T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 38

only very rarely were they rectangular themselves. The gates were flanked by semi-round towers, upon occasion, as at Richborough, but they are rarely so symmetrical. In Britain the Colchester type of gate is a common one: abroad often they were hardly defended at all. (The bracketed words are illegible.) Before the walls was usually a ditch of some depth and (words) width : in exposed camps in Britain are found half a dozen ditches, with breastworks, probably palisaded, lining them. To judge from the account of the 13th century siege of Carcassonne there had, there, been more than one line of concentric Roman wall, but as a rule the one lofty stone wall and ditch were sufficient ward against the uncivilised enemies, without siege trains or settled discipline, with which Rome had to deal : the greater part of the forts were only sure bases on a frontier, from which her troops could carry out the vigorous offensive which was her defence. The majority of the town walls in the interior of France date from the times of the later empire, and that they were put up in haste is shown by the choice of material in their construction. The walls of Narbonne, Tours, Auxerre, Orleans, have been worked in modern times as a quarry of fragments of frieze, cippi, and capitals of columns. The account of Gregory of Tours leaves no doubt that