VII. In the same manner he ensured the safety of the country of Numidia by fortifications and garrisons of soldiers. I shall now enumerate each of these in detail. There is a mountain in Numidia called Aurasius,[129] the like of which does not exist anywhere else in the world. In the first place, it is lofty and precipitous, and extends for a distance of about three days’ journey; it is also inaccessible, all the ascents to it being barred by precipices. When, however, one has reached the top, the ground is a rich soil, smooth, and with easy roads, fair pastures, parks planted with trees and all kinds of herbs. Fountains spring out from the crags; there are quiet pools, rushing rivers with masses of broken water, and, what is strangest of all, the crops and fruit-trees on this mountain produce twice as much as any other part of Libya. Such is the mountain of Aurasium, which was originally held by the Vandals, whom the Moors dispossessed, and dwelt there until the Emperor Justinian drove them out and annexed it to the Roman Empire. To prevent the barbarians returning thither and doing mischief, he fortified the cities in the neighbourhood of this mountain, which he found deserted and without walls; and having, besides them, built two forts, and established there a sufficient garrison of soldiers, he left the barbarians of that country no hope of making a successful attack upon Aurasius. He also built impregnable fortifications in the remainder of Numidia. These were his works in this country. There is a city in the island of Sardo, which is now called Sardinia, which the Romans call the Fort of Trajan; this Justinian enclosed with a wall, which it did not formerly possess. Near Gades, by one of the pillars of Hercules, on the right hand, on the shore of Libya, was once a fort named Septon,[130] which had been built by the Romans in ancient times, but had been neglected by the Vandals and had perished through age. This place our Emperor Justinian made strong by a wall and a garrison. In it also he built a noble church dedicated to the Virgin, thus dedicating to her the beginning of the empire, and rendering this fort impregnable to all mankind in that quarter.