The “Armed Peaced” Period in the North of Spain (19/15 BC - 15/20 AD): The Origin of Limes System Without Frontier?

Abstract

From a military point of view, the Augustan actions in Hispania can be divided in two different stages: the Cantabrian Wars and the immediately following years (29-19/15 BC) and the subsequent stabilization process, an “Armed Peace” (19/15 BC- 14 AD). Throughout almost ten years, between 29-19 BC., the Roman army gets involved in a long series of operations and skirmishes known as Cantabrian Wars, in which Augustus himself and some of his best generals took part. The conquest of the Cantabri and Astures tribes conclude the integration of complete integration of the whole Hispania within the Roman Empire. In the last years, the archaeological investigation have experimented a very important progress in this field. The scene of the conquest strategies of the Astur and Cantabrian territories by the Roman army is changing quickly. The end of the war and the subsequent departure of the majority of the troops to the Empire’s northern frontiers clearly initiated a new period. It is from this time that the basis of a military policy of longterm territorial occupation was established. The basis of that policy is the configuration of an exercitus Hispanicus attached to the Tarraconensis province that mainly consists of three legions chosen from those that have taken part in the war: the IIII Macedonica, the VI Victrix and the X Gemina. It is from this time that a series of ‘permanent’ legionary camps (Herrera de Pisuerga, Astorga, León) are created for the troops stationed in the northern Hispania. They configured a protective barrier to the south of the Cantabrian mountain range, that we have called ‘limes without border’. We are referring not so much to a policy of frontiers in itself as to a strip of frontier territory under military control and administration where, obviously, the main military works and settlements are concentred and they give us an idea of the plan applied in the northern boundaries of the Empire some years later. Tiberius ´arrival to the power means a military reorganization of the north of Hispania.