a march is or was originally a tract of land bordering
on 2 countries
in this sense
march & margin & frontier & buffer zone are all more
or less synonymous
& tho such marches were often claimed by both of their
larger neighbors
they were also often effectively independent
microstates
andorra was & may still be a fairly good example of a
march
but modern borders or boundaries are a slightly
different thing
& tho we have seen a few frontier markers dating from
medieval & ancient & even prehistoric times that are
still in use as border markers
nevertheless
linear borders & states as we know them today date
back only as far as the peace of westphalia in 1648
& few earlier frontiers or states survive intact
so
nearly all the border markers we have seen are 17th
century or later
also
defensive walls & border markers are not at all
necessarily the same thing either
most ancient frontiers were neither marked nor
fortified
but simply followed natural obstacles
such as rivers & mountains or deserts etc
the greek city states for example were all rather
isolated from each other in just this way
as well as surrounded by rural fringes & rocky
seacoasts etc
& of course greece & persia werent even on the same
land mass
so any notion of a greco persian frontier per se is
certainly a nonstarter
tho of course the pass at thermopylae was the famous
pinch point in that case
this is not to say there were no frontier markers
whatsoever in ancient times
since markers of some sort must have existed & been
recognized as such in just about all places & times
for example
http://www.megaliths.co.uk/ireland.htm
& indeed the words march & marker & demarcation &
margin all have a common source
but the ancient marches & frontiers werent at all what
we might recognize as borders today
nor were the ancient markers at all what we might
recognize as demarcations in the modern sense
--- sdrawkcabdom <sdrawkcab8@...> wrote:
> This has no doubt been discussed before, but
> anyway....
> I was wondering about ancient borders, and the
> degree to which they
> were marked/demarcated in some way. I'm aware of the
> march land
> concept, but surely not all past border were
> marches.
>
> Obviously there are some famous examples of ancient
> borders - the
> Romans and the rivers Rhine and Danube, Hadrian's
> Wall, the Great
> Wall of China (not visible in space btw), the
> Rubicon etc.
>
> But what about, say Ancient Greece (see
>
map:http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~kallet/greece/Map%20Peloponnesian%
> 20War.jpg).
> Now, I find I hard to believe that these borders
> would not have been
> marked in some way, condsidering the bitter and
> bloody wars fought
> between these various states. Or could the border
> with their arch
> enemies the Persians really have been friendly and
> open, completley
> unmarked? I realise that the Greeks emphasised their
> cities, but
> surely some basic defences must have been built for
> security's sake
> at least...?
>
>
>
>
>
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