For over a century, the narrative of the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire was based almost solely on the observations of a single French priest flying a biplane during World War One across the Middle Eastern deserts. Based on aerial surveys conducted in the 1920s and 1930s, Father Antoine Poidebard concluded that the 116 fortified buildings dispersed throughout the area formed a defensive line that ran roughly north to south, creating a permanent military border between Rome and her eastern adversaries. Even as more potent techniques for observing the ancient landscape finally became available, generations of historians generally accepted that interpretation.
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