Another theory has the Valeria Victrix title awarded to the 20th Legion for participation in Agricola’s victory over the Caledonians at Mons Graupius in AD 84. The 9th Hispana Legion was identified by Tacitus at the forefront of that campaign; the 20th was not mentioned. Had the 20th received such an award after Mons Graupius, the 9th could be expected to have received the same, which it did not.
The one campaign where the 20th Legion is known to have played a leading role was the Pannonian War of AD 6–9. Germanicus Caesar, who had led the legion during that war, said to it five years later: “You men of the 20th, who have shared with me so many battles and have been enriched with so many rewards.” [Tacitus, A, I, 42] This indicates that it may have received the Victrix award for Pannonian War service.
The original 20th was a reliable legion stemming from Caesar’s mass civil war enlistments in Italy. Another comment from Germanicus indicates that the legion was receiving recruits from Syria by AD 14. [Ibid.] Gravestones in Britain show that by later that century there were indeed a number of men from the East serving in the ranks of the 20th Legion.
One of the legions involved in the AD 43 invasion of Britain, the 20th thereafter took part in all the campaigns that saw Roman occupation spread west and north. During the AD 68–69 war of succession, the legion became unruly and it took its new commander, Gnaeus Agricola, to discipline it in AD 71, apparently by transferring troublemakers from the 20th to the newly arrived 2nd Adiutrix Legion. [See 2nd Adiutrix Legion]
Surviving records of the 20th even include such day-to-day snippets as the fact that on November 7, AD 83, Quintus Cassius Secundus, a legionary serving in the 20th Legion century commanded by the centurion Calvius Priscus, wrote an IOU to a comrade in his unit, Gaius Geminius Mansuetus, for 100 denari, or 400 sesterces. [Tom., DRA, DRAC]
In around AD 213, the second-in-command of the 20th Valeria Victrix Legion, military tribune Marcus Aurelius Syrio, from the town of Ulpia Nicopolis in the province of Thrace, dedicated an altar at the legion’s Luguvalium (Carlisle) base to Jupiter Best and Greatest, and to Juno, Minerva, Mars and Victoria. Syrio had previously served with the Praetorian Guard. [Tom., DRA]
By AD 230, with elements of the legion at both Eburacum and Luguvalium, Cassius Dio wrote that the legionaries of the 20th Valeria Victrix were “by no means called Valerians by all, and do not use that name any longer.” [Dio, LV, 23] The 20th Victrix Legion was withdrawn from Britain before the end of the fourth century, and was not replaced. It seems to have been destroyed in the battles with the invaders from east of the Rhine such as the Franks and Vandals.
21ST RAPAX LEGION
LEGIO XXI RAPAX
The Rapacious 21st Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Not known.
EMBLEM:
Boar (probably).
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn.
FOUNDATION:
49 BC, by Julius Caesar.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Gaul. Later Syria.
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Gallia Transalpina, Raetia, Pannonia, Vetera, Vindonissa, Bonna, Mogontiacum, the Danube.
BATTLE HONORS:
Tiberius’ Raetian campaign, 15 BC.
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Germanicus’ German campaigns, AD 14-16.
Battle of Idistavisus, AD 16.
Battle of the Angrivar Barrier, AD 16.
First Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Rigodulum, AD 70.
Battle of Augusta Trevorum, AD 70.
Battle of Old Camp, AD 70.
INGLORIOUS FATE:
Wiped out on the Danube during the reign of Domitian.
A CORPS OF OLD AND DISTINGUISHED RENOWN
After serving Germanicus in Germany, this legion fought for Vitellius in the war of succession, then, under Vespasian, was Cerialis’ lead legion when he put down the Civilis Revolt, only to be wiped out by the Dacians in the reign of Domitian.
It is possible that the famed Roman historian Tacitus commanded the 21st Rapax Legion between AD 89 and 92, departing from the unit shortly before it met its bloody end.
