T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 72

IV. Justinian's military architecture had begun in that of old Rome, in imitation of the wonderful system of Roman fortresses in Mauretania. In that province the Romans had had in some way the position of the later Byzantines : ordinarily their defensive works were slight, - little more than walled castra, along a frontier - but in Mauretania they were a small garrison holding a difficult country against an enemy that attacked continuously and unexpectedly, though without any very great knowledge of war. So the Roman forts there were erected on the best strategical positions, or across the great military roads, or next to some town to provide a refuge against sudden incursion : and when the Byzantines under Justinian fortified their empire systematically they followed the same plan. Their buildings may be divided into fortified towns, refuge camps, castles properly so called, single towers to defend isolated farms, and signal posts. A close network of these was erected up the Euphrates and in Asia Minor, on the Danube, and through- out Northern Africa, hundreds of them in the comparatively short period of the reign of Justinian. After him Byzantine architecture stood almost still : no one has yet been able to distinguish later Byzantine repairs and additions amongst the original works of some Justinian castle : the Greeks were so obsessed with the excellencies of his work, so bound by the precepts of Procopius and of the author of the Tactica who