The Different Roman Legions

[Guest Cyberchrist]

I have read some interesting stories about the 10th and 14th legion.

This have made me really curious on just about everything about the different legions.

 

Would be great if we could use this thread for spilling all the information we got on all the different legions, starting from number #1

 

There are so many questions to be answered:

 

What battles did they fought ?

Where were they recruited from ?

Famous battles ?

Battles won/lost ?

 

Just fill in the information that you see fit.

 

Take care everybody !

[Primus Pilus]

The history's of several legions are fairly well recorded. Jona Lendering provides an excellent overview and starting point.

livius.org Legions

[phil25]

My own favorite has always been the Legio IX Hispana, which garrisoned my home town of Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) for a while before c80AD.

 

It was long thought to have been destroyed in Scotland and its Eagle lost (Rosemary Sutcliffe wrote a great novel, "Eagle of the Ninth" about it). But finds in Europe suggest that it survived and was perhaps destroyed in Judaea under Hadrian.

 

I have seen tombstones of its soldiers, and that Legio seems real to me.

 

Hail to them!

 

Phil

[Primus Pilus]

It was long thought to have been destroyed in Scotland and its Eagle lost (Rosemary Sutcliffe wrote a great novel, "Eagle of the Ninth" about it). But finds in Europe suggest that it survived and was perhaps destroyed in Judaea under Hadrian.

 

I'm still waiting to hear that evidence of its existence on the Danube with Marcus Aurelius has been found. At any rate, the passing of Legio VIIII with hardly a whisper is a bit strange. Considering the nature of the Roman psyche its lack of mention certainly lends itself to a less than stellar final performance in the face of an enemy rather than a revolt or some grand final battle in which it performed admirably.

 

Anyway more on Legion IX including more speculation...

 

http://www.roman-britain.org/military/leg9hispana.htm

[phil25]

Thanks for that fascinating link PP.

 

I might add that my family home was situated right over the Praetorium of the legionnary fortress (later the forum of the colonia); and as a schoolboy I helped excavate the east gate of the city, which still preserves the pits in which the timbers of the earlier military gateway had been embedded. The site is still on display although in a scandallously bad state.

 

Phil

[Screaming Eagle]

I do not know why, but Legio X Equestris has always had a place in my heart, especially since reading Caesar's Commentaries, and all the other books based around that period in Roman History

[Primus Pilus]

I'm partial to III Augusta not only because it was one of the original Augustan legions but because it was stationed in one place (Africa) for the better part of 5 centuries. Its amazing when you consider that a single unit manned the same forts and guarded the same territories for such an incredibly long period of time.

 

I suppose any survivors of the Vandal invasion must have blended in with the local population. I think that intrigues me the most... perhaps they actually went into the service of Gaiseric (Caesar King) and remnants/descendents of those original legionaries possibly helped sack Rome itself in 455.

[Furius Venator]

I have read some interesting stories about the 10th and 14th legion.

 

Books by Dando-Collins? If so- beware. Though vastly entertaining and full of interesting snippets, many of his assertions and conclusions are either unfounded conjecture (which would be ok if he pointed out it was conjecture) or just plain wrong. Which is a shame because they are a good read and his idea of a book on the history of each legion is an excellent one.