!!!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 2%%sup nd/% half of the 1%%sup st/% 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 1%%sup st/%
Nordic Legion, legio I Noricorum), the last work on the
Limes was done in the late 4%%sup th/% 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
M. Kandler and H. Vetters, Der roemische Limes in
Oesterreich, 1986; K. Genser, Der oesterreichische Donau-Limes in der
Roemerzeit, 1986; idem, Der Donau-Limes in Oesterreich, 1990.
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