Fig. 20 gives a general view of the great _tête de pont_ on the south, the _place d'armes_ and the battlemented wall ascending to the square tower on the south angle of the cité, and the _castellum_. The square towers were not covered by roofs but by platforms, so as to allow catapults or _onagri_ to be placed upon them.[8]
With this design quadrangular towers of the kind described were raised at the salient angles of the defences, which were weak points, but which, on the other hand, facilitated the discharge of missiles over a more extensive field. In case a front was attacked, propulsive machines were set up behind the curtains on earthworks or wooden platforms.
The city thus strongly fortified was in a position to resist and defy the attacks of the barbarians, who, at that period of their history, were unable to undertake the siege of a stronghold well planned and defended.
[Footnote 4: A pace was equivalent to three feet.]
[Footnote 5: The Gallic foot was the _pied du roi_ (thirteen inches).]
[Footnote 6: The dark line indicates the habitations preserved, the red line the tenements rebuilt on the sites left unoccupied after the clearing necessary for the fortifications and their approaches.]
[Footnote 7: These new roads are indicated by red lines.]
[Footnote 8: The catapults could discharge bolts six feet long and very heavy. The _onagri_ hurled stones of sixty pounds weight to a maximum distance of two hundred and fifty paces.]
Whether the Burgundians crossed the Rhine at the solicitation of the Gauls, or to find more fertile settlements, or because the emperor Honorius had granted them a territory on the left bank of the river, certain it is that about the year 450 they were occupying the banks of the Saône, and had pushed their way northwards to the neighbourhood of Langres and Besançon, westwards as far as Autun, and southwards beyond Lyons. Having entered Gaul as allies--as auxiliaries of the tottering empire--they treated the inhabitants with a degree of consideration which was not shown by the Franks and other tribes that were gradually invading the west. They had indeed gained concessions of lands and gifts of herds but they were living on a footing of equality with the Gauls, and their presence resulted in a partition of property with the new comers rather than subjection to their sway. The establishment of the Burgundians on Gallic soil may be compared with that of those colonies of veterans whom Rome sent out formerly to various territories, whose position was similar to that of the original inhabitants, and who in the second generation were confounded with them.