By AD 9, the legion was based at the future Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) on the Rhine with the 5th Alaudae, as part of the army of the Lower Rhine. In AD 14, it participated in the Rhine mutiny, before taking part in Germanicus Caesar’s campaigns in Germany. In the AD 15 Battle of Long Bridges against Arminius and the German tribes, the legion saved army commander Aulus Caecina at a critical juncture. Following this, the legion took to using the honorific “Germanica.” As none of the other seven legions which fought in these German campaigns adopted the Germanica title, it is likely that the title was bestowed on the 1st by Germanicus for the unit’s spirited performance at Long Bridges.
On January 1, AD 69, the legions on the Rhine were called upon to make the annual oath to the emperor—in this case Galba, who had taken the throne by force the previous summer. But at Cologne, “the soldiers of the 1st and 5th were so mutinous,” said Tacitus, “that some of them threw stones at the images of Galba.” [Tac., H, I, 55] Fabius Valens, the commander of the 1st Germanica Legion, subsequently led the movement which saw the legions all along the Rhine soon hailing Vitellius, commander of the army of the Upper Rhine, as their emperor, in opposition to Galba.
After Galba was assassinated and replaced by Otho as emperor, several cohorts of the 1st Germanica marched to Italy with Valens to overthrow him. Meanwhile, the legion’s other cohorts remained on the Rhine. The cohorts of the 1st in Italy were in Vitellius’ victorious army, which defeated Otho’s army at Bedriacum in April AD 69. But in the autumn the legion’s cohorts on the Rhine were caught up in the Civilis Revolt and by early the following year had surrendered to the rebels. Meanwhile, the cohorts in Italy had been defeated at Bedriacum and Cremona by Vespasian’s legions.
In AD 70, as Petilius Cerialis’ army pushed up the Rhine, driving Civilis’ rebels ahead of it, the 1st Legion’s Rhine cohorts there defected back to Vespasian and took part in the defeat of the rebels at the Battle of Old Camp. But this did not satisfy Vespasian; disgusted that a Roman legion could murder its generals and surrender to rebels (see the Civilis Revolt), he disbanded the 1st Germanica that same year.
1ST ITALICA LEGION
LEGIO ITALICA
1st Italian Legion
INFORMAL TITLE:
Phalanx of Alexander.
EMBLEM:
Boar.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn.
FOUNDATION:
AD 66, by Nero
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Italy.
POSTINGS:
Gallia Cisalpina, Lugdunensis, Novae, Dacia, Novae
BATTLE HONORS:
Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Dacian Wars, AD 101–106.
Marcus Aurelius’ German Wars, AD 167–175.
AN ITALIAN LEGION DEVOURED BY THE INVADERS
Created by Nero for his later aborted invasion of Parthia, the first legion raised in Italy proper in a century, successful in its first battle, defeated in its second, it would fight losing battles to fend off the Germans, Sarmatians, Goths and Huns.
“Nero organized the 1st Legion called the Italica,” said Dio. [Dio, LV, 23] Nero had plans to launch two simultaneous military operations, which, if they had gone ahead, might have changed history. One was to be a push south into “Ethiopia” from Egypt, the other, the invasion of Parthia, which Julius Caesar had been planning at the time of his death. The 1st Italica Legion was raised in AD 66 for the latter, the first legion founded and recruited in Italy for a hundred years. Nero specified that the legion’s recruits were all to be 6 (Roman) feet tall, and equipped in the manner of a Macedonian phalanx.
With the Parthian operation aborted because of the Jewish Revolt, the 1st Italica was sent to Lugdunum in Gaul in AD 67 to keep order in the wake of the Vindex Revolt. The unit swore loyalty to Vitellius in AD 69, and first saw action for him as victors in the First Battle of Bedriacum. Subsequently posted to Novae in Moesia, the legion remained based there, apart from service in Dacia during Trajan’s Dacian Wars, until the fourth century.
In AD 471, long after the 1st Italica Legion had departed, Novae became the headquarters of Theodoric, the Christian king of the Ostrogoths, who had been driven out of the Ukraine by the Huns. In 489, Theodoric led his Ostrogoth army into Italy, and with the support of the Visigoths defeated the forces of Oadacer, its Christian barbarian ruler. Theodoric made himself king of Italy, with his capital at Ravenna. “Military service for the Romans he kept on the same footing as under the emperors.” [Vale., 12, 60] But this was an Ostrogoth army, all of Italy having been occupied. The power of Rome, like her 1st Italica Legion, had disappeared.
