thank our two new kisaw
00:12:15
supporters Frank daai and Jack Barry
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thank you so much Frank daai and Jack
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Barry for supporting my oranos I really
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appreciate it a lot and if you want to
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learn more about the excubitor and their
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epic fight to defend the anastasian war
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wall you can watch this video in the
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upper right corner but if you want to
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learn why the Eastern Roman Empire
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survived so much longer than the Western
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one you can watch the other video in the
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lower right corner I say thanks again to
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all friends of Roman history graas Tiago
00:12:44
and benal
