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268 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap. XL For the use of the emperor's countrymen, a cathedral, a palace, and an aqueduct were speedily constructed ; the public and private edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city ; and the strength of the walls resisted, during the life-time of Justinian, the unskilful assaults of the Huns and Sclavonians. Their progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were disappointed, by the innumerable castles, which, in the provinces of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to believe that the far greater part consisted only of a stone or brick tower, in the midst of a square or cir- cular area, which was surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of the neighbouring villages. 115 Yet these military works, which exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they were salutary ; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of war ; 116 and no unfortified spot, how- ever distant or solitary, could securely enjoy the blessings of peace. The straits of Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by the labours of Justinian. From the 134 sqq. Tauresium and Bederiane (see above, p. 219) are probably to be found (as Von Hahn suggested) in the villages of Taor and Bader. Evans points out (p. 82) that " the site of Scupi lies at the crossing-point of great natural routes across the western part of the Illyrian Peninsula. To those approaching the Aegean port [Thessalonica] from the middle Danube it occupied a position almost pre- cisely analogous to that held by Serdica on the military road to Constantinople." It is on the river Vardar (Axius) which connects it with Stobi and Thessalonica. " A direct line of Roman way through the pass of KaSanik brought Scupi into peculiarly intimate relations with the Dardanian sistex'-town of Ulpiana." To Ulpiana Justinian gave the new name of Justiniana Secunda, and in its neighbour- hood he built a city, Justinopolis, in honour of his uncle. This Dardanian founda- tion confirms the Dardanian origin of Justinian's family. Compare John Malalas apud Mommsen, Hermes, 6, 339,'Ioi;(7TiVoy Ik BeSepiavov cppovptov irt)<naCovTos Na/WijD, where the " proximity to Naissus " cannot be pressed.] 115 These fortifications may be compared to the castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, torn. i. p. 60, 131) — a natural picture. 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. 1. iv. 15), and more diffusely by iElian (Hist. Var. 1. iii. c. 1).