412 Fortified posts and refuges 



wasteful, no doubt consumed a great deal. In the case of Gaul (for to 

 live on the country was starvation to a force invading wild Germany) 

 the quantity to be brought up to the front seems to have been normally 

 more than Gaul could spare. It was usual to rely on the harvests 1 of 

 Britain. Transport was the main difficulty. Saxon pirates infested the 

 narrow seas, and the navigation of the Rhine was blocked by Franks. 

 Julian's energy cleared away these obstacles, and saw to the erection 

 or repair of granaries in the Rhineland towns to receive the British 

 corn. These measures enabled him to do without making extra demands 

 on the farmers of Gaul, a step sometimes unavoidable when there was 

 war on the frontiers. Of course such commandeering was very un- 

 popular, and wise generals avoided it whenever possible. Ammianus 

 draws particular attention 2 to this matter when narrating the campaign 

 of Theodosius in Mauretania (373). He forbade the levy of supplies 

 from the provincials, announcing that he would make the stores of the 

 enemy 3 provide the commissariat, and the landowners were delighted. 

 Among the interesting references that occur in the course of the 

 work are some that throw further light on the conditions of life in the 

 parts of the empire subject to invasion. It is not necessary to cite the 

 frequent mention of various kinds of fortified posts from great strong- 

 holds to mere blockhouses. These remind us that the strength of the 

 imperial armies could never be so maintained as to guard the frontier 

 at all times on all points. Barbarian raiders slipped through 4 the in- 

 evitable gaps, and wide stretches of country were laid waste long before 

 sufficient forces could be gathered to expel them. We do not need 

 the descriptions of their cruel ravages to convince us that agriculture 

 near the Danube or Rhine borders was a perilous calling. If the farmer 

 were not carried away into bondage or slain, he was left robbed of his 

 all, and in imminent danger of starving : for the barbarians ate up 

 everything, and hunger was a principal motive in leading them to come 

 and warning them to return home. Naturally it was the custom in 

 these borderlands to provide fortified refuges here and there in which 

 local farmers could find temporary shelter with their belongings, and 

 homesteads of any importance were more or less equipped for defence. 

 This was the state of things even in Mauretania. We read of a farm 5 

 (fundus) which the brother of Firmus the rebel leader (373) * built up 

 after the fashion of a city ' ; also of one girt with a strong 6 wall, a very 



1 xvni 2 2 and references in Wagner's edition. Schiller, Kaiserzeit n p 313. 



2 xxix 5 10-13. 3 messes et condita hostium virtutis nostrorum horrea esse. 



4 As when in Pannonia (373) they crossed the Danube and occupatam circa messem 

 agrestem adortae sunt plebem, xxix 6 % 6. 



5 xxix 5 13 in modum urbis exstruxit. 



6 xxix 5 25 muro circumdatum valido. In xxx 10 4 we find Murocincta as the 

 name of a villa and Triturrita in Rutilius de reditu I 527, 615. Cf cases in Caesar's time, 

 Bell Afr 9, 40, 65. 



