MOMMSEN DISCREDITED
German historian Professor Theodor Mommsen, winner of the 1902 Nobel Prize for Literature for his History of Rome, wrote in the nineteenth century that Caesar’s 10th Legion became the imperial era’s 10th Gemina Legion. Ever since, most historians and authors have followed this line. However, Mommsen is not the only Nobel Prize winner whose work, subsequent to their award, has been found to be flawed, and since his death in 1903 a number of Mommsen’s conclusions and interpretations regarding Rome’s military have been questioned, challenged, or totally disproved by scholarly research and modern archaeological finds.
Dr. Lawrence Keppie, for example, says that the old theories of Mommsen cannot be entertained when it comes to how and when the Augustan legions were created; Mommsen had said that Augustus retained eighteen legions after Actium, created eight more in AD 6 and a further two in AD 9. This theory has been totally discredited by more recent scholarship. [Kepp., MRA, 5]
Similarly, Dr. Robert O. Fink, in the American Journal of Philology [Vol. 63, No. 1, 1942, pp. 61–71], in discussing Mommsen’s interpretation of a papyrus about troop movements within the Cohors I Augusta Lusitanorum, was highly critical of Mommsen’s work, showing that it was “certainly wrong,” “mistaken” and “not consistent” on various points. He also discounted as “absurd” one of Mommsen’s suppositions, and railed against “Mommsen’s wholly unnatural assumption” on another point.
Professor Chester Starr has shown how Mommsen was wrong time and time again in his conclusions about Rome’s navy. [See below] Similarly, there is a more credible scenario for the maritime origin of the 10th Fretensis Legion’s title than the one proposed by Mommsen, one that discredits his theory that the 10th Gemina Legion was Caesar’s original 10th.
10TH GEMINA LEGION
LEGIO X GEMINA
Twinned 10th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
After its combination with another legion by Octavian, c. 30 BC.
EMBLEM:
Bull.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn (probably).
FOUNDATION:
By Octavian, 30 BC or earlier.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Unknown.
POSTINGS:
Petavonium, Carnuntum, the Rhine, Batavia, Noviomagus, Aquincum, Dacia, Vindobonna.
BATTLE HONORS:
Cantabrian War, 29-19 BC.
Battle of Old Camp, AD 69.
Trajan’s First Dacian War, AD 101-103.
Trajan’s Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.
Aurelian’s Defeat of Queen Zenobia, AD 272-273.
Aurelian’s Egyptian campaign, AD 273.
NOTABLE COMMANDER:
Marcus Aurelius Probus, future emperor, AD 272-275
THE QUIET CAREER OF THE TWINNED TENTH
A reliable legion thrown into many of Rome’s major imperial conflicts—the Cantabrian War, the Civilis Revolt, Trajan’s Dacian Wars and the defense of the Danube.
Theodor Mommsen wrote that the 10th Gemina Legion was the direct descendant of Julius Caesar’s famed 10th Legion, and for over a hundred years his claim has been accepted as fact by many historians. As demonstrated in the preceding history of the 10th Fretensis Legion, Mommsen was almost certainly wrong and the 10th Fretensis is more likely to have been Caesar’s 10th, having acquired its Fretensis title while in Caesar’s army in the winter of 49/48 BC by fighting a battle on water to reopen the vital Otranto Strait between Italy and Epirus.
The 10th Gemina Legion of the imperial era was created by the merger of two existing legions by Octavian, following the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the 31 BC Battle of Actium, one of them an existing 10th Legion from either Octavian’s army or Antony’s. In 30 BC, the 10th Gemina Legion arrived in Nearer Spain. In the following year it formed part of Octavian’s army, which fought the bitter ten-year Cantabrian Wars to clear the Cantabrian Mountains in the north of Spain of hostile tribes. The legion was subsequently based in Spain at Petavonium, today’s Rosinos de Vidriales.
In the AD 60s, the 10th Gemina Legion, like the 14th Gemina Martia Victrix, was transferred to Carnuntum in Pannonia in preparation for Nero’s invasion of Parthia, but with the outbreak of the Jewish Revolt in Judea in AD 66 it was returned to Spain. In AD 70, the legion marched from Spain to the Rhine to take part in the final stages of Petilius Cerialis’ campaign to put down the Civilis Revolt. In one of the last battles of that revolt, rebels killed the camp-prefect and five first-rank centurions of the 10th Gemina. The legion was thereafter based at the Batavian capital, Nijmegen, where it built a new stone fortress.
