VIII. These, as I have said before, were the works of the Emperor Justinian in Mesopotamia and Osrhoene. I will now describe what was done on the right bank of the river Euphrates. In all other parts the Roman and Persian frontiers border upon one another, and each nation proceeds from its own country to make war and peace with the other, as all men of different habits and empires do when they have a common frontier; but in the province which was formerly called Commagene, which is now called Euphratesia, they dwell nowhere near to one another, for the Roman and Persian frontiers are widely parted by a country which is quite desert and devoid of life, and possesses nothing worth fighting for. Yet each nation, though not regarding it as a work of much importance, has built a chain of forts of unbaked brick where the desert borders upon their inhabited country. None of these forts have ever been assaulted by their neighbours, but the two nations dwell there without any ill-feeling, since there is nothing for either of them to covet; however, the Emperor Diocletian built three of these forts in this desert, one of which, named Mambri, had fallen into ruin through age, and was restored by the Emperor Justinian. About five miles from this fort, as you go towards the Roman country, Zenobia, the wife of Odenathus, the chief of the Saracens in those parts, built a small city in former times and gave it her own name, calling it Zenobia.[48] Since then, long lapse of time brought its walls to ruin, and as the Romans did not think it worth caring for, it became entirely uninhabited. Thus the Persians, whenever they chose, were able to place themselves in the midst of the Romans before any news had been heard of their coming; however, the Emperor Justinian rebuilt the whole of Zenobia, filled it with numerous inhabitants, placed in it a commander with a garrison of regular soldiers, and thus formed a powerful fortress, a bulwark of the Roman Empire and a check upon the Persians. He did not merely restore it to its former appearance, but made it far stronger than it was before. The place is closely surrounded by high cliffs, from which the enemy were formerly able to shoot down upon the heads of the defenders of the wall; being desirous to avoid this, he constructed a building upon the walls, on the side nearest these cliffs, which might always act as a protection to the defenders. This building is called a ‘wing,’ because it appears to hang upon the wall. Indeed, it is not possible to describe all that our Emperor built at Zenobia: for as the city is situated far away in the desert, and for this reason is always exposed to peril, and cannot derive any succour from the Romans, who dwell at a distance, he took the greatest pains to render it secure. I will now relate some few of his works there.