In AD 70, the legion marched all the way from Rome back to its Syrian base. The legion participated in Trajan’s AD 111–116 Parthian campaign, after which it was based at Caparcotna in Galilee. Archaeological evidence puts the legion at Caparcotna in AD 117 at the time of the Jewish uprisings in Egypt and Cyrenaica and on Cyprus. The Caparcotna fortress built by the legion was situated not far from the entrance to the Wadi Ara pass, 25 miles (38.6 kilometers) from Gadara and 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Nazareth.
By AD 119, the legion was in Arabia, but by AD 120 was back at Caparcotna, which then took the name Legio, until it was renamed Maximianus, apparently after the emperor Maximianus Galerius (reigned AD 305–311). The legion was based there for the remainder of its known career.
6TH VICTRIX LEGION
LEGIO VI VICTRIX
6th Victorious Legion
EMBLEM:
Bull (probably).
BIRTH SIGN:
Gemini (probably).
FOUNDATION:
Based on the remnants of Pomey’s 6th
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Probably Italy and Spain.
POSTINGS:
Hispania Tarraconensis, the Rhine, Novaesium, Vetera, Eburacum.
BATTLE HONORS:
Battle of Old Camp, AD 70.
THE VICTORIOUS SIXTH
Fighting Augustus’ Cantabrian War, this unit garrisoned Spain, then helped put down the Civilis Revolt before being sent to Britain in AD 122 after the disappearance of the 9th Hispana Legion. It was the last legion to leave Britain.
Like the 6th Ferrata, originating from the republican 6th Legion that had marched for Pompey the Great, this legion was under Octavian’s control by the 42 BC Battles of Philippi. As part of Octavian’s new standing army, this second 6th served in the Cantabrian Wars in Spain from 29 BC, during which it may have gained its Victrix title.
Stationed in Nearer Spain until AD 70, the legion supported the grab for imperial power by its province’s governor, Galba, and would have supplied centurions for the new 7th Legion raised by Galba in eastern Spain for his march on Rome. In AD 70, the 6th Victrix marched to the Rhine to join Petilius Cerialis in putting down the Civilis Revolt. It was thereafter stationed in Lower Germany at Novaesium, modern-day Neuss.
The legion transferred to Vetera during the Dacian Wars, during which the Rhine legions were reduced to provide units for Trajan’s Dacian invasions. It was still at Vetera in AD 122, when it was ordered to transfer urgently to Britain to replace the destroyed 9th Hispana Legion. [See Disappearance of the 9th.]
The 6th Victrix was subsequently based at Eburacum, today’s York, for almost 300 years. In 401, the legion was ordered by Stilicho, Master of Combined Forces, to join him in Italy for the last-ditch defense of Italy against Alaric and his Visigoths. The last legion to leave Britain, it never returned. It seems to have been destroyed in the battles leading up to Alaric’s sacking of Rome in the year 410.
7TH CLAUDIA LEGION
LEGIO VII CLAUDIA PIA FIDELIS
Claudius’ Loyal and Patriotic 7th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Granted by Claudius in AD 42 for terminating the Scribonianus Revolt.
EMBLEM:
Bull.
BIRTH SIGN:
Leo.
FOUNDATION:
Raised c. 55 BC by Pompey the Great.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Initially Spain. By the late first century BC, Asia Minor. [Kepp., MRA]
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Galatia, Tilurium, Moesia, Rome, Viminacium, Dacia, Viminacium.
BATTLE HONORS:
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Second Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Cremona, AD 69.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
Battle of Tapae, AD 88.
Trajan’s Dacian Wars, AD 101-106.
CAESAR’S SEVENTH BECOMES CLAUDIUS’ SEVENTH
Rewarded by Claudius for putting down a rebellion against him, this legion participated in a rare decisive victory against the Dacians under Domitian before invading Dacia itself under Trajan.
