Limes

The Latin word for "path" in ancient Rome the strip of open land along which troops advanced into unfriendly territory. The word therefore came to mean a Roman military road fortified with watchtowers and forts. Finally limes acquired the sense of frontier either natural or artificial; towers and forts tended to be concentrated along it and the military road between them was often replaced by a continuous barrier. Its use as a term for the frontier zone of the Roman empire under direct military rule was particularly used of the Rhine and Danube rivers in central Germany adopted as the frontiers of the Roman Empire (from 9 AD). This was later extended into the Black Forest area by Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. . The Alemanni broke through the limes in c 260 and the Roman frontier was withdrawn to the Rhine and Danube once more. The limites in Great Britain were Hadrian's Wall between the Rivers Tyne and Solway and farther north the turf wall of Antoninus Pius between the Rivers Forth and Clyde. Limes were also created in Anatolia Syria and North Africa.

[Latin: ‘cross-path’ or ‘baulk between fields’]. The term limes came to mean a military road with forts and watchtowers, and ultimately a frontier. From the 1st century ad, as imperial boundaries gradually stabilized, frontiers gained permanent garrisons. From the time of Hadrian (117-138) the limes could also comprise a continuous physical barrier, such as a wall (in Britain, Germany and Numidia). See also Hadrian’s Wall.