Legio IX Hispana
Legio IX Hispana | |
---|---|
Active | Before 58 BC to sometime in the 2nd century AD |
Country | Roman Republic and Roman Empire |
Type | Roman legion (Marian) |
Role | Infantry assault |
Size | c. 5,400 |
Garrison/HQ | Hispania Tarraconensis 41–c. 13 BC ? Pannonia 9–43 AD Eboracum (Britannia) 71–c. 121 ? Noviomagus (Germania Inferior) c. 121–130 |
Nickname(s) | The Lost Legion |
Mascot(s) | Bull |
Engagements | |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders |
Legio IX Hispana ("9th Spanish Legion"),
The unknown fate of the legion has been the subject of considerable research and speculation. One theory (per historian Theodor Mommsen) was that the legion was wiped out in action in northern Britain soon after 108 AD, the date of the latest datable inscription of the Ninth found in Britain, perhaps during a rising of northern tribes against Roman rule. This view was popularised by the 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth in which the legion is said to have marched into Caledonia (modern-day Scotland), after which it was "never heard of again".
This theory fell out of favour among modern scholars as successive inscriptions of IX Hispana were found in the site of the legionary base at Nijmegen (Netherlands), suggesting the Ninth may have been based there from c. 120 AD, later than the legion's supposed annihilation in Britain.[4]: ch. 11 The Nijmegen evidence has led to suggestions that IX Hispana was destroyed in later conflicts of the 2nd century. Suggestions include the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 AD) or Marcus Aurelius's war against Parthia (161–166 AD) in Armenia.[4]: ch. 12 However, some scholars[5] have ascribed the Nijmegen evidence to a mere detachment of IX Hispana, not the whole legion.
In any event, it is clear that the IX Hispana did not exist during the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211 AD), as it is not included in two identical but independent lists of the 33 legions existing in this period.
Republican army (to 30 BC)
The origin of the legion is uncertain, but a 9th legion seems to have participated in the siege of
When
The Caesarian Ninth Legion fought in the battles of
Following Caesar's assassination, Caesar's ally
Imperial Roman army (30 BC – AD 130?)
With Octavian, whom the Senate later titled Augustus, established as sole ruler of the Roman world, the legion was sent to Hispania to take part in the large-scale campaign against the Cantabrians (25–19 BC). The nickname Hispana ("stationed in Hispania") is first found during the reign of Augustus and probably originated at that time.[citation needed]
After this, the legion was probably part of the imperial army in the
Britain (AD 43 – at least 108)
In AD 43, the legion most likely participated in the
The Ninth suffered a serious defeat at the
The Ninth participated in Agricola's invasion of Caledonia (modern Scotland) in 82–83. According to Tacitus, the legion narrowly escaped destruction when the Caledonians beyond the Forth launched a surprise attack at night on their fort. The Caledonians "burst upon them as they were terrified in their sleep". In desperate hand-to-hand fighting the Caledonians entered the camp, but Agricola was able to send cavalry to relieve the legion. Seeing the relief force, "the men of the Ninth Legion recovered their spirit, and sure of their safety, fought for glory", pushing back the Caledonians.[9] The legion also participated in the decisive Battle of Mons Graupius.
The last attested activity of the Ninth in Britain is during the rebuilding in stone of the legionary fortress at York (Eboracum) in 108. This is recorded in an inscribed stone tablet discovered in 1864, now displayed in the Yorkshire Museum in York.[3]
Germania Inferior (108? – 130?)
Several inscriptions attesting IX Hispana have been found in the site of the legionary fortress on the lower
The archaeological evidence thus appears to indicate that elements of IX Hispana were present at Noviomagus sometime after 104 AD (when the previous incumbent legion, X Gemina, was transferred to the Danube) and that IX was probably replaced by a detachment of legion XXX Ulpia Victrix not long after 120 AD.[12] Less clear is whether the whole IX legion was at Nijmegen or simply a detachment. The evidence for the presence of senior officers such as Macer convinced several scholars that the Ninth Legion as a whole was based there between 121 and 130.[4]: ch. 11 It may have been both: first a detachment, later followed by the rest of the legion: a vexillatio Britannica ("British detachment") is also attested at Nijmegen in this period.[12] However, it is unclear whether this detachment was drawn from the IX Hispana (and its attached auxiliary regiments) alone, or from a mix of various British-based units.
