The Limes (1 Viewer)

[maloyalo]

Not the Fruit! The roman border wall and installations between the Rhine & Danube. Also known as 'The Palings' which meant the wooden pallisade that made up much of the wall in the northern part. I think our term 'beyond the pale' is related to this, but am not sure if it came from this or some other wall. Also known in german as the 'Teufelmauer', which means 'devil's wall'.

I have become very interested in this & wonder if anyone else has studied or visited it ?

 

[Saber]

Not sure of the exact position of the fortifications you are refering but there has been quite a bit of recent excavation work on many Roman sites in Europe of late. Having lived in Heidelberg FRG for a few years I did finally find out information on one of the Roman outpost that was in that area. I beleive the researchers located the unit cohort designation of the outfit that guarded the Neckar river crossing along with some other relevant info. I will try to pull up the article I read it in, might have additional information about other border excavations along the Rhine.

Trier has some fine Roman ruins also, but wrong area for your question.

 

[Saber]

Found some notes on it, at least the Heidelberg portion anyway. Apparently the Limes constituted the Roman fortifications along the German border. The camp at Heidelberg was overrun by the Alemani around 260-261 AD. The event along the border during this time seem to be responsible for Rome pulling its border back across the Rhine. I don't know if there was ever a single wall such as Hadrians in England (wood or otherwise) that spanned the whole border? That would have been quite an acheivement.

 

[maloyalo]

I lived in Kaiserslaughten area for several years & have been back on vacations since. It was right at the end of my stay there that I became interested in the Roman history there, as well as Keltic and early Germanic.

Not specifically on the Limes but there was a huge discovery by British Captain in 1987, of the lost battlefield of the Teutoburger wald, where 3 Legions and auxilleries were totally anililated. Its near Onasbruck (not sure spelling) more north then most speculated. The place is called Kalkriese & now has a museum.

The Limes moved a lot by Heidelberg, and there were at least 3 different lines, each further east. The lines were eventually in the last stage a continual wall, except for sections along certain stretches of rivers. They essentially cut off the angle between the Rhine and the danube.

For a while the Neckar was the line, but then in one expansion it was the neckar in the south but then cut accross at Bad Wimpfen and went overland north. Then it moved westwards twice more and the neckar was completely behind the line. The last line came down from the north, along the Main for a section and crossed the Main at Miltenberg. From there it was a very straight overland wall down towards Stuggart, and then meandered towards the Danube.

I have visited some sites in that area. Aalen has nice Limes museum and remains of a Cohort castle. Miltenberg has a small museum in town, but also has a very interesting relic. A real mystery.

Its called the Tuotonstein, and is an incomplete 9 foot tall needle shaped marking or monument stone. It's shape and the spelling of Tuotons are unique. It was found buried in the ditch of an earlier Keltic Ring fort above the town, near roman alter ruins. Its done in latin with roman tools and is presumed to have been made by the romans. The inscription is in debate as to what it means, but the current most likely theory is it says "This is the border between the Teutons and the ......." (Was never finished!). It is believed to have been literally inwork on that really bad day for the romans in 260-261. Closest thing to Monty Python I know of!

 

[Saber]

I saw a special on the discovery of that battlefield year or two ago, great stuff! I think it was on the history channel(pre-Bigfoot days). Archeology Magazine has had some great articles of Roman Europe of late including some recent excavations in France.

Plan to be in the Aachen area this September for a couple of weeks, might have to divert my plans for a couple of days! BTW lived in K-Town for about 10 months back in 66, just a wee tyke then, dad was a Signal Corps Officer stationed there before being transferred to Munich. Between his assignments there and later my own spent close to 15 years in FRG. As my language skills are even worse than my diorama building skills don't ask if I speak the language.


That inscription does have a sort of "BRAVE SIR ROBIN" ring to it .