1ST MINERVIA LEGION
LEGIO I MINERVIA
1st Minerva Legion
EMBLEM:
Probably a Gorgon’s head, a symbol connected with Minerva and used by Domitian on his armor.
BIRTH SIGN:
Aries (Ram).
FOUNDATION:
AD 82, by Domitian
RECRUITMENT AREA:
The provinces.
POSTINGS:
Bonna, Moesia, Dacia, Bonna, Syria, Bonna, Lugdunum, Bonna.
BATTLE HONORS:
Domitian’s Chattian campaign, AD 83.
Dacian Wars, AD 101–106.
Parthian War, AD 161–166.
Marcus Aurelius’ Danube Campaigns, AD 167–175.
Battle of Lugdunum, AD 197.
NOTABLE COMMANDER:
Publius Aelius Hadrianus, future emperor Hadrian.
DOMITIAN’S DARLINGS FACE ALARIC’S VISIGOTHS
Raised by Domitian for his Chattian War, it fought the Dacians for Domitian and Trajan, then went east for Marcus Aurelius’ second-century campaigns against the Parthians, returning to the Rhine to stem the flow of invaders.
Domitian had a thirst for military glory, which he gained from his AD 83 campaign against the Chatti tribe of Germany, then a Roman ally. In AD 82 he raised a new legion for the campaign, naming it after his favorite deity, the goddess Minerva, and stationing it at Bonna on the Rhine, opposite the Chattian homeland, prior to his surprise attack the following year.
Posted to Moesia by Trajan, the 1st Minervia took part in his Dacian Wars before returning to Bonna. Marcus Aurelius transferred the legion east for his AD 161–166 operations. It was back at Bonna in AD 167.
Fighting for Septimius Severus in the civil wars that broke out after he took the throne in AD 193, the legion played a leading role in Severus’ victory against Albinus at the Battle of Lugdunum in Gaul four years later. From AD 198 to 211, the 1st Minervia was stationed at Lugdunum. It served there as an occupying force, for the people of Lugdunum had supported Albinus against Severus and would have received harsh treatment from the Minervians. The city never regained its former importance. [Pelle., HdL]
The legion returned to Bonna after its Gallic posting. In AD 401 it was withdrawn from the Rhine for Stilicho’s defense of Italy. Despite Stilicho’s success, the 1st Minervia never returned to the Rhine, and seems to have been destroyed fighting Alaric’s Visigoths following Stilicho’s death.
1ST PARTHICA LEGION
LEGIO I PARTHICA
1st Legion of Parthia
EMBLEM:
Centaur.
BIRTH SIGN:
Probably Capricorn.
FOUNDATION:
AD 197, by Septimus Severus
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Macedonia and Thrace.
POSTINGS:
Parthia, Singara, Constantia.
BATTLE HONORS:
Serverus’ eastern campaigns, AD 197–201.
CREATED TO FIGHT THE PARTHIANS, DOOMED TO FALL TO THE PERSIANS
Raised by Septimius Severus for his eastern campaigns against the Parthians, which brought Mesopotamia into Rome’s empire and brought the plague back to Europe, this legion would go down fighting the Persians at Singara as Roman power eroded.
The 1st Parthica was one of three legions recruited by Septimius Severus in Macedonia and Thrace in AD 1
97, for his Parthian campaign. [Cow., RL 161–284]
The Parthian campaign initially went well, and the 1st Parthica joined in the looting of Ctesiphon in AD 198. But the succeeding years were characterized by hot marches, grinding sieges and a lack of supplies. By AD 201 Severus abandoned the enterprise, leaving the 1st Parthica and 3rd Parthica to garrison Mesopotamia, while he traveled to Egypt before returning to Rome. The 1st Parthica built a base at Singara. There the legion served for more than 150 years, fighting off the Parthians and their Persian successors.
The 1st Parthica’s longtime base at Singara fell to King Shapur’s Persian coalition in AD 360. The legion, or elements of it, then defended Bezabde, which was subsequently also taken by siege by the Persians. According to Roman officer Ammianus, who fought in this war, all the surviving defenders of Bezabde were led off in chains after the city fell. Yet according to the Notitia Dignitatum, the 1st Parthica was still in existence by the end of the fourth century and stationed at Constantia—Veransehir in present-day Turkey. Either the Notitia was wrong, or its section covering the East was written prior to AD 360, or part of the legion was not present at the fall of Bezabde, or the legion was reformed following that defeat.
