The Roman frontier in Europe, as it does more obviously in Africa and the East, by and large corresponds with the limit of intensive agriculture. Economically the rational frontier in Britain was about halfway up and Hadrian's wall was a fair military translation of this, but there was always a feeling that, after all, the place was an island, and if you could get to the end you wouldn't need a frontier at all. Accordingly, the annexation of Scotland was attempted at intervals but always failed because the legions could not supply themselves in such sparsely populated country.
Colin McEvedy, The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History, 1st ed. (1967) p.82, note 1
A clearer and more succinct statement of what Braudel called "the limits of the possible" is hard to imagine.As prose this paragraph is not quite perfect, though close -- still, I would have been very content indeed to have written it. The entire book is a joy. (I have not seen the second edition.)
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