Neckar-Odenwald Limes

The Neckar-Odenwald Limes (German: Neckar-Odenwald-Limes) is a collective term for two, very different early sections of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, a Roman defensive frontier line that may have been utilised during slightly different periods in history.

More recent research has thrown a different light on this way of viewing things that means may have to be relativized in future.

The Odenwald Limes begins in the north on the River Main, either near Obernburg or near Wörth, and runs southwards from there, skilfully using the topographical features of the Odenwald highlands, to the River Neckar, which it probably reached in the area of the present-day county of Heilbronn.

The Neckar line forms its extension in a southerly direction as far as Arae Flaviae in the terrain of the present town of Rottweil, where it oriented itself to the course of the river.

The Neckar-Odenwald Limes probably emerged in the area of the Odenwald Limes during the Trajanic period[2] and, in the area of the Neckar line, in the principate of Domitian or early Trajanic period, and, in the area of the old Neckar camps, under Vespasian.

Map with route of the Odenwald Limes (red line, left) with locations of towers, camps, settlements or well known remains of a villa rustica as well as descriptions of military divisions; right: the line of the so-called Anterior Limes, which replaced the Neckar-Odenwald Limes around 160/165 AD.