[catominor]

"They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a desolation, they call it peace." (from Agricola by Tacitus, a Caledonian chief describing Rome, 98AD)

This is what Rome was doing before it built its limes, brutally and indiscriminately conquering their frontiers. Feels like this is being indirectly advocated for.. which is odd, considering its modern comparison.

Can support other comments in this thread from my reading of Adrian Goldsworthy's whole catalog.. Rome's decline was drawn out and complicated; it would be simplistic and wrong-headed to say it was because it built walls on its frontiers.