- In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "Roderick and Ellen Robertson"
<rjremr_at_s...> wrote:
> > Q: is anyone aware of a nation ever choosing to "retreat behind
its
> > natural frontiers" (rather than "expand until it reaches its
natural
> > frontiers"? :-)
>
> Well, the Roman Empire chose to stop expanding and retreated behind
a
> combination of natural (Rhine) and built (Hadrian's Wall) barriers.
Does
> that count? It *could* have continued expanding, if the will had
been there.
>
> RR
To strengthen the point: some time after Rome adopted its Rhine
frontier the Emperor Trajan took a strategic decision to invade Dacia
and add it to the empire (this is the campaign that is comemmorated
by Trajan's column). Two centuries later his successors carried out
a planned withdrawal and put the frontier back on the Danube.
Andrew