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A limes (or the Limes Romanus) was a border defense system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (568x640, 33 KB) Limes Germanicus, from the US Military Academy History archives (copyright US government?) Source: Department of History, U.S. Military Academy URL: [1] Background information: File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages...
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (568x640, 33 KB) Limes Germanicus, from the US Military Academy History archives (copyright US government?) Source: Department of History, U.S. Military Academy URL: [1] Background information: File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages...
Map of Upper Germanic Limes The Limes Germanicus (Latin for German frontier) was a remarkable line of frontier forts (limes) that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Superior and Raetia, and divided the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes, from the years 83 to 260. ...
Border stone at Passo San Giacomo between Val Formazza in Italy and Val Bedretto in Switzerland Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, states or subnational administrative divisions. ...
The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ...
The word Boundary has a variety of meanings. ...
The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government. ...
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. Hence it was utilized by Latin writers to denote marked or fortified frontiers. This latter sense has been adapted and extended by modern historians concerned with the frontiers of the Roman Empire; e.g., the Wall of Hadrian 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. Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...
The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government. ...
Pieces of Hadrians Wall remain near Greenhead and along the route, though large sections have been dismantled over the years to use the stones for various nearby construction projects. ...
Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 927 Area - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK) 50,346 sq mi - Water (%) Population...
The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ...
Some limites The most notable examples of Roman limites are: A mediaeval limes is the Limes Saxoniae in Holstein Pieces of Hadrians Wall remain near Greenhead and along the route, though large sections have been dismantled over the years to use the stones for various nearby construction projects. ...
UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ...
This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. ...
The Antonine Wall, looking east, from Barr Hill between Twechar and Croy The Antonine Wall, remains of Roman fortlet, Barr Hill, near Twechar Location of Hadrians Wall and the Antonine Wall in Scotland and Northern England. ...
UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ...
This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. ...
Map of Upper Germanic Limes The Limes Germanicus (Latin for German frontier) was a remarkable line of frontier forts (limes) that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Superior and Raetia, and divided the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes, from the years 83 to 260. ...
The desert frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. ...
Arabia Petraea Arabia Petraea, also called Provincia Arabia or simply Arabia, was a province of the Roman Empire beginning in the second century; it consisted of the former Nabataean kingdom in modern Jordan, southern modern Syria Sinai, and northwestern Saudi Arabia. ...
The Limes Saxoniae (Latin for Limit of Saxony; see Limes), also known as the Sachsenwall (Saxon Wall) was a border established c. ...
Holstein (Hol-shtayn) (Low German: Holsteen, Danish: Holsten, Latin and historical English: Holsatia) is the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, between the rivers Elbe and Eider. ...
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." 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). 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. Euclid, a famous Greek mathematician known as the father of geometry, is shown here in detail from The School of Athens by Raphael. ...
In mathematics, the concept of a limit is used to describe the behavior of a function as its argument either gets close to some point, or as it becomes larger and larger; or the behavior of a sequences elements, as their index becomes larger and larger. ...
An etymology was given in some detail by Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. According to him it comes from Indo-European el-, elei-, lei-, "to bow, bend; elbow." Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague and studied at Vienna university. ...
Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...
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 Germanics 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 Germanics 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. To cross the border was the mark of a savage. They wrote of the Alamanni 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, are a Germanic tribe, first mentioned by Dio Cassius, under the year 213. ...
In 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 a dictionary of American English published by Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ...
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