Theories about the Ninth's disappearance
The Nijmegen finds, dating to c. 120, were, in 2015, the latest records of Legion IX found. The Ninth was apparently no longer in existence after 197. Two lists of the legions survive from this era, one inscribed on a column found in Rome (CIL VI 3492) and the other a list of legions in existence "today" provided by the contemporary Greco-Roman historian
The traditional theory is that the Ninth was destroyed in a war on Britain's northern frontier against the indigenous Celtic tribes. According to the eminent 19th-century German classicist Theodor Mommsen, "under Hadrian there was a terrible catastrophe here, apparently an attack on the fortress of Eboracum [York] and the annihilation of the legion stationed there, the very same Ninth that had fought so unluckily in the Boudican revolt."[3] He suggested that a revolt of the Brigantes soon after 108 was the most likely explanation. Mommsen cited as evidence the Roman historian Marcus Cornelius Fronto, writing in the 160s AD, who told the emperor Marcus Aurelius: "Indeed, when your grandfather Hadrian held imperial power, what great numbers of soldiers were killed by the Jews, what great numbers by the Britons".[13] The emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138) visited Britain in person around 122 AD, when he launched the construction of Hadrian's Wall because, according to one Roman source, "the Britons could not be kept under Roman control".[14] It is plausible that Hadrian was responding to a military disaster.[15] However, there is no archaeological evidence of it around 120.
Mommsen's thesis was published long before the first traces of IX Hispana were found at Nijmegen. As a result of these, and of inscriptions proving that two senior officers, who were deputy commanders of the Ninth in c. 120, lived on for several decades to lead distinguished public careers, led to the Mommsen theory falling out of favour with many scholars. These now suggest later conflicts in other theatres as possible scenes of IX Hispana's demise:
- The Judea that broke out in 132. It was reported that the Romans suffered heavy casualties in this war, whose start-date fits neatly with the estimated time of IX Hispana's departure from Nijmegen (120–130). In this scenario, the Ninth may have been dispatched to Judea to reinforce the locally based legions, but was heavily defeated by Jewish forces and the remnants of the unit disbanded. However, another legion, XXII Deiotariana, normally based in Egypt, is actually documented in Judea at this time and its surviving datable records also cease c. 120. It is possible that both legions were destroyed by the Jews, but if so this would rate as the worst Roman military disaster since the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest(AD 9) when 3 legions were lost.
- The emperor Marcus Aurelius' Parthian War (161–166) against King Vologases IV. According to Greco-Roman historian Cassius Dio, a Parthian army led by the general Chosroes surrounded and annihilated an unspecified Roman legion in Armenia. This led to the suicide of its commander, the governor of Cappadocia, Marcus Sedatius Severianus.[16] At this time, there were two legions permanently stationed in Cappadocia, the XII Fulminata and the XV Apollinaris. Both these units are attested as operational well beyond AD 200, so neither could have been the legion destroyed by the Parthians. The theory that the Ninth was the lost legion has the drawback that there is a complete lack of evidence that the Ninth was present in the East in the period 130–160. Some scholars argue that the legion referred to by Dio was the XXII Deiotariana, but if so, the latter could not have been annihilated by the Jews thirty years earlier.
Several scholars continue to argue that destruction in Britain is the most likely scenario for the Ninth's disappearance. Russell argues that "by far the most plausible answer to the question 'what happened to the Ninth' is that they fought and died in Britain, disappearing in the late 110s or early 120s when the province was in disarray".[17][18] Such scholars criticise the assumptions of those who extrapolate from inscription evidence, arguing that it is easy to confuse evidence about different persons with the same name. It is highly unlikely that if the legion continued in existence up to the Armenian war of 161, no records at all later than c. 120 would be known. Keppie[19] says that "no inscriptions recording the building activities of the legion or the lives and careers of its members have come from the East", suggesting that if the legion did leave Britain, it ceased to exist very soon afterwards.[19] Russell argues that "there is no evidence that the Ninth were ever taken out of Britain." He has claimed that the tile stamps found at Nijmegen cannot be dated to the period after 120, but "all seem to date to the 80s AD, when detachments of the Ninth were indeed on the Rhine fighting Germanic tribes."[17] Keppie also says that the tiles cannot be securely dated, but suggests that they date from c. 105 during a temporary absence of the legion from Britain.[19] However, Keppie does not support the theory that the legion met its end in Britain. He suggests that the legion may have been withdrawn from York around 117 to take part in the war in Parthia at the end of Trajan's reign. Keppie suggests that it was the legion's absence elsewhere that encouraged a native uprising, obliging Hadrian to send the Legio VI Victrix to Britain.[19]
