55
And having begun the work, he now has spent much time on it; which I know well that he will bring to completion not much later, judging by the fact that God helps him in all 5.3.11 his works. Therefore no design of his has remained unaccomplished up to the present time, although at the beginning most of them seemed to be attempts at the impossible. 5.3.12 There is a certain road in Bithynia for one going from here into the lands of the Phrygians, where it happened that countless men and other animals 5.3.13 perished in the winter season; for the land being exceedingly earthy, not only when prodigious rains broke forth or much snow had fallen and melted in the end, but also if it chanced that even drizzles fell, it formed a deep and impassable mire, and making the roads swampy, it for the most part drowned those going that way. 5.3.14 But this danger he himself, with magnanimity of soul, and the Empress Theodora 5.3.15 removed for travelers. For for a distance of a half-day's journey for an unencumbered man, they made a covering for the highway with very large stones, and arranged for those going that way to pass over a solid road. These things were accomplished in this way by the Emperor Justinian. 5.3.16 Springs of naturally hot waters gush 5.3.17 up in Bithynia in a place which they call Pythia. Many others have these for their comfort, and especially the people of Byzantium, 5.3.18 particularly those who happen to be sickly. There he has displayed a magnificence befitting an emperor; for he built a palace where none existed before and has made a public bath of the hot waters that spring up there. 5.3.19 And bringing springs of potable waters gushing up at various points into this place by means of an aqueduct, he removed the drought which formerly prevailed there. 5.3.20 But he also made the sanctuary of the Archangel and the hospice for the sick larger and much more conspicuous. 5.4.1 There is a river in Galatia, which the local people call Siberis, very near to the place called Sycae, and about ten milestones from the city of Juliopolis, towards 5.4.2 the east. This river, often rising suddenly to a great height, destroyed many of those travelling by the road there. 5.4.3 The emperor, being disturbed by the reports of these things, became for the future a preventer of the evil, by bridging the river with a strong work of a kind to combat the flooding river, and by making another wall in the form of a mole for the bridge towards the east, which experts in these matters call a breakwater. 5.4.4 And he built a sanctuary on its western side, to be a refuge for travelers 5.4.5 in the winter season. And a river, flowing by on the west, was troubling and shaking the circuit-wall of this Juliopolis. 5.4.6 But this emperor also checked it, by constructing a counter-wall for the circuit-wall for no less than five hundred feet. And in this way he saved the city's defence-work, which was no longer being flooded. 5.4.7 And in Cappadocia he did the following things. Caesarea is a very large and populous city there from of old. But a wall surrounded it that, by its excessive immoderation, was most vulnerable to attack and altogether impossible to guard. 5.4.8 For it enclosed a great deal of land not at all necessary for the city, and by its extreme excess 5.4.9 it was easy of access to attackers. For high hills rise there, not somewhere close to one another, but far apart; which the founder of the city, being eager to include within the circuit-wall, so that they might not be a fortress against it, in the name of safety accomplished the most precarious things. 5.4.10 For he walled in many plains and gardens, and crags and pastures for cattle. 5.4.11 There the people of the place decided not even later to build anything, but it remained in the state in which it was. 5.4.12 And if anywhere there happened to be a house, these, being without neighbours 5.4.13 and isolated, have continued so to the present time. And 5.4.13 neither did the garrisons have the ability, in proportion to the circuit-wall, to carry out its defence, nor were they able to take care of it, being so large.
