Legio IX Hispana - destroyed or not destroyed - that is the question

[Melvadius]

OK I couldn't resist it; this is a story which keeps cropping up from time to time and now with the release of the latest filmic version of Rosemary Sutcliffe's perennial childrens favourite the arguments have resurfaced in the press.

 

Heritage Key probably has the more academic version entitled 'What really happened to the Ninth Legion? [Edit although I now realise this is actually from March 2009 when the latest film was yet to start shooting]

 

The legendary Ninth Legion

[GhostOfClayton]

Very interesting to compare the two. It just shows (1) how little we know about the fait of the Legio IX, and (2) the degree of certainty the experts are prepared to inject into their views. Both articles make for interesting reading, though.

[Hus]

Isn't the more likely and/or accepted scholarly view that the IXth was simply ordered abroad, and struck camp unrecorded?

[GhostOfClayton]

Isn't the more likely and/or accepted scholarly view that the IXth was simply ordered abroad, and struck camp unrecorded?

 

I would've said so until I read the BBC article above.

[Melvadius]

The issue as the Heritage Key site makes clear is that the evidence for a IX Hispana presence outside Britian at the end of it's life is higher than for its presence inside Britain. Most scholars I have spoken to or heard on the subject are inclined to the view on this basis that the IX was more likely to have been lost outside Britain than inside although as the BBC article makes clear there are some 'revisionists' who take the opposing view.

 

Personally, given the scattered continental evidence I am more inclined to the 'orthodox' view for destruction/ disbandoning outside Britain although not necessarily in Parthia there are several other events where either could have happened across the empire in the period. Indeed several other legions disappeared from the roles of Roman legions over the years and are often only mentioned as a legion lost rather than by name - historians tend to guess based on major events and which legion is no longer listed and when.

 

Around the same time Legio XXII Deiotariana disappeared in this way and as they were based in the East they tend to get associated with the Bar Kockba Revolt but there is no specific evidence for this assertion.

 

A legion was also claimed lost to the Parthians at Elegia and if the IX had been transferred to the continent in exchange for Legio VI Victrix around AD 119-120 they could easily have been transferred again in anticipation of a major campaign.

 

Coupled with Roman reticence about naming shamed legions is the underlying problem, with any discussion on the topic, the Roman habit of transferring complete or partial units around the Empire in pursuit of either short or long term aims either when an invasion was being planned or an enemy attack anticipated. Given how scanty our records are anyway it is unsuprising that there are a lot of places and actions where the IXth or any other unit could have vanished from the records - effectively without trace - as many 'have'.