A 7th Legion was known to be serving the Roman Republic in Spain in 181 BC [Livy, XXXIX 30, 12], and 7th legions were stationed in Spain right up to the time the 7th served under Caesar in Gaul. During the conquest of Gaul, the 7th Legion served under Publius Crassus, son of Crassus the triumvir, both of whom would be killed by the Parthians at Carrhae. Under young Crassus, the 7th Legion single-handedly took all of Aquitania for Rome. In 52 BC, under Caesar’s deputy Titus Atius Labienus, the 7th was one of four legions that defeated a large Gallic army led by the chieftain Camulogenus, at Grenelle beside the Seine, not far from the site of Paris. Caesar considered the 7th one of his best legions, and took it on both his expeditions to Britain.
Caesar’s 7th served Octavian at the time of the Battle of Actium, after which he stationed it in Galatia. It was one of five legions rushed from the East to Pannonia in AD 6 after the outbreak of the Pannonian War. Despite the fact that Velleius says that Tiberius afterward sent all these legions back to the East, by the end of the war in AD 9 the 7th Legion was stationed in Dalmatia at Tilurium, today’s Gardun in Croatia. It remained there through the mutiny of AD 14, until transferred to Moesia many years later.
In AD 42, Claudius had only been on the throne for a little over a year when Furius Camillus Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia, ordered the two legions of his province, the 7th and the 11th, to prepare to march on Rome to depose Claudius. Five days later, men of the 7th and 11th killed Scribonianus and the officers supporting his rebellion. In his gratitude, Claudius bestowed the titles Claudia Pia Fidelis on the two loyal legions: “Claudius’ Loyal and Patriotic.” Nonetheless, the authoritarian general sent to take over in Dalmatia executed the soldiers who had killed their own officers, as an example, even though they had done so in support of the emperor. The 7th Claudia Pia Fidelis was immediately transferred to Moesia.
By AD 69, Tettius Julianus was commanding the 7th Claudia, as it was now commonly known. The governor of Moesia, taking advantage of the upheaval caused by the war of succession that year, sent a centurion to kill Julianus to settle an old personal feud. Julianus escaped to the mountains. Following the war, rivals in the Senate accused Julianus of deserting his legion when he had gone into hiding, and the House had withdrawn his praetorship. Once Vespasian arrived at Rome and learned the facts, Julianus’ rank was restored.
Meanwhile, Julianus’ legion, led in his absence by its senior tribune, swore for Vespasian in AD 69 and fought under Vespasian’s general Primus at Bedriacum and Cremona later that year, playing a leading role in defeating the Vitellianist forces: “The fiercest struggle was maintained by the 3rd [Gallica] and 7th Legions.” [Tac., H, III, 29] The 7th was subsequently in the army that fought its way into Rome to make Vespasian emperor.
Vespasian posted the legion back to Viminacium in Moesia (now Kostolac, in Serbia). In AD 88–89, during Domitian’s otherwise disastrous war with the Dacians, Tettius Julianus had his opportunity to repay the faith shown in him by Domitian’s father by leading a Roman army to a bloody victory over Dacian forces at Tapae in central Dacia. The gravestone of Tiberius Claudia Maximus (then a standard-bearer in the 7th Claudia’s mounted squadron, who was later decorated by Domitian) reveals that the legion was one of Julianus’ units in this campaign. [AE 1969/70, 583]
On this war’s conclusion, with a treaty which strongly favored the Dacians, Domitian divided Moesia into two provinces, Upper and Lower Moesia. The 7th Claudia was stationed in Upper Moesia, the western part of the old province.
The 7th Claudia took part in Trajan’s two Dacian Wars of AD 101–102 and 105–106 which finally conquered Decebalus and brought Dacia into the empire. From its long-term base at Viminacium, the legion would also have been involved in the grueling wars against the Germans, waged by Marcus Aurelius along the Danube, which occupied most of his reign between AD 161 and 180.
With the surrender of D
acia by Aurelian in AD 274, the 7th Claudia remained at Viminacium, in what became reclassified as Upper Dacia, although it was below the Danube. The legion was still based in this region at the end of the fourth century, at Cuppis. [Not. Dig.] It had apparently by that time spawned two more 7th Legions, the 7th Seniors and 7th Juniors. If they survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, these units would all have been incorporated into the Byzantine army.
7TH GEMINA LEGION
LEGIO VII GEMINA
The Twinned 7th Legion
EMBLEM:
Bull.