The legion transferred to Aquincum on the Danube in the spring of AD 101, and from there took part in both Dacian Wars for Trajan. Following the annexation of Dacia in AD 106, the 10th Gemina remained in Dacia for the following twelve years. In AD 118 it left Dacia for the Pannonian base at Vindobonna, today’s Vienna in Austria. It was still there when the emperor Marcus Aurelius died in the city in AD 180, and also when Cassius Dio listed legion locations half a century later. In the fourth century, the legion was still in existence, and still in Pannonia, but split into two border guard elements, each commanded by a prefect and at different locations. [Not. Dig.]
11TH CLAUDIA LEGION
LEGIO XI GLAUDIA-P-F
Claudius’ Loyal and Patriotic 11th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Awarded by Claudius for helping put down the Scribonianus Revolt, AD 42.
EMBLEM:
Neptune’s trident and thunderbolts.
BIRTH SIGN:
Gemini (she-wolf and twins).
FOUNDATION:
58 BC, by Julius Caesar.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Cisalpine Gaul.
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Gaul, Illyria, Burnum, the Rhine, Batavia, Vindonissa, Brigetio, Oescus, Durosurum, Dacia, Durosturum.
BATTLE HONORS:
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
Trajan’s Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.
Second Jewish Revolt, AD 134-135.
THE LATE ELEVENTH
Raised by Caesar, a legion that was victorious in the grinding Pannonian and Dacian Wars, and gained its title for preventing an internal revolt against Claudius in Dalmatia.
The first legion raised for Julius Caesar in Italy for his Gallic campaigns, the 11th Legion, became part of Octavian’s standing army in 30 BC and was posted to Dalmatia. It would have served there throughout the Pannonian War, and was stationed at Burnum, the Dalmatian capital, during the mutiny of AD 14 and into the reign of Claudius.
When Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia, attempted to revolt against Claudius in AD 42, the legion initially went along with the uprising, but after five days, men of the 11th and the 7th killed Scribonianus and those of his officers who supported him, terminating the revolt. Claudius rewarded both legions with the title “Claudius’ Loyal and Patriotic.” The legion would be known as the 11th Claudia for centuries to come.
In AD 69 the men of the 11th Claudia swore allegiance to Otho, and were marching from Burnum to his support when they learned they were too late; Otho was dead, and Vitellius was emperor. Soon after returning to Burnum the legion swore for Vespasian, but when other legions marched into Italy to do battle with Vitellius’ legions, the 11th hesitated. Only when Marcus Antonius Primus and his army had defeated Vitellius’ troops at Bedriacum and Cremona did the 11th Claudia arrive, joining the march on Rome that ended in the death of Vitellius and elevation of Vespasian in December of that year.
In AD 70, Vespasian posted the legion to Vindonissa on the Upper Rhine, to replace units disgraced in the Civilis Revolt. It remained there until transferred to Brigetio on the Danube in AD 101, where it remained during the First Dacian War. It took part in the second war in Dacia, and at the war’s end spent time in Oescus and Durosturum. The latter, today’s Silistra in Bulgaria, became its permanent base.
The legion, or a
vexillation of several of its cohorts, was briefly transferred from Moesia to Palestine to take part in the final stage of Sextus Julius Severus’ offensive against the Jewish rebels led by Shimeon bar-Kokhba. An inscription records the legion’s presence at the AD 135 siege of Bar-Kokhba’s fortress at Bethar, just south of Jerusalem. [Yadin, 13]
The 11th Claudia Legion remained at Durosturum for the next 200 years, but by the time of the Notitia Dignitatum in the late fourth century it had ceased to exist. Part of an 11th Legion, a comitatense legion, was then shown in Spain, with another in the East, these possibly having descended from the 11th Claudia.
12TH FULMINATA LEGION
LEGIO XII FULMINATA
Thundering 12th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Adopted unofficially in early imperial period. Officially conferred by Marcus Aurelius, AD 174.
EMBLEM:
Mars’ thunderbolt.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn (probably).
