[65: _Limes_ (from _limus_, across) is a technical expression foreign to the state of things under our [German] law, and hence not to be reproduced in our language, derived from the fact that the Roman division of land, which excludes all natural boundaries, separates the squares, into which the ground coming under the head of private property is divided, by intermediate paths of a definite breadth; these intermediate paths are the _limites_, and so far the word always denotes at once the boundary drawn by man's hand, and the road constructed by man's hand. The word retains this double signification even in application to the state (Rudorff, _Grom. Inst._ p. 289, puts the matter incorrectly); _limes_ is not every imperial frontier, but only that which is marked out by human hands, and arranged at the same time for being patrolled and having posts stationed for frontier-defence (_Vita Hadriani_, 12; _locis in quibus barbari non fluminibus, sed limitibus dividuntur_), such as we find in Germany and in Africa. Therefore there are applied to the laying-out of this _limes_ the terms that serve to designate the construction of roads, _aperire_ (Velleius, ii. 121, which is not to be understood, as Müllenhoff, _Zeitschr. f. d. Alterth._, new series, ii. p. 32, would have it, like our opening of a turnpike), _munire_, _agere_ (Frontinus, _Strat._ i. 3, 10: _limitibus per CXX m. p. actis_). Therefore the _limes_ is not merely a longitudinal line, but also of a certain breadth (Tacitus, _Ann._ i. 50; _castra in limite locat_). Hence the construction of the _limes_ is often combined with that of the _agger_--that is, of the road-embankment (Tacitus, _Ann._ ii. 7: _cuncta novis limitibus aggeribusque permunita_), and the shifting of it with the transference of frontier-posts (Tacitus, _Germ._ 29: _limite acto promotisque praesidiis_). The Limes is thus the imperial frontier-road, destined for the regulation of frontier-intercourse, inasmuch as the crossing of it was allowed only at certain points corresponding to the bridges of the river boundary, and elsewhere forbidden. This was doubtless effected in the first instance by patrolling the line, and, so long as this was done, the _limes_ remained a boundary road. It remained so too, when it was fortified on both sides, as was done in Britain and at the mouth of the Danube; the Britannic wall is also termed _limes_ (p. 187, note 2). Posts might also be stationed at the allowed points of crossing, and the intervening spaces of the frontier-roads might be in some way rendered impassable. In this sense the biographer of Hadrian says in the above-quoted passage that at the _limites_ he _stipitibus magnis in modum muralis saepis funditus iactis atque conexis barbaros separavit_. By this means the frontier-road was converted into a frontier-barricade provided with certain passages through it, and such was the _limes_ of upper Germany in the developed shape to be set forth in the sequel.