09-15-2009, 08:39 AM
Sometimes, the easiest questions are the ones you ignore. When did the limes originate? I mean, when did the Roman start to think about a defensive strategy?
To summarize how I see things now: during the last years of Augustus, Tiberius decided that the Rhine, Danube, Euphrates, and Sahara were to be the empire's boundaries - but he did not give up the idea of controling the land beyond it (e.g, the German lead and gold mines somehow continued to be exploited by Romans). The legions' bases along the rivers were still made of wood, more or less intended to be temporary. Tiberius envisaged an empire surrounded by vassal states, which would one day become Roman. The Empire had been like that during the Republic and Augustus, and for the traditionalist Tiberius was, that was fine.
Attempts to convert vassal states into provinces were never abandoned. Suetonius may present Caligula's German wars as a joke, but the fort at Wiesbaden and several tombstones in Mainz prove that there was serious fighting. I also think that Caligula was preparing an invasion of Britain, a plan that Claudius finally executed. Nero still believed in conquests in the east - or was the campaign to the Caspian Gates just a punitive action?
When Vespasian was emperor, the idea of a defensive strategy seems to have been there: conquering the Black Forest and shortening the frontier, is a defensive measure. If the way the Historia Augusta describes Hadrian's Wall reflects Hadrian's actual thinking, there was a clear distinction between civilization within the Empire's frontier, and barbarism outside.
Of course there would always be additions to the Empire - Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus are all credited with conqiests. But at some stage, a defensive strategy had be designed. But when?
I think the answer can be found when we look at two things:
(a) Watchtowers
(b) Stone foundations in forts
The oldest watchtower I know of, was excavated at Leidse Rijn, west of Utrecht (NL); it dates back to about the forties. (This place used to be called Vleuten and De Meern; it's all the same archaeological site.) I have no idea about stone foundation in forts, not even from Nijmegen.
My conclusion would be that at least along the Rhine, the creation of the limes dates back to the reign of Claudius; it may have been part of the Claudian army reforms. The defensive system of forts and watchtowers was later used in other provinces.
Anyone any thoughts?
To summarize how I see things now: during the last years of Augustus, Tiberius decided that the Rhine, Danube, Euphrates, and Sahara were to be the empire's boundaries - but he did not give up the idea of controling the land beyond it (e.g, the German lead and gold mines somehow continued to be exploited by Romans). The legions' bases along the rivers were still made of wood, more or less intended to be temporary. Tiberius envisaged an empire surrounded by vassal states, which would one day become Roman. The Empire had been like that during the Republic and Augustus, and for the traditionalist Tiberius was, that was fine.
Attempts to convert vassal states into provinces were never abandoned. Suetonius may present Caligula's German wars as a joke, but the fort at Wiesbaden and several tombstones in Mainz prove that there was serious fighting. I also think that Caligula was preparing an invasion of Britain, a plan that Claudius finally executed. Nero still believed in conquests in the east - or was the campaign to the Caspian Gates just a punitive action?
When Vespasian was emperor, the idea of a defensive strategy seems to have been there: conquering the Black Forest and shortening the frontier, is a defensive measure. If the way the Historia Augusta describes Hadrian's Wall reflects Hadrian's actual thinking, there was a clear distinction between civilization within the Empire's frontier, and barbarism outside.
Of course there would always be additions to the Empire - Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus are all credited with conqiests. But at some stage, a defensive strategy had be designed. But when?
I think the answer can be found when we look at two things:
(a) Watchtowers
(b) Stone foundations in forts
The oldest watchtower I know of, was excavated at Leidse Rijn, west of Utrecht (NL); it dates back to about the forties. (This place used to be called Vleuten and De Meern; it's all the same archaeological site.) I have no idea about stone foundation in forts, not even from Nijmegen.
My conclusion would be that at least along the Rhine, the creation of the limes dates back to the reign of Claudius; it may have been part of the Claudian army reforms. The defensive system of forts and watchtowers was later used in other provinces.
Anyone any thoughts?