FOUNDATION:
58 BC, by Julius Caesar.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Cisalpine Gaul.
POSTINGS:
Egypt, Syria, Raphanaea, Laodicea, Jerusalem, Judea, Melitene, the Danube, Melitene.
BATTLE HONORS:
Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70.
Trajan’s Eastern Campaign, AD 114-116.
Defeat of the Alans, AD 135.
Defeat of the Quadi, AD 174.
MARCUS AURELIUS’ THUNDERERS
Famous as the “Thunderer,” a legion that lost its eagle in the First Jewish Revolt but was successful when given a second chance, living up to its name under Marcus Aurelius by winning a battle in a thunderstorm.
The second legion raised in Italy for Julius Caesar in 58 BC, the 12th Legion, served him throughout his Gallic campaigns and the Civil War. Both Octavian and Antony had a 12th legion, with Antony’s differentiating itself with the title Antiqua, meaning both “old” and “former,” which suggests that this was Caesar’s original. Meanwhile, Octavian’s 12th Legion took the title Paterna; this can mean “father’s,” referring to Caesar, but it can also mean “native,” implying Italian enrollment.
One of the two units became the sole 12th Legion in Octavian’s new standing army. At what point it acquired its thunderbolt title and emblem is unclear, but it was using both in the first century. Octavian initially posted the unit to Egypt with two other legions. It was in Syria in AD 14, and based at Raphanaea with the 6th Ferrata during the reign of Claudius.
In AD 62, commanded by Calavius Sabinus, the legion was summoned to Cappadocia to take part in Paetus’ disastrous Armenian campaign. It seems that many of the legionaries were nearing the end of their twenty-year enlistment and the legion was well under strength as a result, for Tacitus noted that it was suffering from “numerical feebleness” at that time. [Tac., A, XV, 8–10] The men of the legion showed little interest in engaging the Parthians, and their retreat from Armenia did nothing for the unit’s reputation.
The 12th Fulminata’s lack of numbers would explain why, four years later, it was the only almost complete legion in Gallus’ AD 66 march to Jerusalem after the outbreak of the Jewish Revolt. In the bloody retreat to Caesarea the legion lost a number of men but, more importantly, it lost its eagle to the hounding Jewish partisans. It would take a long time for the stain of that loss to fade.
Vespasian refused to use the legion in his operations against the Jews but, with its ranks apparently recently replenished with a new enlistment, Titus employed it in AD 70 as one of his four complete legions in the Siege of Jerusalem. The 12th Fulminata operated under the command of its tribune throughout this period, legates perhaps refusing to lead a legion that had lost its eagle. Vespasian annexed the kingdom of Cappadocia in AD 71, making it a new Roman province, and following the 12th’s sound performance in the Jerusalem siege it was posted there as home legion, making its new base at Melitene.
The 12th Fulminata remained at Melitene for the next 300 years, during which it regained its reputation. In AD 135 it took part in Arrian’s successful campaign against the invading Alans in Lesser Armenia. Several decades later, its eastern stay was interrupted by Marcus Aurelius’ Danube wars against the Alemanni and Quadi Germans, for which it was transferred to the Danube. In a battle in a thunderstorm in AD 174, it won a key battle for Marcus, for which it was officially awarded the thunderbolt emblem and title.
The Notitia Dignitatum placed the legion in Armenia in the late fourth century with the 15th Apollinaris, the legion with which it had beaten the Alans in AD 135. Both legions, reduced to border guard units, would have been absorbed into the Byzantine army the following century.
13TH GEMINA LEGION
LEGIO XIII GEMINA
Twinned 13th Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Caesar’s 13th was combined with another legion by Octavian.
EMBLEM:
Lion.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn (probably).
FOUNDATION:
58 BC, by Julius Caesar.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Cisalpine Gaul.
POSTINGS:
Illyricum, the Rhine, Raetia, Pannonia, the Rhine, Vindonissa, Poetovio, the Rhine, Poetovio, Dacia, Sarmizegethusa, Apulum, Ratiara, Sirmium.
BATTLE HONORS:
Drusus’ German campaigns, 20-15 BC.
Tiberius’ Raetian campaign, 15 BC.
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Germanicus’ German campaigns, AD 14-16.