The fate of the Ninth remains the subject of vigorous debate among scholars.[3] Frere noted that "further evidence is needed before more can be said".[20]
Known members
Name | Rank | Time frame | Province | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio | legatus legionis
|
c. 22 | Africa | CIL V, 4329 = ILS 940 |
Caesius Nasica[21](p 231) | legatus legionis | c. 50 | Britannia | Annales , XII.40
|
Quintus Petillius Cerialis[21](p 231) | legatus legionis | 59–61 | Britannia | Tacitus, Agricola 7, 8, 17; Annales XIV.32 |
Gaius Caristanius Fronto[21](p 234) | legatus legionis | c. 76–79 | Britannia | ILS 9485 |
Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus[21](p 238) | legatus legionis | 118–120 | Britannia | CIL III, 87 |
Lucius Duccius Rufinus | standard-bearer | ? | Britannia | Tombstone, RIB 673 |
Titus[21](p 269) | tribunus laticlavius | c. 60 | Britannia | Suetonius, Divus Titus 4.1 |
Lucius Roscius Aelianus Maecius Celer[21](p 270) | tribunus laticlavius | 83 | Britannia | CIL XIV, 3612 |
Lucius Burbuleius Optatus Ligarianus[21](p 271 ff) | tribunus laticlavius | c. 115 | Germania Inferior | CIL X, 6006 |
Lucius Aemilius Carus[21](p 274 ff) | tribunus laticlavius | c. 122 | Germania Inferior | CIL VI, 1333 = ILS 1077 |
Lucius Novius Crispinus Martialis Saturninus[21](p 276 ff) | tribunus laticlavius | c. 125 | Britannia | CIL VIII, 2747 |
Quintus Camurius Numisius Junior | tribunus laticlavius | c. 145 | Britannia | CIL XI, 5670 |
Epigraphic inscriptions
- Monumentum / (...) Quirina Quintillus miles legionis IX Hispanae annorum (...) Pisoni filius posuit (...). Leon (Legionem)[22]
In fiction and popular culture
The Ninth Legion's mysterious disappearance has made it a popular subject for historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
- In Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth, a young Roman officer, Marcus Flavius Aquila, is trying to recover the Eagle standard of his father's legion beyond Hadrian's Wall.
- A Home Service radio dramatisation of The Eagle of the Ninth was broadcast on Children's Hour in about 1956.
- In Alan Garner's 1973 novel Red Shift, one narrative involves a group of Roman soldiers who are survivors of the Legion's destruction, trying to survive in hostile, 2nd-century Cheshire.
- In Karl Edward Wagner's 1976 fantasy novel Legion from the Shadows (featuring Robert E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn), the survivors of the Ninth flee underground where they interbreed with the Worms of the Earth.
- A BBC television serial was made of The Eagle of the Ninth in 1977.
- The 1979 historical novel Legions of the Mists by Amanda Cockrell recounts the destruction of the Ninth Hispania by an attack by combined tribes in Scotland.
- In Stones of Power" historical fantasy series, (1988–1991) the Ninth have been trapped in Limbo and are released by the protagonists (Uther Pendragon in Ghost King and Alexander the Greatin Dark Prince (1991)) to help in battles.
- In African Congo, surviving until at least the 1930s.
- A full-cast radio dramatization of The Eagle of the Ninth was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 1996.[25]
- In Marion Zimmer Bradley's Lady of Avalon historical fantasy novel, (1997) the Ninth is destroyed in a battle with the native Britons, from which the hero Gawen escapes to return to Avalon.
- In Susanna Kearsley's 1997 novel The Shadowy Horses, an archaeologist believes he has found the remains of a fort that housed the Ninth Legion in remote Eyemouth, Scotland.[26]
- N. M. Browne's 2000 Warriors of Alavna accounts for the disappearance of the Legion by transporting it to an alternative reality.
- Valerio Massimo Manfredi's 2002 historical novel L'ultima legione (The Last Legion) depicts the Ninth Legion as being part of the legend of King Arthur.
- Codex Alera fantasy series (2004–2009) is populated by the descendants of the Ninth Legion and its camp followers, who were transported to the world of Carna.[27]
- The 2006 album Caledonia by German Celtic metal band Suidakra includes a song "The IXth Legion" about the legion's fight with the Picts.
- The 2007 movie The Last Legion based upon the Manfredi novel.
- In Stephen Lorne Bennett's 2010 historical novel Last of the Ninth the Ninth Legion is destroyed by the Parthians under General Chosroes, in Cappadocia in 161 AD.
- The 2010 movie Centurion follows the destiny of the Ninth Legion, as seen from the perspective of centurion Quintus Dias.
- The 2011 movie The Eagle is based on the book The Eagle of the Ninth.
- The 2013 book The Eagle has Fallen written by Brian Young also subscribes to the theory that the Legion was destroyed in Britain.
