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Sec. iv]   MILITARY AGRICULTURAL COLONIES   743

border troops between detachments garrisoning the watch-towers and much larger reserves. kept available in the nearest permanently inhabited area was not likely to be abandoned even after a change may have taken place in the composition of the border force at some subsequent period.

But support quite as convincing is furnished by the analogy of the arrangements prevailing on the limites of the West, both in classical and modern times. It is unnecessary to point out here at length how great a part was played in the Limes policy of the Roman Empire by the military colonies which were established in the newly-conquered border territories, either to protect the great strategic routes, the true limites of the periods of expansion, or to provide for the defence of the lines of posts safeguarding the occupied areas from barbarian raids and the like. While the regular Legions, representing the offensive forces of the Empire and kept as general reserves, were concentrated in big cantonments, often far behind the actual border lines, their protection was entrusted to bodies of auxiliary troops from the border territories themselves. Without being permanently embodied this militia held fortified camps capable of effective defence in case of serious inroads. From these again small detachments were pushed out to garrison the towers which guarded the exterior Limes, and to patrol any continuous rampart, ditch, palisade, or other barrier that might have been drawn to link up the towers and to demarcate the actual frontier."

A very instructive parallel is to be found also irLthe organization of an extensive and historically interesting Limes system of modern Europe which survived almost down to our own times. I mean the military border territory, or ` Militär-Grenze ', which was created by the Austrian Central Government at the beginning of the eighteenth century after the complete expulsion of the Turkish power from Hungary.'2 This territory was constituted from those districts of Hungary proper, Transylvania, and Croatia which adjoined the north bank of the Danube and Save, then forming the frontier towards the Turkish empire. The purpose aimed at was to provide a Limes which would render the newly reconquered borders safe from marauding inroads of Turkish irregulars and the like. Only thus was it possible to assure the peaceful development of vast tracts further north which, owing to the Turkish wars of more than a century and a half and the constant border troubles filling the intervals, had become almost waste. There was,• no doubt, also a definite intention from the first to create in this modern Limes a convenient military base for further expansion south of the Save and Danube, such as was actually pursued during the first third of the eighteenth century. But subsequently, as Turkish power weakened, the function of the ' Grenze' became more and more confined to that of a police and quarantine border, and thus corresponded very closely to the `barrier' or kuan character of the Chinese' Great Wall'. Even this function had practically ceased before the final restitution of the territory occupied by the ` Grenz' regiments to the civil administrations of Hungary and Croatia took place in 1872.

Analogy of military colonies on Roman

limites.

Parallel of Austrian military border on Danube, etc.

" The works in which the military system maintained for the protection of the different border provinces of the Roman Empire are discussed in their general features are not accessible to me now. But a reference to Prof. Kornemann's comprehensive historical synopsis of the Roman Limes systems, Kilo, vii. pp. 77, 85 and passim, will show that the dispositions sketched above in bare outlines prevailed during the periods when the Empire pursued a powerful policy on its frontiers.

I particularly regret my inability to refer to Prof. v. Domaszewski's important paper on the Benefic:arii there repeatedly quoted (Klio, vii. pp. 73, 77 etc.), as their settlements seem to correspond closely in character and functions to the early military colonies on the westernmost Chinese

Limes. Cf. also the references made to the colo„iae veleranorum on the Roman borders, ibid., p. 87, and the consistences along the Danube Limes, p. zoo.

12 The above brief sketch of the ' Grenze ' system on the Danube and Save is based on the general knowledge that I possess of its history and of the conditions under which it was maintained down to the days of my early youth. No literature is at present accessible to me on the subject. In the interest of historical research it is much to be.hoped that the organization of this very complete Limes system of modern Europe may have been thoroughly studied and recorded by a competent historian while the documents and local knowledge concerning it were still fully available.