2ND ADIUTRIX PIA FIDELIS LEGION
LEGIO II ADIUTRIX-P-F
2nd Supporter Legion
EMBLEM:
Pegasus.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn
FOUNDATION:
AD 69. Used by Vitellius, but officially commissioned by Vespasian.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally, Gallia Narbonensis/Italy.
POSTINGS:
Ravenna, Noviomagus, Lindum, Deva, Singidunum, Aquincum, Dacia, Aquincum, Syria, Aquincum.
BATTLE HONORS:
Battle of Old Camp, AD 70.
Conquest of Brigantia, AD 71–74.
Agricola’s Welsh Conquest, AD 82–84.
Trajan’s Dacian Wars, AD 101–106.
Marcus Aurelius’ Parthian Campaign, AD 114–166.
NOTABLE SECOND-IN-COMMAND:
Publius Aelius Hadrianus, future emperor Hadrian, AD 95.
MAKER OF EMPERORS
Raised for Vitellius from marines and Gauls, used by Vespasian against Civilis, with a decade of fighting in Britain before stemming the tide on the Danube, this legion would march on Rome to make Septimius Severus emperor.
One fine day in the summer of AD 70, 5,250 young men of the new 2nd Adiutrix Legion stood nervously in their centuries beside the River Rhine in armor and helmet, with javelins in one hand and raised shield in the other, waiting for their baptism in battle. To their left and right, the hardened men of other long-established legions also waited silently, rank upon rank. Little more than 500 yards (450 meters) to their front, outside the burned-out ruins of the Castra Vetera (or Old Camp) legionary fortress, tens of thousands of German warriors and rebel Roman auxiliaries were booming out a deep-throated war chant and shaking their weapons at the legionaries.
This legion’s first battle would prove to be a Roman victory, but not before the 2nd Adiutrix’s eager but untried recruits were extricated from trouble by the famous 14th Gemina Martia Victrix Legion. But where did these recruits come from, and how did they come to be here? Some modern authors state that the 2nd Adiutrix Legion was raised at Ravenna in AD 69 for Vespasian, and that its men were all marines from the Roman fleet based at Ravenna. Yet the facts do not support this. The origins of the 2nd Adiutrix Legion are much more complicated than that.
Officially, Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis came into being on March 7, AD 70, by decree of the new emperor Vespasian. [Starr, VIII] But the 2nd Adiutrix Legion had traveled an irregular path to reach that point. The most intriguing aspect of the title bestowed by Vespasian on the legion was the “Pia Fidelis.” The last time that a legion had been granted this honorific suffix had been thirty-eight years before, when the emperor Claudius named both the 7th Legion and the 11th Legion Claudia Pia Fidelis for putting down an attempted revolt against him by the governor of Dalmatia, Camillus Scribonianus. Over the next few centuries, other emperors would also grant the “Pia Fidelis” honorific, but to existing legions (and even to a fleet).
Against precedent, could this supposedly new legion, the 2nd Adiutrix, have truly received such recognition from Vespasian in AD 70, at the supposed time of its creation? The very grant of “Pia Fidelis” suggests that the 2nd Adiutrix was already in existence. Later this same year, Vespasian would abolish several legions that had surrendered to the enemy during the Civilis Revolt. In their place he was to raise two new legions, bestowing his family name of Flavia on both—the 4th Flavia and 16th Flavia legions. If the 2nd Adiutrix Legion was indeed a new Vespasianist unit, why was it not called the 2nd Flavia?
The fact is that in March AD 70, the 2nd Adiutrix was not a new legion and, according to numismatic evidence, was in existence in AD 69. That the legion proudly carried the birth sign of Capricorn throughout its career signals that it was established at some time between December 22 and January 19—but in which year?
Invariably, the grant of “Pia Fidelis” was given by emperors in recognition of a unit’s support for their successful bid for, or defense of, the throne. Could this legion have helped Vespasian to win his throne? And if so, how? The reliable Roman historian Tacitus wrote that the city of Vienna in Narbon Gaul, the Roman Vienna, “raised legions for Galba.” [Tac., H, I, 65] One of those legions can be identified as the 1st Adiutrix Legion, raised in AD 68. [See 1st Adiutrix Legion] The indications are that a second unit with a Viennase connection was this second Adiutrix Legion, and that it was raised for Galba. In which case the 2nd Adiutrix could have been raised no later than January 19, AD 69.
