Limes#

Limes, original name for a border line between 2 pieces of land, later the border of the Roman Empire which was protected by different fortifications. From the 2nd half of the 1st century A.D. there is evidence of several camps for cavalry and infantry units of 500 or 1,000 men along the Austrian stretch of the Danube. Legion camps for 6,000 foot-soldiers each existed in Carnuntum, Vindobona (Vienna) and Lauriacum (Enns), and from an even earlier period, Albing. Around 300 A. D. border defence was reorganised (reduction of forces, modernisation of camps, new formation of the 1st  Nordic Legion, legio I Noricorum), the last work on the Limes was done in the late 4th century ( Notitia Dignitatum). Later the organisation of the Limes slowly disintegrated due to a lack of supplies and troops. At the time of St. Severinus the civilian population lived in the camps; although soldiers were still mentioned in records of the time, the border defence had ceased to exist.

Literature#