Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/207

 LIMENAE. approach (Pol. i. 42), would now effectually prevent it from being used as a port for large vessels. (Smyth, I. c. pp. 23.3, 2.34.) It is a strong proof of the extent to which Greek culture and civilisation were diffused throughout Sicily, that, though we have no account of Lily- baeum being at any time in possession of the Greeks, but, on the contrary, we know positively that it was founded by the Carthaginians, and continued in their hands till it pas.sed under the dominion of Koine, yet the coins of Lilybaeum are exclusively Greek; and we learn from Cicero that it was pos- sible for a man to acquire a knosvledfre of the Greek lansruage and hterature in that city (Cic. in Caecil. 12): [E.H.B.] LIJIITES ROMANI. 191 COIN OF LILYBAEUM. LI'MENAE (Aijuerai), also called Lijinopolis (J^ifxvSiv TroAis), a place in the north of Pisidia, which is mentioned only by ecclesiastical writers (Hierocl. p. 672 ; Concil. Chalced. p. 670 ; Con- di. Const, iii. p. 676, where it is called Au^- yai'a). The ancient ruins of Galandos, on the east of the lake of Eyerdir, are believed to belong to Limenae. (Arundell, Dlscov. in Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 326 ; Franz, Fdnf Insch-ift, p. 35.) [L. S.] LI.ME'NIA (AijueWa), a town of Cyprus, which Strabo (x. p. 683) places S. of Soli. It appears from some ecclesiastical documents cited by Wesseling (n/). ffierocl.) to have been 4 M. P. from Soli. Now Limna. (Engel, Kijpros, vol. i. p. 77.) [E. H. B.] LI'MIA, river and town. [Gallaecia.] Ll'MICI. [Gallaecia.] LLMIGANTES. The ordinary account of the Limigantes is as follows. In a. d. 334 — 337, the Sarmatians, in alliance with the Vandals under Visumar, provoke the indignation of Constantine by their inroads on the Empire. He leaves them to the sword of Geberic the Gothic king. Reduced and humbl 'd by him, they resort to the expedient of arming their slaves. These rebel against their masters, whom they either reduce or expel. Of those that leave their country, some take arms under the Gothic king, others retreat to the parts beyond the Carpathians ; a third portion seeks the seiwice of Rome, and is established, to the number of 300,000, in different parts of Pannonia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Italy (Gibbon, c. xviii. with note). Zeuss (Z)«e Deutschen, i^-c., s. v. Sarmatae) holds that others were transplanted to the Rhine, believing thata passage in Ausonius applies to them. (^Ad Mo- sell . b — 8.) This may or may not be the case. The more important elements of the account are, that the slaves who were thus armed and thus rebelled, are called Limigantes — this being the name they take in Gibbon. Their scene of action was the parts about the present town of Peterwaradein, on the north bank of the Danube, nearly opposite the Servian frontier, and in the district between the Theiss and the great bend of the Danube. Here lay the tract of the Sar- matae, and Jazyges Metanastae, a tract which never was Roman, a tract which lay as a March or Boun- dary., with Pannonia on one side and Dacia on the other, but belonging to neither. Observe the words in Italics. In his note, Gibbon draws special attention to "the broken and imperfect manner " in which the " Gothic and vSannatian wars are related." Should this remark stimulate the inquiries of the histo- rian, he may observe that the name Limigantes is not found in the authority nearest the time, and of the most importance in the w;;y of evidence, viz. Ammianus Jlarcellinus. Ammianus speaks only of servi and domini: — " Sarmatae llberi ad discn-tio- nem servoruni rebellium appellati (xxix. 6. 15)." On the other hand, it is only in a work of such inferior authority (at least, for an event a.d. 337) as the Chronicle of Jerome (^Chronicon Hieronymt) that the name Limigans is found ; the same work stating that the masters were called Arcaragantes. To say nothing about the extent to which the story has a suspicious similarity to more than one older account of the expulsion of the masters by the slaves of the same sort, the utter absence of either name in any other writer is remarkable. So is their semi-Latin form. Can the whole account of the slave insurrection be problematical — based upon a confusion of names which will be shown to be highly probable ? Let us bear in mind the locality of these Limigantes, and the language of those parts in contact with it which belonged to Rome. The locality itself was a Limes (eminently so), and the contiguous tongue was a Lingua Rustlca in which such a form as Limigantes would be evolved. It is believed to be the Latin name of the Sarmatae and .lazyges of what may be called the Daco-Pannonian March. The account of the Servile War is susceptible of a similar explanation. Ammianus is nearly the last of the authors who uses the name Sarmatae, which will, ere long, be replaced, to a great extent, by the name Serv- (2ep§-). Early and late, this name has always suggested the idea of the Latin Servus, — just as its partial equivalent Slav- does of the English Slave. It is submitted that these Servi of Am- mianus (^Limigantes of the Chronicle) are the Servians (Servi) of the March (Limes), now begin- ning to be called by the name by which they desig- nated themselves rather than by the name by which they were designated by their neighbours. [R. G. L.] LFMITES ROMA'NI, sometimes simply Limes or Limites, is the name generally applied to the long line of fortifications constructed by the Romans as a protection of their empire, or more directly of the Decumates agri, against the invasions of the Ger- mans. It extended along the Danube and the Rhine, and consisted efforts, ramparts, walls, and palisades. The course of these fortifications, which were first commenced by Drusus and Tiberius, can still be traced with tolerable accuracy, as very considerable portions still exist in a good state of preservation. Its whole length was about 350 English miles, be- tween Cologne and Ratkbon. It begins on the Danube, about 15 miles to the south-west of Ratis- bon, whence it proceeds in a north-western direc- tion under the name given to it in the middle ages of " the Devil's Wall " (Teufelsmauer), or Pfahlrain. For a distance of about 60 miles it was a real stone wall, which is still in a tolerable state of preserva- tion, and in some places still rises 4 or 5 feet above the ground; and at intervals of little more than a mile, remnants of round towers are visible. This wall terminates at P/ahlkeim in Wilrtemberg. From