- The 2017 Doctor Who episode "The Eaters of Light" features the remnants of the Ninth Legion, which was wiped out by an extradimensional being.
- In Marc Alan Edelheit's 2017 book Lost Legio IX: The Karus Saga the remains of the IXth, about to be destroyed by the native Britons, find themselves transported to another planet where they will rebuild a Roman civilization.
- In the TV series Britannia[28]
- In Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and raise aloft their legion's Eaglein the new Queen's honour.
- In Robert Kroese's Alternative history "The Iron Dragon" series, the 9th is wiped out when time travellers, escaping the Judean Revolt, drop a malfunctioning proton reactor on them.
- In the lore of the SCP Foundation web series, the 9th Legion is revealed to have been destroyed by SCP-682 during experiments using the anomaly SCP-978.
- In the film Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romansreleased in 2019, part of the story includes Legion IX Hispana or as it is nicknamed in it "The IX Men" as one of the main characters is sent to serve in it in Britain as a punishment after upsetting the emperor.
- Hal Colebatch and Matthew Joseph Harringtons story Aquila Advenio from 2009, printed in Man-Kzin Wars XII, includes descendants of Legion IX Hispana being present on a planet occupied by Kzinti.
See also
- List of people who disappeared
- List of Roman legions
- Castra
- Limes (Roman Empire)
- Structural history of the Roman military
- Silchester eagle
References
- ^ Ritterling, E. (1925). "Legio (64)". Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Halbband XXIV. Vol. Band XII. cols. 1664–1670.
- ^ "Legio VIIII Hispana - Livius". livius.org.
- ^ a b c d
Campbell, D.B. (2010). "The fate of the Ninth: The curious disappearance of the VIIII Legio Hispana" (PDF). Ancient Warfare. Vol. IV, no. 5. pp. 48–53.
- see also Campbell (2018)[4] – expanded paperback version
- ^ a b c d e
Campbell, Duncan B. (2018). The Fate of the Ninth: The curious disappearance of one of Rome's legions. Bocca della Verità Publishing / Kindle Direct Publishing. ISBN 978-1-791-76833-1.
- see also Campbell (2010)[3] – free magazine article
- ^ Hodgson, N. (2021). "The End of the Ninth Legion, War in Britain and the Building of Hadrian's Wall". Britannia. 52: 97–118. .
- ^ a b c
Keppie, Lawrence (1984). The Making of the Roman Army, from Republic to Empire. London, UK: Batsford. pp. 68, 133, 208. ISBN 0-7134-3651-4.
- ^
Keppie, Lawrence (1983). Colonisation and veteran Settlement in Italy, 47–14 BCE. London, UK: British School at Rome. pp. 54. ISBN 0-904152-06-5.
- ^
Wright, R.P. (1978). "Tile-Stamps of the Ninth Legion found in Britain". Britannia. 9: 379–382. S2CID 162574877.
- ^ Benario, Herbert W. (2006). Tacitus – Agricola, Germany, and dialogue on orators. Hackett Publishing. p. 42.
- ^ AE (1996) 1107
- ^ AE (1968) 323
- ^ a b Willems & Enckevort (2009). "Ulpia Noviomagus". Journal of Roman Archaeology. supp. series. 73: 56.
- ^ Fronto Parthian War 2, 220
- ^ Scriptores Historiae Augustae Hadrian, 5, 1
- ^
Breeze, D. & Dobson, B. (2000). Hadrian's Wall (4th ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 25. ISBN 0-14-027182-1.
- ^ Dio LXXI. 2
- ^ a b Russell, Miles (May 2011). "What Happened to Britain's Lost Roman Legion?". BBC History Magazine. pp. 40–45.
- ^
Russell, Miles (2010). Bloodline: The Celtic Kings of Roman Britain. Amberley. pp. 180–185. ISBN 978-1848682382.
- ^ a b c d Keppie, Lawrence. "The fate of the Ninth Legion: A problem for the Eastern Provinces?". Legions and Veterans: Roman Army papers 1971–2000. pp. 247 ff.
- ^
ISBN 0-7102-1215-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Birley, Anthony (1981). The Fasti of Roman Britain. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. pp. 231, 234, 238, 269–271 ff, 274 ff, 276 ff.
- ^ Spain. HEp 9, 1999, 405
- ^ Silchester Eagle (PDF) (Report). Reading Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 February 2012.
- ISBN 0-553-29555-1.
- ISBN 1-4084-6776-3
- ^ Amazon reviews of The Shadowy Horses.
- ^ "Q&A with Jim Butcher". YouTube.[dead YouTube link]
- ^ Named in episode 4 of season 1, Britannia