Tacitus served as a consul in AD 97. To reach that elevated position he had to have previously commanded a legion. Away from Rome from AD 89, when he was 34 years old, he was back in the capital in AD 93; this would correspond with the period when Tacitus was of praetor rank and eligible for legion command, legion commands being typically of three to four years’ duration. Later writing in his Histories, which he commenced in around AD 99, Tacitus described the 21st Rapax Legion as “a corps of old and distinguished renown.” This was the most effusive he would be about any of Rome’s legions, and suggests a certain affection born of familiarity. [Tac., H, II, 43]
This legion stemmed from the late republican period. Caesar raised a 21st Legion. Antony certainly had a 21st, and this may have been the unit that Octavian retained in his standing army from 30 BC. Early in Augustus’ reign the legion served in Raetia. It was stationed on the Lower Rhine, at Vetera, by AD 9, and from there it took part in Germanicus’ German campaigns of AD 14–16. By AD 47 the 21st had transferred to Vindonissa, today’s Windisch in Switzerland.
Fourteen years later, it seems that the legion gave up four cohorts of newly arrived recruits which were urgently transferred to Britain to make up for 2,000 men of the 9th Hispana Legion wiped out in Boudicca’s revolt. These men were never returned or replaced, leaving the 21st four cohorts down for the remainder of that enlistment period. This explains why it was the only legion not to leave cohorts on the Rhine when it marched with Vitellius’ other legions to Italy to overthrow Otho in the spring of AD 69.
The 21st marched for Italy with its commander, the flamboyant Alienus Caecina, who wore colorful attire and included his wife in his column, complete with her own cavalry escort. Before it left Raetia, the 21st lived up to its Rapax title, which means rapacious, or greedy, by looting the Helvetian districts it passed through. It helped Caecina and his colleague Fabius Valens win the First Battle of Bedriacum, overrunning the opposing 1st Adiutrix Legion and killing its legate after the Adiutrix had initially carried off the Rapax’s eagle.
By the time of the Second Battle of Bedriacum, Caecina had attempted to defect to Vespasian; the 21st Rapax fought without its commander, and lost. The legion’s sound reputation meant that following the Vitellianist surrender at Cremona, Vespasian’s general Primus kept the legion intact in a camp in northern Italy. When Petilius Cerialis, Vespasian’s cousin, was given the task of leading the advance element of an army that would suppress the Civilis Revolt, it was the Rapax he chose to lead to the Rhine.
Despite being four cohorts down and suffering casualties in the war of succession, the outnumbered 21st Rapax proceeded to win battles for Cerialis at Rigodulum on the Moselle river, then at Trier, and was one of the legions that delivered the final major defeat to Civilis at Old Camp late in the summer of AD 70.
For the next twelve years the legion remained on the Rhine, stationed at Bonna, and receiving new recruits during this period to bring it back up to full strength. In AD 82 Domitian moved the 21st Rapax up the Rhine to Mogontiacum for his Chattian War the following year, after which the legion remained at Mogontiacum until AD 92. That year, the legion was called to the Danube to help stem an invasion by an army of mounted Sarmatians.
The exact details of this encounter with the Sarmatians have not come down to us, but it ended with the 21st Rapax being destroyed. Writing during the reign of Domitian—during which the 5th Alaudae Legion was also wiped out—Tacitus was to rage, “One after another, armies were lost in Moesia and Dacia, in Germany and Pannonia, through the rash folly or cowardice of their generals. One after another, experienced officers were defeated in fortified position and captured with all their troops.” [Tac., A, 41]
It seems that in AD 92 the men of the 21st Rapax Legion, one of Rome’s most celebrated legions only a few decades before, were led off in chains to the mountains
beyond the Danube, to a life of slavery. The legion was never reformed.
22ND DEIOTARIANA LEGION
LEGIO XXII DEIOTARIANA
22nd Legion of Deiotarus
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Formed from the remnants of two legions of King Deiotarus of Armenia Minor, which originally fought for Julius Caesar.
EMBLEM:
Eagle (probably); an emblem used by Deiotarus on his coinage.
BIRTH SIGN:
Not known.
FOUNDATION:
Inherited by Antony from Caesar, retained by Octavian, who gave it the number XXII.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Originally Armenia Minor.
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Alexandria, Judea, Caesarea Mazaka, Elegeia.
BATTLE HONORS:
Trajan’s Parthian campaign, AD 114-116 (probably).
FATE:
Wiped out by the Parthians in Armenia, AD 161.
