UPON THE BORDERS OF MACEDONIA SECUNDA – FACTS, ASSUMPTIONS, CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

The borders of the Roman Empire, which fluctuated throughout the empire's
history, were a combination of natural frontiers and man-made fortifications which
separated the lands of the empire from the ”barbarian” lands beyond. In assessing
the territory of the Roman Empire, we can observe different geographical and artificial
administrative demarcations. At the outskirts we have the frontiers that determined
the physical edges of the empire, which established not only the Empire’s size
geographically, but also designated the limits of the territory that was to be ruled by
the Empire’s administration. The expansion of the empire in the Late Republic and
(early) Empire led to an increase of provincial territories and thus of provincial boundaries
or borders, separating the different provincial territories from each other.
The sources of the topography of Macedonia in the Roman period are very
poor despite the many geographical and historical works that treat its territory. For
the gradual alteration and redefinition of administrative boundaries, the creation of
new and the abolition of the old provinces, the sources offer a fragmented picture,
while offering only partial details on the definition of the boundaries. In this regard,
the attempt to define the exact boundaries between the late antique provinces is based
on several reliable facts and many assumptions.