References

Introduction: What Were the limites for the Romans (and Not, What Are They for Us)?

  • Introduction : Qu’étaient les limites pour les Romains (et non pas, que sont-elles pour nous) ?

Dominic Moreau

p. 11-19

    Abstracts

    In addition to the presentation of the context of this special issue on The Limits of Conquest and Transformations of Roman Imperial Frontiers, this introduction offers a quick overview of the different Greek and Latin words used during the Roman era to qualify frontiers, boundary markers and other physical and political limits. A particular focus is on the definition of the term limes, which is the one generally used to describe the external borders of the Empire, while being the one that is most difficult to translate into contemporary languages.

    En plus de la présentation du contexte de ce dossier sur Les limites de la conquête et les transformations des frontières impériales romaines, cette introduction propose un tableau rapide des différents mots grecs et latins utilisés pendant l’époque romaine pour qualifier les frontières, les bornes et les autres limites physiques et politiques. Un accent particulier est mis sur la définition du terme limes, qui est celui généralement utilisé pour qualifier les frontières extérieures de l’Empire, tout en étant celui qui est le plus difficilement traduisible dans les langues contemporaines.

    Index

    Mots-clés

    époque romaine, époque tardo-romaine, vocabulaire, étymologie, sens, limes, frontières, bornes, limites

    Keywords

    Roman era, Late Roman era, vocabulary, etymology, meaning, limes, frontiers, boundary markers, limits

    Outline

    Excerpt

    Preamble

    The idea to produce a collective book centred on the transformation—in some cases, the fall—of Roman frontiers, over the entire duration of the ancient phase of the Empire and on all the regions that comprised it came up during a discussion between the two editors of this special issue of HiMA, which was held on the sidelines of the 25th Congress of Roman Frontier Studies/Limes Congress (Nijmegen, Netherlands, 21-27 August 2022). Their motivation for such a project was dictated not only by the lack of such a work to date, but also by their common interest in the mutation of border systems and life on the margins of the Empire in Late Antiquity. In addition, both also share an interest in the very notion of a border in the Roman era and, in particular, the meaning of the different Latin and Greek terms used by archaeologists and historians to describe it.

    They themselves were convinced of the interest of their project, but they did not know, initially, what the reaction of the...

    References

    Bibliographical reference

    Dominic Moreau, « Introduction: What Were the limites for the Romans (and Not, What Are They for Us)? », HiMA : revue internationale d'Histoire Militaire Ancienne, 14 | 2025, 11-19.

    Electronic reference

    Dominic Moreau, « Introduction: What Were the limites for the Romans (and Not, What Are They for Us)? », HiMA : revue internationale d'Histoire Militaire Ancienne [Online], 14 | 2025, . Copyright : Le texte seul, hors citations, est utilisable sous Licence CC BY 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont susceptibles d’être soumis à des autorisations d’usage spécifiques.. URL : https://preo.ube.fr/hima/index.php?id=1811

    Author

    Dominic Moreau

    Associate Professor Habil. (Maître de conférences HDR) in Late Antiquity, Université de Lille, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, Inrap, UMR 9028 – HARTIS – Histoire, histoire de l’art, archéologie, textes, images, sociétés, F-59000 Lille, France

    Author resources in other databases

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    Copyright

    Le texte seul, hors citations, est utilisable sous Licence CC BY 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont susceptibles d’être soumis à des autorisations d’usage spécifiques.