xx.,) that Justinian's empire was like France in the time of the Norman inroads--never so weak as when every village was fortified.] [Footnote 112: Procopius affirms (l.iv.c.

6) that the Danube was stopped by the ruins of the bridge.

Had Apollodorus, the architect, left a description of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius (l lxviii.p.

1129) would have been corrected by the genuine picture Trajan's bridge consisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches; the river is shallow, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than 443 (Reimer ad Dion.

from Marsigli) or 5l7 toises, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom.i.p.