BIRTH SIGN:
Gemini—she-wolf and twins (probably).
FOUNDATION:
Founded in AD 68 by Galba.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Initially eastern Spain.
POSTINGS:
Rome, Carnuntum, Legio (Hispania).
BATTLE HONORS:
Second Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Cremona, AD 69.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
NOTABLE COMMANDER:
Marcus Ulpius Traianus (later Emperor Trajan).
GALBA’S SEVENTH
Formed by Galba in Spain, this unit marched to Rome to overthrow Nero, then led the way under Primus to make Vespasian emperor. It became the home legion of Spain.
For his tilt at Nero’s throne, Sulpicius Galba raised this legion in his province of Hispania Tarraconensis, or Nearer Spain, in the summer of AD 68. The legion apparently took the number VII because it was raised in the traditional Spanish recruiting grounds of the 7th Claudia Legion. Known as the 7th Hispana and 7th Galbiana, or Galba’s 7th Legion, for the next two years, the new legion escorted Galba to Rome. He then sent the unit to Carnuntum in Pannonia under the command of Marcus Antonius Primus, an ambitious general once convicted for fraud, who, after the death of both Galba and Otho, led the army of Vespasian that marched into Italy to dethrone Vitellius.
The 7th Galbiana fought alongside the 7th Claudia Legion in Primus’ army in the AD 69 Second Battle of Bedriacum. Following that victory, the legion played a leading role in the capture of Cremona, where it “attacked the ramparts in wedge formation, endeavoring to force an entrance.” [Tac., H, III, 29] The legion also helped take Rome and install Vespasian as emperor. It appears to have suffered heavy casualties in these battles, for in AD 70 Vespasian combined it with another—apparently the 18th Legion, which had been reformed by Nero and had several cohorts on the Rhine at the time of the Civilis Revolt—to create the 7th Gemina Legion.
As the 7th Gemina, and at full strength, the legion returned to Carnuntum. In AD 74, Vespasian transferred it to Spain. The base that it created in northern Spain would sponsor a civilian vicus, which, as the base of a legion, was called Legio; it grew into the modern city of Leon. The 7th Gemina was still there in around AD 230 during the reign of Severus Alexander when Cassius Dio made a survey of legion dispositions.
There is no firm evidence of the legion’s existence after the third century. The Franks invaded Spain during that century, destroying Tarraco, the capital of Nearer Spain. The Notitia Dignitatum lists a prefect of the 7th Gemina Legion stationed at Leon at the end of the fourth century, yet the legion itself is listed under the command of the Master of the Military for the Orient, without a station. This and other discrepancies in the Notitia suggest that some of that document’s listings were either more notional than actual or were of an earlier date than some other listings.
8TH AUGUSTA LEGION
LEGIO VIII AUGUSTA
Augustus’ 8th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Awarded by Augustus for meritorious service in the Cantabrian Wars.
EMBLEM:
Bull.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn (probably).
FOUNDATION:
A republican legion taken over by Caesar.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Initially Italy, later Spain.
POSTINGS:
Hispania, Poetovio, Novae, Argentoratum.
BATTLE HONORS:
Cantabrian War, 29-19 BC.
Second Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Cremona, AD 69.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
THE WORKADAY EIGHTH
Heroes in the Cantabrian and Pannonian Wars for Augustus, this legion fought for Vespasian against Vitellius and Civilis and was on the front line against the Alemanni and the Franks.
The 8th was a hardworking legion that was reliable if unspectacular. Stemming from the republican 8th Legion which served Caesar in the Gallic War and the Civil War, the 8th saw service in Augustus’ Cantabrian Wars (as a result of which it almost certainly gained its Augusta title), then in the Pannonian War. Thereafter it was stationed at Poetovio in Pannonia until the reign of Claudius.
The discovery of an 8th Legion shield boss in an English river led some historians to postulate that the unit was involved in the invasion of Britain, but there is no evidence of this. The shield boss may have belonged to a soldier on temporary assignment to a unit in Britain, a common occurrence.
