Frontiers of the Roman Empire

Frontiers of the Roman Empire is a World Heritage Site. The site includes three walls in different parts of Europe. They were part of the frontiers of the Roman Empire.

Limes

Limes (plural: 'Limites') is the Latin name of walls at the border of the Roman empire. There were many such fortifications.^[1]

The Latin word has a number of meanings, but the most common one is border.^[2]

The term limes was used by Roman writers to describe paths, walls, boundary stones, rivers marking a boundary,^[1] but its meaning was not the same as the modern boundary.^[2]

Some notable examples of Roman limites are:

Limes Arabicus — the frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea facing the desert^[3]
Limites Britannicus — Hadrian's Wall; Antonine Wall^[4]
Limes Germanicus — Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes^[4]
Limes Saxoniae — a medieval limes in Holstein
Limes Tripolitanus — the frontier in modern Libya facing the Sahara^[5]

Gallery

Reconstructed Limes
A fortification on the Limes
Reconstructed wooden watchtower
Hadrian's Wall

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Livius.org, Limes Archived 2008-08-07 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2012-4-25.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Ellenblum, Roni. (2006). Crusader castles and modern histories, p. 122; excerpt, "...it is the modern traveller and scholar who attributes to the limes all the meanings of a boundary line. The Roman sources themselves are mute concerning the existence of border lines, and it was modern scholarship which assumed that the Romans were capable of realizing in practice what they could not define verbally."
↑ Livius.org, Mobene (Qasr Bshir); retrieved 2012-4-25.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 UNESCO, "Frontiers of the Roman Empire"; retrieved 2012-4-25.
↑ Livius.org, Limes Tripolitanus Archived 2007-02-07 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2012-4-25.

Other websites

Media related to Limes (frontier) at Wikimedia Commons
Media related to Limes (Upper Germanic) at Wikimedia Commons
Verein Deutsche Limes-Straße Archived 2016-02-06 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
Römische Militärbauten und -anlagen Archived 2016-01-04 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
Frontiers of the Roman Empire : UNESCO Official Website

[livius_limes-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Livius.org, Limes Archived 2008-08-07 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2012-4-25.

[ellenblum-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Ellenblum, Roni. (2006). Crusader castles and modern histories, p. 122; excerpt, "...it is the modern traveller and scholar who attributes to the limes all the meanings of a boundary line. The Roman sources themselves are mute concerning the existence of border lines, and it was modern scholarship which assumed that the Romans were capable of realizing in practice what they could not define verbally."

[3] Livius.org, Mobene (Qasr Bshir); retrieved 2012-4-25.

[frontiers-4] 4.0 ^4.1 UNESCO, "Frontiers of the Roman Empire"; retrieved 2012-4-25.

[5] Livius.org, Limes Tripolitanus Archived 2007-02-07 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2012-4-25.

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