This paper develops a theory of continuum damage mechanics for anisotropic solids on the basis of both the strain energy equivalence principle and the equivalent (fictitious) line crack damage modeling. The strain energy equivalence principle is used to develop the effective continuum elastic properties of a damaged solid in terms of the undamaged anisotropic elastic properties and a scalar damage variable. The equivalent line crack representation of local damage provides, a means by which the effective direction of damage propagation can be identified from the local stresses and strains that are available in the course of continuum damage analysis. A scalar damage variable is defined as the effective volume fraction of a damaged zone associated with an equivalent line crack. Finally, an iterative numerical approach to continuum damage analysis is introduced.