Thanks to Lindsay Powell for finding this! (History of the Ancient World)
Writing on the wall: late-third century urban defenses in south Languedoc
By Douglas Underwood
PhD Dissertation, University of Missouri–Columbia, 2009
This thesis takes the three largest cities in Roman south Languedoc-Narbonne, Carcassonne and Toulouse -and reexamines the evidence, both archaeological and literary, about the city walls. I conclude that these walls, indeed built in the late third or early fourth century, were not hastily constructed and did not only enclose a small portion of the city. Further, the construction of monumental walls at this date shows a level of economic vitality. This argues against the commonly assumed dismal situation and suggests that the problems of the “third-century crisis” did not affect south Gaul in ways previously thought.
City of Narbonne in south of France, and the Saint Just cathedral
viewed from the Gilles Aycelin dungeon.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
