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Southern section of the Lower Germanic Limes (between VLPIA NOVIOMAGVS BATAVORVM und RIGOMAGVS) on the Tabula Peutingeriana
The Lower Germanic Limes (Latin: limes ad Germaniam inferiorem, Dutch: Neder-Germaanse Limes, German: Niedergermanischer Limes) is the former frontier between the Roman province of Germania Inferior and Germania Magna. The Lower Germanic Limes separated that part of the Rhineland left of the Rhine as well as the southern part of the Netherlands, which was part of the Roman Empire, from the less tightly controlled regions east of the Rhine.
The Lower Germanic Limes was not a fortified limes with ramparts, ditches, palisades or walls and watchtowers, but a river border (Lat.: ripa), similarly to the limites on the Danube and Euphrates. The Rhine Line was guarded by a chain of castra for auxiliary troops. It was laid out partly by Augustus and his stepson and military commander Drusus, who began to strengthen the natural boundary of the Rhine from the year 15AD, The decision not to conquer the regions east of the Rhine in 16AD made the Rhine into a fixed frontier of the Roman Empire. For its protection, many estates (villae rusticae) and settlements (vici) were established. The names and locations of several sites have been handed down, mainly through the Tabula Peutingeriana and Itinerarium Antonini.[1]
The Rhine-Meuse delta with the Lower Rhine in the background
As it runs along the Rhine the Lower Germanic Limes passes four landscapes with different topography and natural character. The southernmost and smallest portion, between the Vinxtbach and the area around Bonn still belongs to the Rhenish Massif, through which the river passes in a relatively narrow valley between the heights of the Westerwald and the Eifel Mountains. From roughly the area of Bonn, the Rhine valley opens into the Cologne Bay, which is bounded by the Bergisches Land, which hugs the river on the right-hand side, and the Eifel and High Fens to the southeast and east. The Cologne Bay has fertile loess soils and is characterized by a very mild climate. It is therefore little wonder that most of the rural vici and villae rusticae (farm estates) in Lower Germania were established in this area in Roman times. In the vicinity of the military camp of Novaesium, the Cologne Bay expands further into the Lower Rhine Plain, a river terrace landscape. Only a little west of today's German-Dutch border, roughly in the area of the legion camp of Noviomagus, the Lower Rhine Plain transitions into the watery marshland formed by the Rhine and Meuse and which finally ends at the North Sea in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.[2]
UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS)
In 2021, UNESCO accorded WHS status to the Lower Germanic Limes, identifying 44 properties (some being clusters of several sites) strung out along the 400km lower Rhine valley.[3] The list identifies, and aims to preserve, a representative selection of places that had Roman military activities along this section of the frontier. They have integrity and authenticity in their archaeological remains and show how the Roman Empire introduced complex new technology and ways of living to the area.[4] A distinctive features of the Lower Germanic Limes was the presence of the Rhine. This was at once both an identifiable defensible boundary, but also a highly porous one, which allowed the movement of peoples, trade and ideas.[4] The river itself was a crucial means of transport through the region, and became a major supply route to the North Sea and Britain, controlled by the Roman Navy on the Rhine, the Classis Germanica.[5]
As a transnational nomination, the sites are located in Netherlands and Germany. Care of the individual properties falls respectively on the Netherlands government and the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (plus one site in Rhineland-Palatinate).[6] This includes forts and marching camps dating back to the earliest arrivals of the Roman army in the area (around 16 BC) as well as development and rebuilding as more permanent fortifications were required at what became a fixed frontier rather than a staging post for the next conquest. Over the following four centuries the army brought with it industrial and engineering activities (Limekilns, pottery making, roads, canals, a naval base and a water supply aqueduct, for example). Civilian settlements, administrative, commercial, religious and entertainment sites also grew up alongside the more overtly military constructions.[4]
The listed properties are each tightly defined around the specific features they are designed to protect. 106 individual sites are thus identified, although many of these are grouped as clusters of related features (multiple training camps, sections of canal, etc), giving a list of 44 places. Around each of the sites, and often joining the clusters into a coherent unit, the list identifies 'buffer zones'. These reach out beyond the specific protected site itself, and may protect views, settings or an overall context for a site or cluster, or could indicate unproven but possible areas where significant remains are yet to be discovered.[6]