55
ἀρξάμενός τε τοῦ ἔργου ἤδη πολλὴν ἐς αὐτὸ διατριβὴν ἔχει· ὅπερ εὖ οἶδα ὅτι ὑποτελέσει οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον, τεκμηριούμενος ὅτι δὴ αὐτῷ τὰ 5.3.11 ἔργα συνεπιλαμβάνεται ὁ θεὸς ἅπαντα. οὐκοῦν ἀπέραντον αὐτῷ ἐνθύμημα οὐδὲν ἔμεινεν ἐς τόδε τοῦ χρόνου, καίτοι ἐπὶ πλείστοις τὸ κατ' ἀρχὰς τοῖς ἀμηχάνοις ἐγχειρεῖν ἔδοξεν. 5.3.12 Ἔστι δέ τις ἐν Βιθυνοῖς ὁδὸς ἐς τὰ Φρυγῶν ἤθη ἐνθένδε ἰόντι, ἔνθα δὴ ἀνθρώποις τε ἀναρίθμοις καὶ ζῴοις 5.3.13 ἑτέροις χειμῶνος ὥρᾳ διολωλέναι ξυνέβαινε· γεώδης γὰρ ὑπεράγαν ἡ χώρα οὖσα, μὴ ὅτι ὄμβρων ἐξαισίων καταρραγέντων ἢ χιόνων πολλῶν ἐπικεχυμένων τε καὶ διαλυθεισῶν ἐν ἐσχάτῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ψεκάδων ἐπιπεπτωκυιῶν, ἂν οὕτω τύχῃ, ἐς τέλμα βαθὺ καὶ ἀπόρευτον ξυνισταμένη, τάς τε ὁδοὺς τεναγώδεις ἐργαζομένη, τοὺς τῇδε 5.3.14 ἰόντας ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀπέπνιγεν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτον αὐτός τε μεγαλοφροσύνῃ ψυχῆς καὶ ἡ βασιλὶς Θεοδώρα 5.3.15 τὸν κίνδυνον τοῖς παριοῦσι διέλυσαν. ἐς ἡμέρας γὰρ ὁδοῦ ἥμισυ εὐζώνῳ ἀνδρὶ λίθοις παμμεγέθεσι σκέπας τῇ λεωφόρῳ ἀπεργασάμενοι ἐπὶ στερρᾶς τῆς ὁδοῦ παριέναι διεσκευάσαντο τοὺς τῇδε ἰόντας. ταῦτα μὲν Ἰουστινιανῷ βασιλεῖ ταύτῃ ἐξείργασται. 5.3.16 Πηγαὶ δὲ θερμῶν φύσει ἐν Βιθυνοῖς ὑδάτων ἀναβλυ5.3.17 στάνουσιν ἐν χώρῳ, ὅνπερ ἐπονομάζουσι Πύθια. ταύτας ἔχουσι παραψυχὴν ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ διαφερόντως Βυ5.3.18 ζάντιοι, ἄλλως τε ὅσοις νοσώδεσι συμβαίνει εἶναι. ἔνθα δὴ πολυτέλειαν ἐπιδέδεικται βασιλεῖ πρέπουσαν· βασίλειά τε γὰρ ᾠκοδομήσατο οὐ πρότερον ὄντα καὶ λουτρῶνα ἐν δημοσίῳ τῶν ἐκεῖ φυομένων θερμῶν ὑδάτων 5.3.19 πεποίηται. πηγάς τε ποτίμων ὑδάτων ὡς ἑκάστῳ ἀποβλυζούσας ἐς τόνδε τὸν χῶρον ὀχεταγωγίᾳ διακομίσας, τὸν πρότερον ἐνταῦθα ἐπιχωριάζοντα περιεῖλεν αὐχμόν. 5.3.20 ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ ἀρχαγγέλου τὸ τέμενος καὶ τὸ τῶν νοσούντων ἀναπαυστήριον, μείζω τε καὶ κατὰ πολὺ ἐπιφανέστερα κατεστήσατο. 