the ‘outside’ other 15
is an indication that it was meant to be a barrier against the eastern
‘Hu’ (= barbarians), and then runs to the west as far as Tung-huan as
a protection against the northern ‘Hu’ (the Xiongnu). Th e sedentary,
urban civilization was to the south of the Great Wall, while everything
chaotic, disordered, horribly cold, and unsuitable for agriculture was
expected to be found north of that barrier. At least this is how the
Chinese saw it or, rather, what they believed.^5
Th e Byzantines, as followers of the Roman traditions of separating
civilization and the ‘Roman order’ from barbarians living to the north
and with an eye to the frequent Hun, Bulgar, Slav and other invasions
into Southeastern Europe during the fi ft h and sixth century, erected
a special “Long Wall” in the early 500s. Th e barrier was built under
Emperor Anastasius (491–518) and was meant to protect Constanti-
nople and its vicinity from attacks from the north. A few years later,
Emperor Justinian I (527–565) launched an impressive construction
program aimed at defending the Balkan territories of the Byzantine
Empire against the northern “barbarians” (which consisted primarily of
Slavs and Bulgars). Th e three defensive lines included also a system of
fortresses along the Danube limes and were described by Procopius
of Caesarea, in Book IV of his “Buildings”.^6 Although Justinian’s for-
tresses were neither able to stop the invasions, nor prevented raiding,
they eff ectively marked (together with the natural barrier of the Danube
River) the boundary of civilization and of the Christian oikoumene.
During the sixth century a number of fortresses were also built in
the Caucasus region by the Sassanians. Th ey were meant to keep the
“northern barbarians” (Huns-Savirs, Bersils, Khazars, Alans, etc.) at
bay. Kavad I (488–531) built up a mud-brick wall between Shirvan
and the Daryal Gorge with a number of forts along it.^7 Later, his son
Khosro I Anushirvan (531–579) erected the famous Derbend wall (this
time made of large stone quadrae) and several fortresses (Ibn al-Faqîh
mentions about 360 of them, but the number seem to be exaggerated).
Again, the apparent threat against which the wall was built was the
nomadic “Huns” living to the north: they had disturbed the economy
and life in the Sassanian borderlands of Armenia and Caucasian Alba-
nia. Th e Sassanians populated those borderlands with immigrants from
(^5) See more in, Barfi eld 1989; Waldron 1990.
(^6) Prokopii [Procopius] 1958, 154–178.
(^7) Ibn Hordadbeh [Ibn Khordâdhbeh] 1986, 109 (paragraph 62).