 This article is part of the series on: Military of ancient Rome (portal) | |||
| Structural history | |||
| Roman army (unit types and ranks, legions, auxiliaries, generals) | |||
| Roman navy (fleets, admirals) | |||
| Campaign history | |||
| Lists of wars and battles | |||
| Decorations and punishments | |||
| Technological history | |||
| Military engineering (castra, siege engines, arches, roads) | |||
| Personal equipment | |||
| Political history | |||
| Strategy and tactics | |||
| Infantry tactics | |||
| Frontiers and fortifications (limes, Hadrian's Wall) | |||
| Frontiers of the Roman Empire* | |
|---|---|
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
| State Party |  Germany and  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | ii, iii, iv |
| Reference | 430 |
| Region† | Europe and North America |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 1987 (11th Session) |
| Extensions | 2005 |
| * Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO. | |
A limes (or the Limes Romanus) was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. Commonwealth English! -->The military of ancient Rome relates to the combined military forces of Ancient Rome from the founding of the city The structural history of the Roman military describes the major chronological transformations in the organization and constitution of Ancient Rome 's armed forces, The Roman army was a set of military forces employed by the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later Roman Empire as part of the Roman military This is a list of both unit types and ranks of the Roman army from the Roman Republic to the fall of This is a list of Roman legions, including key facts about each legion primarily focusing on Principate (early Empire 30BC - 284AD legions for which there exists Auxiliaries (from Latin: auxilia = "supports" formed the standing non-citizen corps of the Roman army of the Principate (30 BC&ndash284 AD A Manius Acilius Glabrio -- Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 191 BC -- Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 91 -- Titus The Roman Navy ( Latin: Classis, lit "fleet" comprised the naval forces of the Roman state The Roman Navy ( Latin: Classis, lit "fleet" comprised the naval forces of the Roman state From its origin as a city-state in Italy in 9th century BC the rise as an empire covering much of Eurasia and North The following is a List of Roman wars fought by the ancient Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire, organized by date The following is a list of Roman Battles fought by the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and sometimes the Byzantine Empire As with most other military forces the Roman military adopted a "carrot and stick" approach to military with an extensive list of decorations for military gallantry The technology history of the Roman military covers the development of and application of technologies for use in the armies and navies of Rome from the Roman Republic to the fall The military engineering of Ancient Rome 's armed forces was of a scale and frequency far beyond that of any of its contemporaries The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military Roman Siege engines were for the most part adapted from Hellenistic Siege Technology. List of ancient Roman Triumphal arches (By modern country France Carpentras Triumphal Arch The Roman Roads were essential for the growth of the Roman Empire, by enabling the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate news Roman military personal equipment was produced in large numbers to established patterns and used in an established way Rome's military was always tightly keyed to its political system The strategy of the Roman Military encompasses its Grand strategy (the arrangements made by the state to implement its political goals through a selection of military goals Roman infantry tactics refers to the theoretical and historical deployment formation and maneuvers of the Roman infantry from the start of the Roman Republic to the fall Roman military borders and fortifications were part of a Grand strategy of territorial defense in the Roman Empire. Hadrian's Wall ( Latin: perhaps Vallum Aelium, "the Aelian wall" is a stone and turf Fortification built by the Roman A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex As of 2008 there are a total of 878 World Heritage Sites located in 145 "State Parties" Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. Asia Minor, Cyprus, all of the Aegean Islands, the Canaries A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions such as Governments States or subnational administrative Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire. The borders of the Roman Empire, which fluctuated throughout the empire's history were a combination of natural frontiers (most notably the Rhine and Danube rivers and man-made fortifications
The Latin noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any distinction or difference. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. In Agriculture, a field refers generally to an area of Land enclosed or otherwise and used for agricultural purposes such as Cultivating crops In Latin, the plural form of limes is limites. The word limes, hence, was utilized by Latin writers to denote a marked or fortified frontier. This latter sense has been adapted and extended by modern historians concerned with the frontiers of the Roman Empire; e. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial g. , Hadrian's wall in north England is sometimes styled the Limes Britannicus, the frontier of the Roman province of Arabia facing the desert is called the Limes Arabicus and so forth. Hadrian's Wall ( Latin: perhaps Vallum Aelium, "the Aelian wall" is a stone and turf Fortification built by the Roman England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab)