5.4.1 Ἔστι δὲ ποταμὸς ἐν Γαλάταις, ὅνπερ καλοῦσιν οἱ ἐπιχώριοι Σίβεριν, τῶν μὲν καλουμένων Συκεῶν ἄγχιστα, πόλεως δὲ Ἰουλιουπόλεως ἀπὸ σημείων μάλιστα δέκα, ἐς 5.4.2 τὰ πρὸς ἀνίσχοντα ἥλιον. ὃς δὴ πολλάκις ἐξαπιναίως ἀρθεὶς ἐπὶ μέγα τῶν ἐκείνῃ ὁδῷ ἰόντων πολλοὺς ἔφθει5.4.3 ρεν. οἷσπερ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπαγγελλομένοις συνταραχθεὶς διακωλυτὴς τοῦ κακοῦ τὸ λοιπὸν γέγονε, τὸν μὲν ποταμὸν γεφυρώσας ἔργῳ ἰσχυρῷ καὶ οἵῳ πλημμύροντι ποταμῷ μάχεσθαι, ἕτερον δὲ τοῖχον ἐν προβόλου σχήματι τῆς γεφύρας ἐς τὰ πρὸς ἕω πεποιημένος, ὃν δὴ πρόμα5.4.4 χον καλοῦσιν οἱ ταῦτα σοφοί. καὶ νεὼν δὲ αὐτῆς ᾠκοδομήσατο ἐς τὰ πρὸς δύοντα ἥλιον τοῖς παριοῦσι σω5.4.5 τήριον χειμῶνος ὥρᾳ ἐσόμενον. ταύτης δὲ Ἰουλιουπόλεως τὸν περίβολον ἠνώχλει τε καὶ κατέσειε ποταμός, ἀμφὶ 5.4.6 τὰ πρὸς ἑσπέραν παραρρέων. ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸν διεκώλυσεν ὁ βασιλεὺς οὗτος, ἀντιτείχισμα τῷ περιβόλῳ ἐπὶ πόδας οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ πεντακοσίους καταστησάμενος. ταύτῃ τε τὸ τῆς πόλεως ἔρυμα οὐκέτι ἐπικλυζόμενον διεσώσατο. 5.4.7 Ἐν δὲ Καππαδόκαις ἐποίει τάδε. Καισάρεια μὲν πόλις ἐνταῦθα μεγίστη τε καὶ πολυάνθρωπος ἐκ παλαιοῦ τυγχάνει οὖσα. τεῖχος δὲ αὐτὴν περιέβαλλε τῷ ὑπερβάλλοντι τῆς ἀμετρίας ἐπιμαχώτατόν τε ὂν καὶ ἀφύλα5.4.8 κτον ὅλως. χώρας τε γὰρ οὔ τι ἀναγκαίας τῇ πόλει περιεβάλλετο μέγα τι χρῆμα, καὶ τῇ ἐς ἄγαν περιουσίᾳ 5.4.9 τοῖς ἐπιβουλεύουσιν εὐέφοδον ἦν. λόφοι γὰρ ἐνταῦθα ἐπανεστήκασιν ὑψηλοί, οὐκ ἄγχιστά πη ἀλλήλων, ἀλλὰ κατὰ πολὺ ἄποθεν· οὕσπερ ὁ τῆς πόλεως οἰκιστὴς ἐντὸς τοῦ περιβόλου καταλαβεῖν ἐν σπουδῇ ἔχων, ὡς μὴ ἐπιτείχισμα κατ' αὐτῆς εἶεν, τῷ τῆς ἀσφαλείας ὀνόματι τὰ 5.4.10 σφαλερώτατα ἐξειργάσατο. πεδία τε γὰρ πολλὰ καὶ κήπους ἐτειχίσατο, καὶ σκοπέλους τε καὶ θρεμμάτων νομάς. 5.4.11 ἔνθα δὴ οὐδὲ χρόνῳ ὕστερον οἰκοδομήσασθαί τι οἱ τῇδε ἄνθρωποι ἔγνωσαν, ἀλλ' ἐφ' οὗπερ ἦν σχήματος ἔμεινεν. 5.4.12 εἰ δέ που καὶ οἰκία τετύχηκεν εἶναι, ταῦτα δὴ ἀγείτονα 5.4.13 κατὰ μόνας ὄντα διαγεγόνασιν ἐς τόδε τοῦ χρόνου. καὶ 5.4.13 οὔτε τὰ φυλακτήρια κατὰ λόγον τοῦ περιβόλου ἐς τὴν αὐτοῦ ἐξικνεῖσθαι φυλακὴν εἶχεν, οὔτε αὐτοῦ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τοσοῦδε ὄντος ἐν δυνάμει