THE ROCK OF EGYPT SHATTERED IN ARMENIA
Named after the king who raised it, this legion served continuously in Egypt for a century and a half before being wiped out in Armenia by the Parthians early in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
In 47 BC, while Julius Caesar was locked in combat with local forces in Egypt, a Roman army led by one of his deputies, Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, was defeated in a battle at Nicopolis in Armenia Minor by King Pharnaces, ruler of the Bosporan kingdom and son of Mithradates the Great, one of Rome’s greatest adversaries. Fighting in the Nicopolis battle alongside Roman troops were two legions raised locally by the king of Armenia Minor, Deiotarus. Both units, which had been equipped and trained in Roman style, suffered heavy casualties in that battle. However, the remnants survived to combine into a single legion which subsequently fought for Caesar himself when he took on and defeated Pharnaces the following year at Zela in Pontus. It seems that this legion of Deiotarus’ subsequently came into Antony’s army, and formed the nucleus of the 22nd Deiotariana Legion retained by Octavian and sent to Egypt in 30 BC.
The legion continued to serve there in Egypt for the next century and a half. It would have taken part in the 23 BC Roman penetration of Ethiopia, but otherwise had a relatively peaceful career. It is last attested to in Egypt in AD 99. After that, the legion disappeared, from Egypt and from the historical record, and it is likely that this was the legion known to have been wiped out by the Parthians in Armenia in AD 161. It was never reformed.
22ND PRIMIGENEIA PIA FIDELIS LEGION
LEGIO XII PRIMIGENEIA-P-F
22nd Loyal and Faithful First-born Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Named for the goddess Fortuna Primigeneia.
EMBLEM:
Eagle.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn.
FOUNDATION:
AD 39, by Caligula.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Probably the East.
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Mogontiacum, Rome (vexillation), Vetera, Mogontiacum.
BATTLE HONORS:
First Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
NOTABLE SECOND-IN-COMMAND:
Publius Aelius Hadrianus, future emperor Hadrian, AD 97.
MAINZ’S LEGION
Like the 15th Primigeneia, raised by Caligula for the British campaign that never took place, this legion served solidly on the Rhine for centuries, only blemishing its record once when it surrendered to Civilis.
The 22nd Primigeneia had just two permanent bases throughout its career. It was founded by Caligula in AD 39, probably recruited in the eastern recruiting grounds of the existing 22nd Deiotariana Legion, the eagle emblem of which it also adopted. The 22nd Primigeneia was possibly given its title by the next emperor, Claudius, for Fortuna was his patron deity.
The legion was based at Mogontiacum (Mainz), for the next thirty years, sending troops to Italy to help install their commander-in-chief, Vitellius, as emperor. Those cohorts of the 22nd Primigeneia that remained on the Rhine surrendered to Civilis and his rebels in AD 70. Vespasian subsequently transferred them down the Rhine to Vetera, where, for their penance, they built a new base to replace the one destroyed by the rebels.
The legion would have been involved in Domitian’s AD 83 Chattian War east of the Rhine. Ten years later, the unit returned to Mogontiacum, to fill the gap left by the 21st Rapax, which had been destroyed by the Sarmatians. It was still there, by then in company with the 1st Minervia Legion, at the end of the fourth century, under the command of the Duke of Mainz.
In AD 402, both legions were summoned to Italy by Stilicho for a last-ditch effort against Alaric and his Visigoth invaders. The legion appears to have never returned to the Rhine frontier, which was finally abandoned by the Roman military shortly after. Stilicho was executed by a jealous emperor in AD 408. The 22nd Primigeneia probably perished in the battles which preceded the fall of Rome in AD 410.
30TH ULPIA LEGION
LEGIO XXX ULPIA
30th Ulpian Legion
ORIGIN OF TITLE:
Family name of Emperor Trajan.
EMBLEM:
Neptune’s trident, dolphin and thunderbolts.
BIRTH SIGN:
Capricorn.
FOUNDATION:
AD 103, for Trajan’s second Dacian campaign.
RECRUITMENT AREA:
Not known.
IMPERIAL POSTINGS:
Brigetio, Dacia, Noviomagus, Vetera, Amida.
BATTLE HONORS:
Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.
NEPTUNE’S OWN
Second of two legions raised by Trajan prior to the Dacian Wars, it would eventually fall victim to the Persians in Mesopotamia.
