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distinctly seem to support it. If the cross wall is of later date, as we have shown reason to believe,
it may well have been constructed with the purpose of reducing the length of the border-line that
had to be guarded across desert ground. A glance at the map is sufficient to demonstrate the
advantage of such a reduction.²
Limes
retrenched
early in first
cent. A.D. Now it is certainly important to note that, while east of the transverse line the dated records
brought to light on the Limes prove occupation of its watch-stations from the beginning of the first
century B.C. down to A.D. 137, the still more numerous datable records found west of it, with two
apparent exceptions, stop short with the time of Wang Mang, and in the case of the outlying
stations on the south-west flank, T. IV. b–VI. d, with dates considerably earlier.³ This fact seems
strongly to favour the presumption that a gradual retrenchment of the border-line lying westwards
of T. XIV may have set in during the troubled times of Wang Mang's usurpation or soon after.
The abandonment of the outlying westernmost portion of the Limes was bound to effect a consider-
able reduction in the difficulties about victualling, garrisoning, etc., which must always have been
felt most in the case of posts pushed out into the desert far away from the inhabited bases. If due
attention is paid to the topographical factors, it appears probable that such a retrenchment would
necessarily have commenced from the side of the outlying line of watch-stations on the south-western
flank, away from the Lou-lan route. The posts along this route may have still been occupied during
a portion at least of Wang Mang's reign, as proved by T. VIII. ii. 2, Doc., No. 585, dated A.D. 8, and
No. 586. In the case of T. XII, XII. a, which, as has been shown above, formed very convenient
advanced watch-posts for the 'Jade Gate',⁴ occupation is likely to have been continued even
somewhat later.
Transverse
wall needed
after
retrench-
ment. As soon as the line of watch-stations guarding the south-western flank was abandoned, the
need must have made itself strongly felt for another line, also drawn across the desert but further
back, which would render the crossing of the 'administrative frontier' of the empire—to use the
term of Anglo-Indian official language—impossible, whether for marauding bands or for unauthorized
persons in general. It is at that time and in the circumstances just mentioned that I think the
construction of the transverse wall from T. XIV to Nan-hu or Yang kuan would best be accounted
for. Without it, access to Tun-huang would have lain open for any party which might have avoided
the stations still guarded along the Lou-lan route by moving round the terminal marshes of the
Su-lo Ho, or have crossed the route beyond the last station still occupied. But what was of even
more immediate moment is the obvious fact that without such protection the important line of
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111
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121
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141
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151
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161
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322
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332
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342
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352
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362
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372
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382
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392
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402
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412
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422
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432
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442
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452
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462
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472
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482
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492
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502
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512
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522
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532
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542
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552
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562
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572
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582
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592
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594
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