les
from the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his arms;
and as the danger became more imminent, new fortifications were added by
the indefatigable prudence of Justinian. [118]
[Footnote 111: Montesquieu observes, (tom. iii. p. 503, Considerations
sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. xx.,) that Justinian's
empire was like France in the time of the Norman inroads--never so weak
as when every village was fortified.]
[Footnote 112: Procopius affirms (l. iv. c. 6) that the Danube was
stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the architect, left
a description of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius
(l lxviii. p. 1129) would have been corrected by the genuine picture
Trajan's bridge consisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles with
wooden arches; the river is shallow, the current gentle, and the whole
interval no more than 443 (Reimer ad Dion. from Marsigli) or 5l7 toises,
(D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.)]
[Footnote 113: Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis, Dardania,
Pravalitana, the second Maesia, and the second Macedonia. See Justinian
(Novell. xi.,) who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and on
omines semper bellicis sudoribus inhaerentes.]
[Footnote 114: See D'Anville, (Memoires de l'Academie, &c., tom. xxxi
p. 280, 299,) Rycaut, (Present State of the Turkish Empire, p. 97, 316,)
Max sigli, (Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 130.) The sanjak of
Giustendil is one of the twenty under the beglerbeg of Rurselis, and his
district maintains 48 zaims and 588 timariots.]
[Footnote 115: These fortifications may be compared to the castles in
Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60, 131)--a natural
picture.]
[Footnote 116: The valley of Tempe is situate along the River Peneus,
between the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five miles long, and
in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth. Its verdant beauties
are elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist. Natur. l. iv. 15,) and more
diffusely by Aelian, (Hist. Var. l. iii. c. i.)]
[Footnote 117: Xenophon Hellenic. l. iii. c. 2. After a long and tedious
conversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how refreshing is the truth,
the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic writer!]
[Footnote 118: See the long wall in Evagarius, (l. iv. c. 38.) This
whole article is drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices, except
Anchialus, (l. iii. c. 7.)]
Asia Minor, after the sub
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