T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 42

they were maintained by their inhabitants in a fit state of defence. Describing the city of Dijon he says that it was "a fortress with very strong walls, lying in the midst of a very fertile plain . . . . On the south lies the river Oscara (Ouche) on the north another small stream, which enters in at one gate, and, passing under a bridge, goes out through another gate, tracing its sluggish course round the whole circuit of the walls . . . There are four gates towards the four corners of the world and 33 towers adorn the walls. It is built of squared stones to the height of 20 feet, and above that with rubble. The height is 30 feet, and the thickness 15."(1) Gregory often mentions fortresses, and there are still standing parts of the very remarkable walls of Carcassonne where the Visigoths or their immediate successors rebuilt the Roman enceinte after the same plan,though of inferior material, on the old foundations.(2) Their work was done with such thoroughness that the city proved impregnable in the early part of the 13th century against the determined attacks of the Trencaval party -- attacks supported with all the skill in siege craft known at the time, and in addition the most complicated scheme of mining on record. Even St. Louis and Philip the Fair, when remaking the place, had nothing to alter in these defences, except the ----------------------------------------------------- (1) Greg. Tours iii. 19, ed. Migne, Pat. 71, 250. (2) One Roman tower is still standing near the Narbonne gate.