Legio XV Apollinaris

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Legio XV Apollinaris
First Jewish Revolt (66–73)
Dacian Wars (105–106)
Trajan Mesopotamian campaign (115–117)
Lucius Verus Armenian campaign (162)
Septimus Severus Parthian campaign (197)
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Titus (officer)
Trajan (campaign)
Lucius Verus (campaign)
Septimius Severus (campaign)
The Savaria Legio XV Apollinaris, reenactors moving off a reconstructed Castra in Pram, Austria.

Legio XV Apollinaris ("Apollo's Fifteenth Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was recruited by Octavian in 41/40 BC. The emblem of this legion was probably a picture of Apollo, or of one of his holy animals.

XV Apollinaris is sometimes confused with two other legions with the same number: An earlier unit which was commanded by Julius Caesar and met its end in North Africa in 49 BC, and a later unit that was present at the Battle of Philippi on the side of the Second Triumvirate and then sent east.

History

Octavianus (later Emperor Augustus) raised XV Apollinaris in order to end the occupation of

Rome's grain supply. After the Battle of Actium, where the legion probably gained its epitaph Apollinaris,[1] it was sent to garrison Illyricum, where it probably remained until 6 BC, though it might have seen action in the Cantabrian Wars
.

In 6 AD, Apollinaris was part of the huge campaign by

Aemona, which was established as a camp in 14 or 15, after the legion left for Carnuntum. This hypothesis has been rejected by the researcher Marjeta Šašel Kos as unfounded.[1]
By the year 9 the legion was headquartered in Pannonia, in the town of Carnuntum.

There the unit stayed until sent to

Jotapata and Gamla. It was the Fifteenth that captured the Jewish general later to become famous as the historian Josephus. During this period the legion was commanded by Titus
, who would later become Emperor.

After the suppression of the revolt, the legion returned to Carnuntum and rebuilt its fortress. Elements of the XVth fought in the Dacian Wars although the main body of the legion remained in Pannonia.

In 115, war with Parthia

Ancyra, modern-day Ankara. From this base the XVth helped repulse an invasion of Alans
in 134.

By 162, Rome and Parthia were at war once more; the campaign, led by Emperor Lucius Verus was successful, and the legion occupied the Armenian capital Artaxata. In 175, the general Avidius Cassius rebelled against Emperor Marcus Aurelius, but the Fifteenth remained loyal and earned the additional title Pia Fidelis.

The history of the legion after this point involves more conjecture. As a unit stationed in the Middle East, it is almost certain to have taken part in later campaigns against Parthia, including the

Sassanid power that arose in Persia thereafter, though there is no direct record of this. At the beginning of the 5th century, the legion reappears in history: it is still quartered at Satala and Ancyra, though having lost its post at Trapezus somewhere along the way, and is under the command of the Dux Armeniae
.

An inscription possibly relating to this legion was found in a cave in eastern Uzbekistan, perhaps carved by soldiers captured by the Parthians and dispatched to their eastern frontier as border guards.[citation needed]

Attested members

Name Rank Time frame Province Source
Marcus Julius Romulus[2]
legatus legionis
 c. AD 49 AE 1925, 85
Quintus Julius Cordinus Gaius Rutilius Gallicus[2] legatus legionis 52-54 AE 1920, 55
Aulus Marius Celsus[3] legatus legionis c. 63 Tacitus, Annales XV.25
Titus Flavius Vespasianus legatus legionis 67-68
Marcus Tittius Frugi[3] legatus legionis c. 69
Bellum Judaicum
, VI.237
Sextus Sentius Caecilianus[4] legatus legionis c. 71
Quintus Egnatius Catus[5] legatus legionis c. 73
Gaius Minicius Fundanus[6] legatus legionis c. 90s ILJug-03, 1627
Marcus Vettius Valens[7] legatus legionis c. 137 CIL XI, 383
Rutilius Pudens Crispinus[8] legatus legionis 223-225 AE 1929, 158
Manius Acilius Glabrio Gnaeus Cornelius Severus[9] tribunus laticlavius c. 140 CIL XIV, 4237
Marcus Messius Rusticianus[10] tribunus laticlavius c. 137-140 AE 1983, 517, AE 1988, 720
Aulus Julius Pompilius Piso tribunus laticlavius c. 163 CIL VIII, 2582 = ILS 1111
Lucius Gavius Fronto[11] praefectus castrorum c. 117

Epigraphic inscriptions

  • - Lucius Caecilius Luci filius / Papiria (tribu) Optatus / centurio legionis VII Geminae Felicis et centurio legionis XV Apollinaris (...). Barcelona (Barcino), Spain. CIL II, 4514.
  • - Q(uintus) Atilius / Sp(uri) f(ilius) Vot(uria) Pri/mus interprex / leg(ionis) XV idem |(centurio) / negotiator an(norum) / LXXX / h(ic) s(itus) e(st) / Q(uintus) Atilius Cocta/tus Atilia Q(uinti) l(iberta) Fau/sta Privatus et / Martialis hered(es) / l(iberti?) p(osuerunt). Boldog, Slovakia. AE 1978 00635.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Šašel Kos, Marjeta (1998). "Je bila Emona nekdanji tabor 15. legije in veteranska kolonija" [Was Emona the Former Camp of the 15th Legion and a Veteran Colony]. Zgodovinski časopis [Journal of History] (in Slovenian and English). Vol. 52, no. 3. pp. 317–329.
  2. ^ a b Everett L. Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris: From Carnuntum to Satala—and beyond", in Y. Le Bohec and C. Wolff, eds. Les Légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (Lyon/Paris 2002), p. 274
  3. ^ a b Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", p. 275
  4. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", p. 278
  5. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", p. 279
  6. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", pp. 279f
  7. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", p. 296 n. 217
  8. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", p. 305
  9. ^ Géza Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter den Antoninen (Bonn: Habelt Verlag, 1977), p. 210
  10. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", pp. 297, 305
  11. ^ Wheeler, "Legio XV Apollinaris", pp. 293f
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