It is easy to carry on at length about the grandeur of the Roman Empire... but history keeps throwing up the comparisons with every new town we visit. I'm not singling out Perpignan for special criticism. Their place in history shows they did a lot of things right at a regional level. But it seems so petty and small minded when you consider how Romans sorted out similar problems three hundred years earlier.
Roman strategy was not consumed with defence. On entering new territory they went looking for a fight with the leading power in the region. They then stood back and said to the other regional powers, "We know how to fight... we have shown that by taking out your main power... but if any of the rest of you wants to have a go... step up at any time and we'll sort you out... but mark my words.... you'll pay a high price for the experience." Rome then started to build infrastructure and trade to expand the local economy. They positioned their centres of government where trade would be most intense... they didn't find the biggest mountain and hide their centre in inaccessible positions. Sure, they built small walls around their centres... sufficient to eliminate small scale terrorist attaches... hit and run crime... but for the risks of big battles... they were prepared to be tested in open battle.
Today we visited the forts at Perpignan and Castelnou... both military centres of importance at the sub-regional level... who were put into the backwater of history by later national consolidations... as France and Spain sorted out their borders. When reading the history and viewing the amount of resources invested into building defensive positions... it quickly becomes apparent that the Feudal system was designed to promote conflict... to promote betrayal and promote a miserable life for the working man. The local Lordships may have gained immense amusement from directing battles from the safety of nearby hills... and racing back to their impregnable fort if things went wrong. And if the local Lordship won a battle... what did he have to contribute to the life of the conquered citizen? Typically, he had no new markets or technology to provide. He had no grand vision of how society could be better organised... he just had a bigger tax base from which he could buy a bigger army. No wonder the middle ages were the dark ages.
Even to this day, Provence shows advantages of Roman rule that poor old Perpignan and its region missed out on. It would be interesting to know the comparative incomes of each period during the middle ages. I bet Provence incomes would have been much higher!
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