Vienna and the neighboring city of Lugdunum had supported opposite sides in the Vindex Revolt of AD 67, and Tacitus writes that well into AD 69 the city of Vienna was under threat from Lugdunum as a result of that enmity. [Tac., H, I, 67] The evidence points to the Viennase raising the 1st Adiutrix Legion as a “supporter” of the 1st Italica Legion, which was then stationed in Lugdunum, in order to defend Vienna against an attack—which the people of Lugdunum were urging the 1st Italica to launch.
After Galba took the 1st Adiutrix recruits to Italy with him, it seems that the elders of Vienna sent recruiting officers throughout Narbon Gaul to enlist young men from farms, villages and towns for their second legion. Once again, to give legitimacy to their action, the Viennase would have claimed to be raising a legion for the emperor.
Having already created the 1st Adiutrix Legion as a “supporter” of the 1st Italica Legion, the Viennase would have settled on the title 2nd Adiutrix for their second creation. Another factor may have influenced this: Narbon Gaul was a recruiting ground of the 2nd Augusta Legion. When, in AD 67, Galba had raised a new legion in the Spanish recruiting grounds of the 7th Claudia Legion, he had called the new unit his 7th Legion. Similarly, a legion raised in the home territory of the 2nd Augusta is likely to have also become a 2nd. Support for this latter connection comes from the emblem adopted by the 2nd Adiutrix. The emblem of the 2nd Augusta was Pegasus the flying horse; it was in fact the only imperial Roman legion known to use the Pegasus emblem up to that time. Pegasus was the emblem adopted by both the 1st Adiutrix and 2nd Adiutrix legions.
But if the 2nd Adiutrix did indeed originate in Narbon Gaul in January AD 69, for Galba, how did it end up being commissioned by Vespasian fourteen months later? Tacitus records that, by early spring, the 1st Italica Legion had received orders to withdraw from Lugdunum and march to link up with Vitellius’ army in Italy. On its way to the Graian Alps, the legion had to cross the Rhône and pass the city of Vienna. When they reached Vienna, said Tacitus, the men of the 1st Italica, inspired by the people of Lugdunum, were all for looting the city. In the end, the 1st Italica’s elderly commander, Manlius Valens, was paid a small fortune by the Viennase to spare their city, and he distributed 300 sesterces, four months’ pay, to each of his legionaries. [Tac., H, I, 66]
In the opening campaign of the short war waged in March and April between Vitellius and Otho, the latter sent part of Misenum’s battle fleet ranging up Italy’s west coast, carrying armed “levies from the fleet” and several Praetorian Guard cohorts, with orders to blockade Narbon Gaul and prevent reinforcements from reaching Vitellius’ forces in Italy. [Tac., H, II, 14] At the same time, Otho sent Praetorian and City Guard cohorts from Rome to the Graian Alps with orders to enter Narbon Gaul overland and link up with the fleet.
Otho’s overland push was slowed when pro-Vitellius towns in the Alps resisted the passage of his troops. Meanwhile, a battle was looming on the Gallic coast, near the port city of Forum Julii, today’s Frejus. Otho’s warships landed Praetorian guardsmen, who occupied level ground a little inland, between the sea and the hills. Armed seamen were also put ashore and took up positions on the hill slopes. In addition, says Tacitus, the seamen onshore were joined by many locals, so that they “had a number of rustics among their ranks.” “Rustics” was a Roman term for unsophisticated country people. [Tac., H, II, 14]
Where did these numerous rustics come from in sudden support of Otho’s forces? Were they perhaps Vienna’s latest levy of raw recruits, sent south by the city fathers to link with Otho’s fleet, despite having been deprived of their arms by Vitellius’ 1st Italica months before? Tacitus was to note that they had no formal arms, and in the battle that ensued they resorted to pelting the other side with stones, proving to be “skillful throwers.” Supported by the catapults of their warships, which came close inshore behind the opposition forces, Otho’s fighters twice bloodily defeated the cohorts of experienced auxiliary infantry and cavalry thrown at them by one of Vitellius’ generals. [Ibid.]
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