By AD 45 the legion was based at Novae in Moesia. In AD 69 the 8th Augusta marched for Otho, then, after his death, swore for Vespasian, and fought in the Italian battles that made him emperor. In AD 70, it joined the army that terminated the Civilis Revolt on the Rhine, after which it was stationed at Argentoratum on the Upper Rhine, where it served for 300 years fighting Germans, Sarmatians and Goths. By AD 371 the legion had relocated to Zurzach in Switzerland.
The Octovani Legion shown on the Notitia Dignitatum, late in the fourth century, as one of the twelve palatine legions under the Master of Foot, may have stemmed from the 8th Augusta.
9TH HISPANA LEGION
LEGIO IX HISPANA
Spain’s 9th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Awarded by Augustus for meritorious service in the Cantabrian Wars.
EMBLEM:
Bull (probably).
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn (probably).
FOUNDATION:
Probably founded by Pompey the Great, c. 55 BC.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Initially Spain.
POSTINGS:
Hispania, Siscia, Pannonia, Britannia, Lindum, Britannia.
BATTLE HONORS:
Cantabrian War, 29-19 BC.
Tacfarinas’ Revolt, AD 19-21.
Invasion of Britain, AD 43.
Agricola’s British campaigns, AD 77-84.
Domitian’s German campaign, AD 83.
Battle of Mons Graupius, AD 84.
THE LEGION THAT DISAPPEARED
A legion that was decimated by Julius Caesar, savaged in Boudicca’s revolt in Britain, yet was victorious for Agricola in Scotland. It then famously disappeared from the face of the earth; an old answer to the mystery of where and when is supported by surprising evidence.
Sometime after AD 120, the 9th Hispana Legion disappeared from the face of the earth, with no explanation given in any classical text or on any inscription. Early twentieth-century historians came to believe that the legion, the last known posting of which was northern Britain, had been wiped out by Caledonian tribes in Scotland in around AD 122. Later theories had the legion being destroyed in Judea during the Second Jewish Revolt of AD 132–135, or in Armenia in AD 161 at the start of the reign of Marcus Aurelius. As detailed in Disappearance of the 9th, the preponderance of evidence today points back to the original hypothesis, that of annihilation at the hands of the Caledonians in AD 122.
The republican 9th Legion served under Caesar, most likely during his 61 BC posting as governor of Further Spain then most definitely during the Gallic War and the Civil War. At the beginning of the imperial era it served in Augustus’ Cantabrian Wars in Spain, from which it derived its title, and subsequently in the Pannonian War, after which it was based at Siscia in Pannonia.
In AD 43 the 9th Hispana was one of the four legions in Claudius’ invasion of Britain, after which i
t was stationed at Lindum, today’s Lincoln. In AD 60, four cohorts of the legion were led by its rash young commander, Petilius Cerialis, into an ambush by Boudicca’s rebel Britons. The cohorts were wiped out, but Cerialis and some cavalry survived. Unusually, in AD 61, the Palatium transferred 2,000 men from a legion on the Rhine—apparently the 21st Rapax at Vindonissa—to the 9th Hispana, to replace the lost cohorts and bring the legion up to strength at a time when rebellion still simmered in southern Britain.
The 9th Hispana later transferred north to Eburacum (York), and, after AD 108, further north again to Carlisle, where it remained until its disappearance.
10TH FRETENSIS LEGION
LEGIO X FRETENSIS
10th Legion of the Strait
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Refers to a naval engagement prior to the imperial era.
EMBLEM:
Bull, warship and dolphin.
BIRTH SIGN:
Taurus (probably).
FOUNDATION:
Disputed. Long thought to be a legion created by Octavian prior to 42 BC. A more modern interpretation makes it Julius Caesar’s original 10th, founded by him in 61 BC.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Further Spain.
POSTINGS:
Macedonia, Syria, Cyrrhus, Judea, Masada, Jerusalem, Judea, Aela.
BATTLE HONORS:
Macedonian conflict, 19 BC-AD 2.
Corbulo’s First Armenian campaign, AD 52-54.
Corbulo’s Second Armenian campaign, AD 62.
Jewish Revolt, AD 66-71.
Legions of Rome Page 14
