The Origins of the Limitanei

[Nathan Ross]

Google books won't let me read it :/

Strange! It's a long passage, and most of it is quoted in Maas's Readings in Late Antiquity, p.83. The name appears in the heading though, luckily: NE DUCIANI VEL LIMITANEI MILITES AD COMITUM EXHIBEANTUR.

It's interesting to note that it was not until the late 4th century that it truly developed.

Yes - the Maas quote (above) is prefaced by the note that "border troops... are referred to in the sources primarily as limitanei". Whereas that term, it appears, was rather uncommon until the end of the 4th century. 'Border troops' were more usually referred to as ripenses, it seems, a word which perhaps did not include the old former-auxiliary cohorts and alae.