07-07-2016, 06:30 PM
This 1988 essay by Benjamin Isaacs is very thorough on the meaning of limes and how it developed from the 1st to the 3rd century, and includes all the quotes mentioned here so far and a number of others:
The Meaning of the Terms Limes and Limitanei
Isaacs proposes that the word initially referred to a military road (mainly through wooded terrain, it seems), with the secondary meaning of a boundary, not necessarily a frontier one. Only in the 3rd century did the term come to refer specifically to the frontier itself in a general sense, and was later extended (which was the bit I remembered!) to mean the frontier zone or hinterland area as well.
Incidentally, Isaacs also mentions that the Antonine Itinerary refers to Hadrian's Wall as 'the vallum'.
The Meaning of the Terms Limes and Limitanei
Isaacs proposes that the word initially referred to a military road (mainly through wooded terrain, it seems), with the secondary meaning of a boundary, not necessarily a frontier one. Only in the 3rd century did the term come to refer specifically to the frontier itself in a general sense, and was later extended (which was the bit I remembered!) to mean the frontier zone or hinterland area as well.
Incidentally, Isaacs also mentions that the Antonine Itinerary refers to Hadrian's Wall as 'the vallum'.
Nathan Ross