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The Fossatum is accompanied by many small watchtowers and numerous forts, often built within sight of one another.
==Cultural impact==
{{Original research|section|date=March 2009}}
{{Location map many
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Roman writers and subsequent authors {{citation needed|date=April 2018}} who depended on them presented the ''limes'' as a sort of sacred border beyond which human beings did not transgress, and if they did, it was evidence that they had passed the bounds of reason and civilization. To cross the border was the mark of a savage. They wrote of the Alemanni failing to respect the ''limes'' as if they had passed the final limitation of character and had committed themselves to perdition. The [[Alemanni]], on the other hand, never regarded the border as legitimate in the first place.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} They viewed the Romans as foreigners, who changed native place names and intruded on native homes and families. They were only to be tolerated because they were willing to pay cash for the privilege and also offered the blandishments of civilized life.
The Romans never built ''limites'' where they considered themselves free to attack. As the army stayed within the ''limites'', except for punitive expeditions, these were as much a mental barrier as material. The Germanic warriors harrying the ''limes'' during summer used the hesitance of the Romans to move beyond them to their advantage, knowing that they could concentrate and supply themselves outside the ''limes'' without fear of preemptive strikes.
==Post-Roman ''limites''==
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