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Some limites
The most notable examples of Roman limites are:
- Hadrian's Wall - Limes Britannicus (UNESCO World Heritage ID 430bis-001)
- Antonine Wall
- Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes (UNESCO World Heritage ID 430bis-002), part of the Limes Germanicus
- Limes Arabicus, the frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea facing the desert
- Limes Tripolitanus, the frontier in modern Libya facing the Sahara
A mediaeval limes is the Limes Saxoniae in Holstein
Etymology and sentiment
The stem of limes: limit-, which can be seen in the genitive case, limitis, marks it as the ancestor of an entire group of important words in many languages; for example, English limit and eliminate, "remove over the border. Hadrian's Wall ( Latin: perhaps Vallum Aelium, "the Aelian wall" is a stone and turf Fortification built by the Roman United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. Asia Minor, Cyprus, all of the Aegean Islands, the Canaries The Antonine Wall is a stone and turf Fortification, built by the Romans across what is now the Central belt of Scotland United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. Asia Minor, Cyprus, all of the Aegean Islands, the Canaries The Limes Germanicus ( Latin for Germanic frontier) was a remarkable line of frontier ( Limes) forts that bounded the ancient Roman The Limes Arabicus was a desert frontier of the Roman Empire, in the province of Arabia Petraea. For the Achaemenid satrapy of Arabia see Arabia (satrapy Arabia Petraea, also called Provincia Arabia or simply Arabia, was a frontier The Limes Tripolitanus was a frontier zone of defence of the Roman Empire built in the south of what is now Tunisia and the northwest of Libya. The Limes Saxoniae ( Latin for "Limit of Saxony " also known as the Limes Saxonicus or Sachsenwall ("Saxon Wall" was Holstein (ˈhɔlʃtain ( Low German: Holsteen, Danish: Holsten, Latin and historical English: Holsatia) Rheinbrohl is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. " Modern languages have multiplied its abstract formulations. For example, from limit- comes the abbreviation lim, used in mathematics to designate the limit of a sequence or a function: see limit (mathematics). Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and In Mathematics, the concept of a " limit " is used to describe the Behavior of a function as its argument either "gets close" In metaphysics, material objects are limited by matter and therefore are delimited from each other. In ethics, men must know their limitations and are wise if they do.
An etymology was given in some detail by Julius Porny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. According to him it comes from Indo-European el-, elei-, lei-, "to bow, bend; elbow. "
The sense is that a limit bends across one in some way. The limes was a cross-path or a cross-wall, which the Romans meant to throw across the path of invaders to hinder them. It is a defensive strategy. The Romans never built limites where they considered themselves free to attack. As the emperor had ordered the army to stay within the limites except for punitive expeditions, they were as much a mental barrier as material. The groups of Germanic warriors harrying the limes during summer used the concept to full advantage, knowing that they could concentrate and supply themselves outside the limes without fear of preemptive strikes.
In a few cases they were wrong. The limit concept engendered a sentiment among the soldiers that they were being provoked by the Germanic raiders and were held back from just retaliation by a weak and incompetent administration; i. e. , they were being sold out. They therefore mutinied. The best remedy for a mutiny was an expedition across the limes. Toward the later empire, the soldiers assassinated emperors who preferred diplomacy and put their own most popular officers into the vacant office.
Roman writers and subsequent authors who depended on them presented the limes as some sort of sacred border beyond which human beings did not transgress, and if they did, it was evidence that they had passed the bounds of reason and civilization. Welzheim is a town in the Rems-Murr district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. To cross the border was the mark of a savage. They wrote of the Alemanni disrespecting it as though they had passed the final limitation of character and had committed themselves to perdition.
The Alemanni, on the other hand, never regarded the border as legitimate in the first place. The Romans were foreigners changing native place names and intruding on native homes and families (see under Alemanni), only to be tolerated at all because they were willing to pay cash for the privilege and offered the blandishments of civilized life. The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river ( Germany
According to Pokorny, Latin limen, "threshold", is related to limes, being the stone over which one enters or leaves the house, and some have gone so far as to view the frontier as a threshold. The Merriam-Webster dictionaries take this view, as does J. B. Hofmann in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen under leimon. The White Latin Dictionary denies any connection, deriving limen from *ligmen, as in lien from *leig- "tie". The threshold ties together the doorway. The American Heritage Dictionary refuses to go further than Latin limes. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( AHD) is an American Dictionary of the English language published by
See also
External links
- Official website of the Verein Deutsche Limes-Straße (in German)
- Livius.org: Limes
- Livius.org: Limes Tripolitanus
- Antikefan: Roman Limes (German)
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