ABSTRACT
The military history of Western Europe well into the twelfth century and beyond wasdominated by the physical remains of the later Roman empire. The art of war for at least six centuries was thoroughly conditioned by imperial military topography, which was composed in large part of an interrelated complex of fortifications, roads, bridges and ports. Each of the political leaders in Rome's successor states who tried to rule even a relatively small area in Western Europe such as Anjou or the Bordelais, much less a substantial part of what is France, England, Italy, or Spain, had to make a policy decision of immense importance. Throughout Western Europe, the military decision-makers in Rome's successor states consistently organized the logistic structures which permitted them to invest important manpower and material resources in maintaining and improving the physical infrastructure of the erstwhile imperial defensive system.
