Limitanei

Багерман А.Я.

The limitanei were troops of the late Roman army associated with frontier defence and stationed in border regions. The name does not imply one type of equipment or identical fighting capacity for every unit.

Frontier commands included infantry, cavalry and troops guarding river boundaries. Ripenses refers to river-frontier troops, not exclusively to sailors in river fleets.

Comitatenses and palatine units belonged to the field armies and had a different position in the late-antique military system. Field forces could operate alongside frontier garrisons during serious threats. Palatine units should not all be equated with the emperor’s personal palace guard.

The distinction between frontier and field forces is useful, but does not mean that one group never moved and the other was always campaigning. Units could be transferred and their administrative status could change. Pseudocomitatenses were units transferred from frontier forces into a field army.

The composition of a particular frontier command must be established from evidence for the chosen period. The Notitia Dignitatum lists units with their commanders and stations; a shared legionary number alone does not prove that all later detachments were identical.

Related topics

Late Roman Empire, Dominate, Comitatenses, Soldiers of the Roman Empire of the Dominate era

Literature and sources

1. Benjamin Knör. Das spätantike Offizierskorps (4./5. Jahrhundert), Verlag Grin,2010,2. Michael Whitby. Army and Society i.d. later Roman World,2007, in: Averon Carneron/B.Ward Perkins/M.Whitby (Hrsg.) The Cambridge Ancient History Nr.14,3. Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Hrsgb.): Erben des Imperiums in Nordafrika. Das Königreich der Vandalen, darin: Yann Le Bohac: Africa in der späten Kaiserzeit, Die Provinz am Vorabend der vandalischen Eroberung, S. 65-78, Verlag P.v.Zabern, Karlsruhe 2009

4. Ammianus Marcellinus. Rerum Gestarum

5. A. V. Bannikov. Roman Army in the fourth century from Constantine to Theodosius