List of Netherlands sites
The following 19 sites/clusters fall within the modern jurisdiction of Netherlands. They are principally located on the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta, characterised by flat alluvial plains. Waterlogged conditions have resulted in extremely good preservation of buried timber structures as well as ephemeral items buried in rubbish dumps.[7]
Locations listed for the UNESCO World Heritage List: Lower Germanic Limes - Part 1: Netherlands
Canal linking the Meuse and Rhine rivers, constructed by Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, some 34 kilometres (21 miles) in length. (Six protected sections over an 11km stretch between properties 3 and 5)
2.5km section of the Limes road (a via militaris which ran along the left bank of the lower Rhine). It includes 3 sites with well preserved timbers of watchtowers, river revetments and sunken ships. Two rebuilding phases followed personal inspections by Trajan and Hadrian
Earliest military fortification on the lower Rhine, briefly serving as the army's operational base. This was followed by a Legionary fortress and civil settlement from AD 70
Roman aqueduct, to transport running water 5.5 kilometres (3.4 miles) to the legionary fortress at Nijmegen. Embankments and cuttings carried wooden troughs from a reservoir near Groesbeek
Auxiliary fort located near a groyne which deflected the waters of the Waal into the Rhine, to maintain a navigable channel, built by Drusus. An inscribed gravestone and masonry fort defences have been found during gravel extraction.
All but one of the German locations falls within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (The Auxiliary fort at Remagen is in Rhineland Palatinate). Almost all of the sites are on the left (western) bank of the Rhine. Many of the military structures follow a similar chronology comprising a temporary camp with an earthen defensive boundary, replaced in the mid first century by timber defenses and later still by stone defences – particularly after the Revolt of the Batavi of AD 68-69.[8] By the third century many military features were being abandoned, although some remained in use for a further 200 years. The civil settlements also persisted in use, and many have a direct successor in their modern settlements. In the 450s AD a Frankish invasion took control of Cologne, signaling the end of Roman control of the Lower Rhine.[9] A number of sites can be matched with Roman place names, particularly from writers such as Tacitus and from ancient documents such as the map known as the Tabula Peutingeriana. The list below shows the 25 German sites (some individual places, some clusters of several component parts) that are now inscribed as part of the World Heritage Site.[10]
Locations listed for the UNESCO World Heritage List: Lower Germanic Limes - part 2: Nord Rhein Westfalia, Germany
Walled city, accorded Colonia (city) status, founded by Trajan next to the double legionary fortress of Vetera. A 4th century defensible fortress of Tricensima was built within the older city. The whole 90ha city area is now an open-air Archaeological Park
Vetera I was Lower Germany's largest legionary fortresses (c57ha), with space for two legions plus amphitheatre. After AD 70 This was replaced by a single-legion fortress (Vetera II) nearer the river, and the establishment of the Colonia to the north
Successive legionary camps including the 'Koenenlager' - the first fully excavated Legionary Fortress (28.5ha) - and a later Auxiliary fort built within the abandoned fortress.
Late-Roman Fort. Substantial brickwork walls, corner towers and 8 interval towers, enclosing 2.5ha. Some walls remain to 4m, incorporated into a medieval Manor House, Haus Bürgel, open as a museum.
Palace of the Governor of Lower Germania province. It was the largest Roman building on the Lower Rhine, and is now amongst the best studied Roman buildings anywhere. An Underground museum of the foundations has been incorporated into the MiQua permanent exhibition under the Rathausplatz.
Early 1st century Legionary HQ, and the name continued for the Governor's palace of 80 AD, and rebuilds in 185 and mid-4th century. The building was in use until possibly 8th century.
Post-war reconstruction uncovered the foundations, with multiple subsequent discoveries over 65 years to the 2007-2018 museum excavations.
4th century fort inaugurated by Constantine I to control a new Rhine Bridge to Colonia. The only fort on the Lower Rhine right bank. Standing remains were incoporated into a 9th century Church, and then in 1003, into Deutz Abbey.