Battle of Idistavisus, AD 15.
Battle of the Angrivar Barrier, AD 15.
Second Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Cremona, AD 69.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
Trajan’s First Dacian War, AD 101-102.
Trajan’s Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.
ALWAYS AT THE FOREFRONT
A legion that once marched for Caesar, then fought for Germanicus in Germany, lost and won in the AD 69 war of succession, then stormed the Dacian capital for Trajan.
A 13th Legion is on record as early as 205 BC. [Livy, XXIX, 2, 9] Both Octavian and Antony had 13th legions in their armies, one being the direct descendant of Julius Caesar’s 13th, the legion that crossed the Rubicon with Caesar in January 49 BC and helped him change Roman history. Octavian created a new 13th Gemina Legion in 30 BC by combining two existing legions, one of them a 13th; it is possible that both were previous 13ths.
The 13th Gemina Legion was in Raetia by 15 BC, and on the Rhine in the wake of the Varus disaster in AD 9. Based at Vindonissa on the Upper Rhine five years later, it served in Germanicus’ victorious German campaigns. By AD 46 it was stationed at Poetovio in Pannonia. The legion marched for Otho in April AD 69, and gave way to Vitellius’ troops in the First Battle of Bedriacum in Italy. Both sides despised the legion for its lack of backbone, and after the defeat of Otho’s army the surrendered 13th Gemina was put to work building wooden amphitheaters at Cremona and Bononia, where Vitellius’ generals would celebrate their victory.
The 13th was then sent back to Poetovio. It was at the 13th’s Poetovio headquarters that generals met in the late summer of AD 69 to discuss an invasion of Italy to dethrone Vitellius and enthrone Vespasian. The legion subsequently had its revenge over Vitellius’ troops at the Second Battle of Bedriacum, the Battle of Cremona, and the Battle of Rome. During this period, the 13th Gemina’s senior tribune was the father of the later author Suetonius, who was himself born that same year.
Back at Poetovio following the Civilis Revolt, the legion remained in Pannonia until being transferred to Vindonissa in the year AD 97. Between AD 101 and 106 it took part in Trajan’s Dacian Wars, and once Dacia was conquered, set up a base at Apulum in the new province. It would frequently have been in action against German, Sarmatian and Goth tribes thereafter.
A Roman military colony was established by Trajan at Sarmizegethusa in Dacia and settled by retiring veterans of the 13th Gemina. Anoth
er military colony was created at the Dacian town of Orsova, modern-day Tsierna. The descendants of these legion veterans would have fled Dacia when Aurelian gave up the province in AD 274, joining a refugee column that trailed the 13th Gemina as it abandoned Apulum and relocated south of the Danube. The legion’s new Moesian base was at Ratiara, the village of Archar in today’s Bulgaria.
By AD 395 the legion had been split; part was based at Ratiara, part in faraway Egypt. [Not. Dig.]
14TH GEMINA MARTIA VICTRIX LEGION
LEGIO XIIII G-M-V
Mars’ Victorious Twinned 14th.
EMBLEM:
Eagle’s wings and thunderbolts.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn.
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Germina from combination with existing legion, 30 BC. Remainder disputed.
FOUNDATION:
57 BC, by Julius Caesar.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Cisalpine Gaul.
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Illyricum, Mogontiacum, Viroconium, Lugdunensis, Mogontiacum, Vindobonna, Dacia, Carnuntum.
BATTLE HONORS:
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Invasion of Britain, AD 43.
Invasion of Anglesey, Britain, AD 60.
Boudicca’s Revolt, Britain, AD 60-61.
Battle of Bedriacum, Italy, AD 69.
Battle of Old Camp, Germany, AD 70.
Trajan’s Dacian Campaigns, AD 101-102 and 105-106.
Quadi, Iazyge and Marcomanni Wars of Marcus Aurelius, AD 161-180.
CONQUERORS OF BRITAIN, NERO’S MOST VALUABLE
The most famous legion of the first century, invading Britain for Claudius and defeating Boudicca and her 230,000 British rebels in AD 60. Its name alone enough to unnerve opponents, it went on to fight in Dacia and defend the Danube line.
“Close up the ranks, and having discharged
your javelins, then with shields and swords
Legions of Rome Page 16
