(October 28, 2010 at 5:27 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:Well, maybe i shouldve said that if a province wasnt substainable it wouldve ended up being abandoned, as britain eventually was. There'd be no sense in occupying land that wasnt of any economic or military importance afterall.
The only instance I can think of for this was in 119 when Hadrian voluntarily relinquished territory east of the Euphrates which had been conquered by Trajan a few years earlier. Hadrian regarded the position as untenable in the face of a potential renewed Parthian assault and wanted the Euphrates for a boundary.
The whole thing was going to shit by the time the Romans withdrew from Britain.
Dacia was abandoned around 250CE. It was a force economizing move that straightened the line of Roman frontier and thus reduced the amount of troops needed to defend it.
If only Augustus and Tiberius had persisted in straightening the Roman north western frontier to River Elba, Roman defensive posture would have been immeasurable stronger from 180 CE onwards.