1870-99 and multiple excavations through 20th century
40
Kottenforst Nord
Manoeuvring areas for training activities in the vicinity of Bonn legionary fortress. The walls of 12 separate training camps are preserved up to 0.5 m high.
Legionary Fortress (27.8 ha) remaining on the same footprint over its 400 years in use. Base for Legio I Minervia. Bonn's streets still reflect the walls and roads of the fortress.
Limekilns to supply military construction for use along the whole lower Rhine area, via the river Erft. Six kilns of which three are now displayed in an exhibition building.
Auxiliary fort (1.47 ha) in use from 1st to 4th centuries. Later (270 AD onwards) construction re-used the older wall foundations. some of which survive in the modern town.
The Saalburg is a Roman fort located on the main ridge of the Taunus, northwest of Bad Homburg, Hesse, Germany. It is a cohort fort, part of the Limes Germanicus, the Roman linear border fortification of the German provinces. The Saalburg, located just off the main road roughly halfway between Bad Homburg and Wehrheim is the most completely reconstructed Roman fort in Germany. Since 2005, as part of the Upper Limes, it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. In the modern numbering system for the limes, it is ORL 11.
Barbaricum is a geographical name used by historical and archaeological experts to refer to the vast area of barbarian-occupied territory that lay, in Roman times, beyond the frontiers or limes of the Roman Empire in North, Central and South Eastern Europe, the "lands lying beyond Roman administrative control but nonetheless a part of the Roman world". During the Late Antiquity, it was the Latin name for those tribal territories not occupied by Rome that lay beyond the Rhine and the Danube : Ammianus Marcellinus used it, as did Eutropius. The earliest recorded mention appears to date to the early 3rd century.
Flevum was a castrum and port of the Romans in Frisia, built when emperor Augustus wanted to conquer the German populated territories between the Rhine river and the Elbe river.
Vetera was the name of the location of two successive Roman legionary camps in the province of Germania Inferior near present-day Xanten on the Lower Rhine. The legionary camps of Vetera were part of the Lower Germanic Limes and were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.
The Battle at the Harzhorn took place in the early 3rd century between Germanic and Roman troops near the Harzhorn hill between the towns of Kalefeld and Bad Gandersheim, in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany.
The Congress of Roman Frontier Studies or Limes Congress is one of the most important conferences on archaeology in Europe. The conference takes place on a triennial basis, although there have been some exceptions. The first congress was held in Durham in 1949; the most recent one took place in Batumi, Georgia, in 2024.
The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, or ORL, is a 550-kilometre-long section of the former external frontier of the Roman Empire between the rivers Rhine and Danube. It runs from Rheinbrohl to Eining on the Danube. The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes is an archaeological site and, since 2005, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Together with the Lower Germanic Limes it forms part of the Limes Germanicus.
A burgus or turris ("tower") is a small, tower-like fort of the Late Antiquity, which was sometimes protected by an outwork and surrounding ditches. Darvill defines it as "a small fortified position or watch-tower usually controlling a main routeway."
The Roman fort at Weissenburg, called Biriciana in ancient times, is a former Roman ala castellum, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located near the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes. It lies in the borough of Weißenburg in the Middle Franconian county of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in Germany. Today the castellum is one of the most important sites of research in the Roman limes in Germany. The site contains partly subterranean building remains, a reconstructed north gateway, large thermal baths and a Roman Museum with an integrated Limes Information Centre.
The Danubian Limes, or Danube Limes, refers to the Roman military frontier or limes which lies along the River Danube in the present-day German state of Bavaria, in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.
The Neckar-Odenwald Limes is a collective term for two, very different early sections of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, a Roman defensive frontier line that may have been utilised during slightly different periods in history. The Neckar-Odenwald Limes consists of the northern Odenwald Limes (Odenwaldlimes), a cross-country limes with camps, watchtowers and palisades, which linked the River Main with the Neckar, and the adjoining southern Neckar Limes (Neckarlimes), which in earlier research was seen as a typical 'riverine limes', whereby the river replaced the function of the palisade as an approach obstacle. More recent research has thrown a different light on this way of viewing things that means may have to be relativized in future. The resulting research is ongoing.
