Second paragraph of third chapter:

The man who did the most to define the edges of the Roman state was its first emperor, Augustus (27 BC-AD 14). Towards the turn of the Era he completed the conquest of the Alps and Spain, defined the eastern boundary by treaty with the Parthians, sent expeditions up the Nile and into the Sahara Desert, and brought Roman arms to the Danube and the Elbe. He famously gave advice to keep the empire within its present boundaries; advice conspicuously ignored by many of his successors, though their achievements were much less than his.

De man die het meest heeft gedaan voor het vastleggen van de grenzen van het Romeinse Rijk was de eerste keizer, Augustus, die regerrede van 27 voor tot 14 na Christus. Rondom het begin van de jaartelling had hij de Alpen en Spanje veroverd, legde hij de grens in het oosten vast door en verdrag met de Parthnen, zond expedities naar de Nijl en de Sahara and trok hij militair op naar de Donau en de Elbe. Het is bekend dat hij adviseerde het rijk binnen deze grenzen te houden. Dit advies is door veel van zijn opvolgers in de wind geslagen, hoewel zij op minder successen konden bogen dan hij.

Der Mann, der am meisten für die Festlegung der Grenzen des römischen Staates getan hat, war der erste Kaiser, Augustus (27 v.-14 n. Chr.) Um die Zeitenwende schloss er die Eroberung der Alpen und Spaniens ab, bestimmte in einem Vertrag mit den Parthern die Ostgrenze, sandte Expeditionen auf den Nil und in die Sahara und brachte römische Heere and die Donau und die Elbe. Er ist berühmt für seinen letzten Rat, das Reich innerhalb der damaligen Grenzen zu halten; einen Rat, den viele seiner Nachfolger offenkundig ignorierten, obwohl ihre Leistungen viel geringer waren als seine.

This is a lovely wee book, produced by the team publicising the recent recognition by UNESCO of the Roman frontier on the lower Rhine as a World Heritage Site. It is lavishly illustrated with photos, charts and maps of the Roman Empire’s frontiers, not only of the lower Rhine but also from Hadrian’s Wall, the Sahara and everywhere in between. The text is in three languages, all impressively squeezed together to fit the photographs.

The authors make the points that the Roman frontier on the Lower Rhine stayed pretty much in the same place for the lifespan of the Empire, and that the soil and social conditions have allowed a lot of archaeological sites to remain in a good state of preservation. I picked up a hard copy of the book at the summer party held by the Brussels office of North Rhineland-Westphalia, which is in the same building as my own workplace, but you can download it for free here.

The one photo that particularly grabbed me was not from Germany or the Netherlands, but from England, the “Staffordshire Pan“, a copper bowl which appears to be a Roman-era souvenir of Hadrian’s Wall. It is decorated with mock Celtic motifs and has the names of the four westernmost forts on the Wall written below the rim, along with the name ‘Aelius Draco’, who might have been the maker or (I think more likely) the person for whom it was commissioned. Originally there would have been a handle, though it looks too beautiful to actually cook with. It was found in Staffordshire in 2003 and is now on display in Carlisle.