The 30th Ulpia Legion was raised by Trajan for his second Dacian War. Stationed on the Danube at Brigetio in AD 103, it marched into Dacia two years later. Taking Trajan’s family name, Ulpius, the unit also embraced his favorite deity, Neptune, using Neptune’s symbols of trident and dolphins in their emblem. It is likely that the legion also used the color associated with Neptune, dark blue, certainly on their shields, and perhaps in other ways such as neck scarves. Its number derived from the fact that it was Trajan’s thirtieth legion.
Following the Second Dacian War the legion was stationed at Noviomagus, today’s Nijmegen, on the Lower Rhine. In AD 120, it was relocated to nearby Vetera. There it remained until the fourth century, when it was transferred across the Roman world to take part in campaigns in the East.
The 30th Ulpia was one of seven legions which defended the city of Amida in Mesopotamia from attack by a Persian army of 100,000 men in AD 359. After a bloody siege lasting seventy-three days and which cost the attackers 30,000 casualties, the Persians took the city. Like men of the other six legions defending the city, those legionaries of the 30th Ulpia who survived the fighting became captives of the Syrians. [Amm., XVIII, 9; XIX, 1–9]
There at Amida, in AD 359, Trajan’s 30th Ulpia Legion ceased to be.
PRAETORIAN GUARD
COHORS PRAETORIA
EMBLEM:
Eagle and thunderbolt.
STANDARD:
Victoria, goddess of victory.
HEADQUARTERS:
Castra Praetoria, Rome.
FOUNDED:
Sixth century BC.
IMPERIAL BODYGUARD AND POLITICAL POLICE
Rome’s political police, together with the CITY GUARD and the VIGILES (Night Watch), responsible for policing and protecting Rome.
The Praetorian Cohorts were created at the formation of the Roman Republic in 509 BC, charged with protecting the praetor, the most senior elected Roman official before the post was superseded by that of consul, and the city of Rome. By early in the first century BC, the Praetorians were no longer being used. In 44 BC, following the assassination of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony revived the unit as his personal bodyguard, with an initial strength of 6,000 former legion men. Following the 30 BC defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian retained the Praetorians in the role of criminal and political police a
t Rome. The role of close imperial bodyguard was, until AD 69, filled by the German Guard.
The elite Praetorian Guard enjoyed the most prestige and the highest pay of any unit in the Roman army. For hundreds of years they were the only regular army unit permitted by law to be stationed in Italy. Under Augustus, their recruiting grounds were Etruria, Umbria, Latium and the old legion colonies in Italy. By the time that Septimius Severus came to the throne at the end of the second century, Prateorian recruitment had expanded to take in Spain, Macedonia and Noricum.
Because they usually only served in military campaigns when the emperor was present, which was rare, Praetorians had less opportunities for booty than legionaries. In recompense, Augustus paid his Praetorians twice as much as legionaries; Tiberius increased it to three times as much. Praetorians also received a larger retirement bonus—20,000 sesterces, as opposed to 12,000 for legionaries.
Augustus ordained that the power of overall Praetorian command be split between two prefects. Some later emperors used a single Praetorian prefect, whose powerful post became like that of a latter-day minister for war. The emperors presented each new Praetorian prefect with a sword to symbolize the Praetorians’ right to bear arms in the capital, for it was illegal for civilians to be armed in the city. When Trajan presented the sword to his new Praetorian prefect Saburanus in AD 110, he unsheathed the weapon, held up the blade to Saburanus, and said: “Take this sword in order that, if I rule well, you may use it for me, but if badly, against me.” [Dio, LXVIII, 16]
Troops stationed at Rome normally did duty “half-armed,” with their shields and javelins kept at the Praetorian barracks. That massive fortified building, the Castra Praetoria, or Praetorian Camp, was erected in AD 23 on the northeastern outskirts of Rome beyond the old city walls, by the notorious prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus. Prior to that, the Praetorians had been quartered at several barracks around Rome.
In that same year, a former soldier of the Praetorian Guard, Titus Curtisius, attempted to motivate a revolt of slaves at Brundisium in southern Italy. A contingent of marines quickly rounded up the chief troublemakers, including Curtisius, and Tiberius dispatched a party of Praetorians under their tribune Staius to Brundisium to take charge of the prisoner. Titus Curtisius, one-time soldier of the Praetorian Guard, was subsequently marched up to Rome in chains by his former comrades. His punishment was to be sold into slavery at the capital. [Tac., A, IV, 27]
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