The Alb Limes is a Roman frontier fortification or limes of the late 1st century AD in the Swabian Jura, also known as the Swabian Alb. The Alb Limes runs for just under 135 kilometres from Rottweil in the southwest to Heidenheim an der Brenz in the northeast.
The Pannonian Limes is part of the old Roman fortified frontier known as the Danubian Limes that runs for approximately 420 km (260 mi) from the Roman camp of Klosterneuburg in the Vienna Basin in Austria to the castrum in Singidunum (Belgrade) in present-day Serbia. The garrisons of these camps protected the Pannonian provinces against attacks from the north from the time of Augustus (31 BC–14 AD) to the beginning of the 5th century. In places this section of the Roman limes also crossed the river into the territory of the barbarians (Barbaricum).
Pfünz Roman Fort, Castra Vetoniana or Vetonianae, was a Roman cohort camp near Pfünz, a village in the municipality of Walting in the county of Eichstätt, Bavaria. It was built in about 90 A. D. on a 42-metre-high Jurassic hillspur between the valley of the Altmühl and that of the Pfünzer Bach stream. it is a component of the Rhaetian Limes which was elevated in 2005 to the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Of historical importance are the remains of the double V-shaped ditches hewn out of the rock in front of the position, the one on the western rampart being the best preserved. In 1998, as part of the construction of a high pressure water system, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection carried out further test excavations. The archaeological record and rich finds from Pfünz, some of which are very rare, are seen as reasons for further studies in the future.
The Main Limes, also called the Nasser Limes, was built around 90 AD and, as part of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, formed the frontier of the Roman Empire in the area between the present day villages of Großkrotzenburg and Bürgstadt. In this section the limes adjoined the River Main (Moenus), which forms a natural boundary for about 50 kilometres here, so "Main" refers to the river.
The Wetterau Limes is the name given in the field of historical research to that part of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes which enclosed the region that became known later as the Wetterau in the German state of Hesse.
The Danube–Iller–Rhine Limes or DIRL was a large-scale defensive system of the Roman Empire that was built after the project for the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes in the late 3rd century AD. In a narrower sense the term refers only to the fortifications between Lake Constance and the River Danube (Danubius); in a broader sense it also includes the other Late Roman fortifications along the river Rhine (Rhenus) on the High Rhine and on the Upper Rhine as well as the Upper Danube.
The Limesfall is the name given to the abandonment of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes in the mid-3rd century AD by the Romans and the withdrawal of imperial troops from the provinces on the far side of the rivers Rhine and Danube to the line of those rivers. It is sometimes called the fall of the limes.
During ancient Rome, a settlement of unknown name existed at the site of Heidelberg. It consisted of a fort founded around 70 AD in the present-day district of Neuenheim and a civilian settlement (vicus) that developed around the fort and also extended into the present-day district of Bergheim. The original wooden military camp was replaced by a stone fort around the year 90. In 80/90 there was a wooden bridge over the Neckar, and in 200 there was a bridge built on stone pillars. Even after the garrison of the Heidelberg fort was withdrawn around the year 135, the civilian settlement continued to flourish thanks to its favorable geographical location and developed into a prosperous pottery center. Nevertheless, Heidelberg always remained in the shadow of neighboring Lopodunum, which was the main city of the region at the time. As a result of the Alamanni invasions, Roman Heidelberg was abandoned in the 3rd century as part of the so-called Limesfall.
The Limes Gate in Dalkingen is a unique Roman triumphal monument on the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes and is one of its most impressive ruins. Since 2005, the ancient border passage, which was developed into a triumphal gate under Emperor Caracalla, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the entire Roman Limes complex in Germany. It is also part of the open-air museum of the Rhaetian Limes, which was established in 1972 and also includes the nearby Buch fort and its civilian settlement. The gate, which was declared a cultural monument in 2006, is located between the villages of Schwabsberg and Dalkingen in the Ostalbkreis district of Baden-Württemberg.
