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chap. XL] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 267 From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chain of above fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks of the great river. Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels ; vacant walls, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according to the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons; a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge, 112 and several military stations affected to spread beyond the Danube the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its terrors ; the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shadow of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient cities was replenished ; the new foundations of Justinian acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and populous ; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the seat of an archbishop and a prsefect, whose jurisdic- tion extended over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum ; 113 and the corrupt appellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. 114 time of the Norman inroads — never so weak as when every village was fortified. [The author does scant justice to the fortifications of Justinian's time. The best study on the admirable " Byzantine system of defence " (with plans) will be found in Diehl's L'Afrique byzantine, p. 138-225.] 112 Procopius affirms (1. 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 (1. lxviii. p. 1129 [c. 13]) 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 (Reimar ad Dion., from Marsigli) or 515 toises (d'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 305). 113 Of the two Dacias, Mediterratiea and Ripensis, Dardania, Preevalitana, the second Mtesia, and the second Macedonia [and, 7th, part of the Second Pannonia]. See Justinian (Novell, xi. [xix. ed. Zach.]), who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and of homines semper bellicis sudoribus inhserentes. 114 See d'Anville (Memoires de l'Academie, &c. torn. xxxi. p. 289, 290), Rycaut (Present state of the Turkish Empire, p. 97, 316), Marsigli (Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 130). The Sanjak of Giustendil is one of the twenty under the beglerbeg of Rumelia, and his district maintains 48 zaims and 588 timariots. [This identification is due to a false etymology. Kustendil corresponds to the ancient Pautalia, and the name is derived from a mediteval despot, Constantine (of which Kustendil is the Turkish form). Justiniana Prima, the birthplace of Jus- tinian, is the ancient Scupi, the modern Uskiip. This has been completely de- monstrated by A. J. Evans, Antiquarian Researches in Illyricum, part 4, p.