The European version of the Great Wall of China - Frontiers of the Roman Empire 430
What and Why
The Roman frontiers, known as the limes (Latin: līmes) (pronounced /ˈlʌɪmiːz/, plural limites), stretched for more than 5 Mm, all the way from northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there across North Africa back to the Atlantic coast. These walls, built in various forms, were constructed during early 2nd century CE and were never connected, unlike the Great Wall of China (Chinese: 萬里長城, Wanlichangcheng). One of the most famous remaining sections are the Hadrian wall. A fairly good section remains in Osterburken, where we visited, but clearly this frontiers extend all over Europe, and there are multiple locations one can find its remain.
These remains are not intended for major fortification, but rather a basic form of defence against minor unrest or attack. The remains of the limites today consist of broken sections of walls, ditches, forts, fortresses, and civilian settlements. Certain elements of the frontier have been excavated, some reconstructed, but most destroyed or ignored and many has become rubbles or less than ruins, unlike the its Chinese counterpart, which has been very well maintained and preserved.
The limes was not solely a military bulwark, but also defined economic and cultural limits. Although cultural influences extended across the frontier, it did represent a cultural divide between the Romanised world and the non-Romanised peoples. In large parts it was an arbitrary straight line and is an excellent demonstration of the Roman precision in surveying.
Whatever it has become, the limites remind modern people about the extent of might of the Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum), once the greatest empire the world had ever seen.
Toponymy
Osterburken means the eastern defence in German. The word limes derives from the Latin word līmes, meaning a number of things like path, boundary, border. The word eventually gives us the word limit.
See
Limes
There are a few sections of these vertiges in Osterburken, known as the Limespark. In Germany many of the former watchtowers have been reconstructed as in the picture above which is part of the park.
In continental Europe, these borders were generally well defined, in spite of the broken limes. The line generally follows the courses of major rivers such as the Rhine (German: Rhein) and the Danube (Donau). This particular section is referred to the northern borders or specifically Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes (Obergermanisch-Raetischer Limes, ORL), which is a 550-km section. Osterburken belongs to Section 8. A full description of this section can be seen here.
Roman Museum (Römermuseum)
The area in Osterburken used to be a Roman bath, and the ruins are now housed inside the modern Roman Museum (Römermuseum Osterburken). Definitely worth a visit.
Getting There and Around
Entrance fee to the museum is a mere EUR 4€. The area will not spend you more than a good morning. For all the limites, one really have to drive around to locate them, they are all over the place.
UNESCO Inscription
The ‘Roman Limes’ represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. The remains of the Limes today consist of vestiges of built walls, ditches, forts, fortresses, watchtowers and civilian settlements. Certain elements of the line have been excavated, some reconstructed and a few destroyed. The two sections of the Limes in Germany cover a length of 550 km from the north-west of the country to the Danube in the south-east. The 118-km-long Hadrian’s Wall (UK) was built on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian c. AD 122 at the northernmost limits of the Roman province of Britannia. It is a striking example of the organization of a military zone and illustrates the defensive techniques and geopolitical strategies of ancient Rome. The Antonine Wall, a 60-km long fortification in Scotland was started by Emperor Antonius Pius in 142 AD as a defense against the “barbarians” of the north. It constitutes the northwestern-most portion of the Roman Limes.
References
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