References
↑ Tilmann Bechert, Willem J. H. Willems: Die römische Reichsgrenze von der Mosel bis zur Nordseeküste. Stuttgart, 1995, ISBN3-8062-1189-2; Margot Klee: Grenzen des Imperiums. Leben am römischen Limes. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006, ISBN3-8053-3429-X, pp.33–40.
↑ Ariw J. Kalis, Sabine Karg, Jutta Meurers-Balke, H.Teunissen-Van Oorschot: Mensch und Vegetation am Unteren Niederrhein während der Eisen- Und Römerzeit. In: Martin Müller, Hans-Joachim Schalles, Norbert Zieling (eds.): Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Xanten und sein Umland in römischer Zeit. Zabern, Mainz, 2008, ISBN978-3-8053-3953-7, pp.31–48; Renate Gerlach, Thomas Becker, Jutta Meurers-Balke, Irmela Herzog: Das Rhein-Limes-Projekt. Wo lag der Rhein zur Römerzeit? In: Andreas Thiel (ed.): Neue Forschungen am Limes. 4.Fachkolloquium der Deutschen Limeskommission 27/28February 2007 in Osterburken. Theiss, Stuttgart, 2008, ISBN978-3-8062-2251-7, (= entries on the World Heritage Site of the Limes,3), pp.9–17; Tilmann Bechert, Willem J. H. Willems: Die römische Reichsgrenze von der Mosel bis zur Nordseeküste. Stuttgart, 1995, ISBN3-8062-1189-2.
Tilmann Bechert: Germania inferior. Eine Provinz an der Nordgrenze des Römischen Reichs. Zabern, Mainz, 2007, ISBN978-3-8053-2400-7.
Tilmann Bechert, Willem J. H. Willems: Die römische Reichsgrenze von der Mosel bis zur Nordseeküste. Stuttgart, 1995, ISBN3-8062-1189-2.
Tilmann Bechert: Römisches Germanien zwischen Rhein und Maas. Die Provinz Germania inferior. (Edition Antike Welt, 4). Hirmer, Munich, 1982, ISBN3-7774-3440-X.
Julianus Egidius Bogaers, Christoph B. Rüger (eds.): Der niedergermanische Limes. Materialien zu seiner Geschichte. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne, 1974, ISBN3-7927-0194-4.
Michael Gechter: Die Anfänge des Niedergermanischen Limes. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. 179, 1979, pp.1–129.
Michael Gechter: Early Roman military installations and Ubian settlements in the Lower Rhine. In: T. Blagg, M. Millett (eds.): The early Roman empire in the West. 2. Auflage. Oxford Books 2002, ISBN1-84217-069-4, S.97–102.
Michael Gechter: Die Militärgeschichte am Niederrhein von Caesar bis Tiberius. Eine Skizze. In: T. Grünewald, S. Seibel (eds.): Kontinuität und Diskontinuität. Die Germania inferior am Beginn und am Ende der römischen Herrschaft, Beiträge des deutsch-niederländischen Kolloquiums in der Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, 27.bis 30.6.2001. De Gruyter, Berlin, 2003, pp.147–159 (Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Ergänzungsband35).
Heinz Günter Horn (ed.): Die Römer in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Theiss, Stuttgart 1987; Lizenzausgabe. Nikol, Hamburg, 2002, ISBN3-933203-59-7.
Anne Johnson: Römische Kastelle des 1.und 2.Jahrhunderts n.Chr. in Britannien und in den germanischen Provinzen des Römerreiches. Zabern, Mainz, 1987, ISBN3-8053-0868-X (Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt, Vol.37).
Margot Klee: Grenzen des Imperiums. Leben am römischen Limes. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006. ISBN3-8062-2015-8. pp.33–40.
Hans Schönberger: Die römischen Truppenlager der frühen und mittleren Kaiserzeit zwischen Nordsee und Inn. In: Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission.66, 1985, pp.321–495.
External links
Lower Germanic Limes on the website of Dutch historian, Jona Lendering (English)
2 Shared locally with other region/s and with Germany and Denmark
3 Shared locally with other region/s and with Germany
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