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Legio IX Hispana

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Legio IX Hispana
Map of the Roman empire in 125 AD, under emperor Hadrian, showing the IX Hispana's last attested location at Noviomagus Batavorum on the Rhine (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
ActiveBefore 58 BC to sometime in the 2nd century AD
CountryRoman Republic and Roman Empire
TypeRoman legion (Marian)
RoleInfantry assault
Sizeca. 5,400
Garrison/HQEboracum (Britannia) 71–c.121
? Noviomagus (Germania Inferior) c. 121-130
Mascot(s)Bull (likely)
Engagements
Commanders
Notable
commanders

Legio nona Hispana ("Spanish Ninth Legion"),[1] also Legio VIIII Hispana or Legio IX Hispana, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army which operated from the 1st century BC until the mid-2nd century AD. The legion fought in various provinces of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire but was then stationed in Britain following the Roman invasion in 43 AD. The legion disappears from Roman records in the first half of the second century, but there is no account of what happened to it.

The mysterious fate of the legion has been the subject of considerable interest and research. It was last definitely recorded in York in 108. One theory was that the legion was destroyed in action in northern Britain some time around 120, perhaps during a rising of northern tribes. This view was popularized by the 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth in which the legion is said to have marched into Caledonia (Scotland), after which it was "never heard of again"

This theory was thought to have been discredited when tile stamps later found in Nijmegen appeared to show that the legion was still based there between 121 and 130.[2] However, this evidence has been disputed. Other possibilities are an end in the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-5) or in Armenia in 161.[3] In any event, the Ninth does not appear in two lists of legions compiled after 197.

Republican army (to 30 BC)

The origin of the legion is uncertain, but a 9th legion seems to have participated in the siege of Asculum during the Social War in 90 BC.[4]

According to Stephen Dando-Collins the legion was raised, along with the 6th, 7th and 8th, by Pompey in Hispania in 65 BC.[5] When he became governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 58 BC, Julius Caesar inherited four legions, numbered VII to X, that were already based there. The Ninth (IX) may have been quartered in Aquileia "to guard against attacks from the Illyrians".[6] Caesar created two more legions (XI and XII), using all six for his attack on the Helvetii which initiated the Gallic wars.

The Caesarian Ninth Legion fought in the battles of Dyrrhachium and Pharsalus (48 BC) and in the African campaign of 46 BC. After his final victory, Caesar disbanded the legion and settled the veterans in the area of Picenum.[7]

Following Caesar's assassination, Caesar's ally Ventidius Bassus made attempts to recreate the 7th, 8th and 9th legions, but "it is not clear that any of these survived even to the time of Philippi".[8] Octavian later recalled the veterans of the Ninth to fight against the rebellion of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily. After defeating Sextus, they were sent to the province of Macedonia. The Ninth remained with Octavian in his war of 31 BC against Mark Antony and fought by his side in the battle of Actium.

Imperial Roman army (30 BC - AD 130?)

Memorial to Lucius Duccius Rufinus, a standard bearer of the Ninth, Yorkshire Museum, York

With Octavian, who later adopted the title 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 (25–13 BC). The nickname Hispana ("stationed in Hispania") is first found during the reign of Augustus and probably originated at that time.

After this, the legion was probably part of the imperial army in the Rhine borderlands that was campaigning against the Germanic tribes. Following the abandonment of the Eastern Rhine area (after the disastrous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9), the Ninth was relocated in Pannonia.

Britain (AD 43 - at least 108)

In AD 43 they[clarification needed] most likely participated in the Roman invasion of Britain led by emperor Claudius and general Aulus Plautius, because they soon appear amongst the provincial garrison. In AD 50, the Ninth was one of two legions that defeated the forces of Caratacus at Caer Caradoc. Around the same year, the legion constructed a fort, Lindum Colonia, at Lincoln. Under the command of Caesius Nasica they put down the first revolt of Venutius between 52 and 57.

The Ninth suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Camulodunum under Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the rebellion of Boudica (61), when most of the foot-soldiers were killed in a disastrous attempt to relieve the besieged city of Camulodunum (Colchester). Only the cavalry escaped. It[clarification needed] was later reinforced with legionaries from the Germania provinces. When Cerialis returned as governor of Britain ten years later, he took command of the Ninth once more in a successful campaign against the Brigantes in 71-2, to subdue north-central Britain. Around this time they constructed a new fortress at York (Eboracum), as shown by finds of tile-stamps from the site.[9]

The Ninth participated in Agricola's invasion of Caledonia (modern Scotland) in 82-3. 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.[10] 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.[11]

Germania Inferior (108? - 130?)

Several inscriptions attesting IX Hispana have been found in the site of the legionary fortress on the lower Rhine river at Noviomagus Batavorum (Nijmegen, Netherlands). These include numerous tile-stamps (dated 104-20), and a silver-plated bronze pendant, found in the 1990s, which was part of a phalera (military medal), with "LEG HISP IX" inscribed on the reverse.[12] In addition, an altar to Apollo, dating from this period, was found at nearby Aquae Granni (Aachen, Germany), erected in fulfillment of a vow, by Lucius Latinius Macer, who describes humself as primus pilus (chief centurion) and praefectus castrorum ("prefect of the camp", i.e. third-in-command) of IX Hispana.[13]

The archaeological evidence thus appears to indicate that elements of IX Hispana were present at Noviomagus sometime after 104 (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 AD 120.[14] 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.[2] It may have been both, first a detachment, which was later followed by the rest of the legion: a vexillatio Britannica ("British detachment": it is unclear from which unit(s)) is also attested at Nijmegen in this period.[15]

Late 2nd/3rd century

It has been suggested that the mysterious Legio VI Hispana, which is attested in a single inscription (Inscriptiones Aquilaeae 1.310) was in reality the IX Hispana. The inscription, on an altar dedicated to Mithras by Lucius Septimius Cassianus, signifer (standard-bearer) of "Legio IIIIII Hispana". Theodor Mommsen, the 19th century German classicist, argued that the "IIIIII Hispana" of the Cassianus inscription was a misspelling of IX Hispana. This legion was sometimes written "VIIII Hispana". The mason may have mistakenly engraved "II" instead of "V".[16]

But this inscription has been dated most recently to the reign of emperor Philip the Arab (244-9) on content and stylistic grounds. This would appear to rule out it referring to IX Hispana, as it appears certain that no "IX Hispana" existed during the reign of Septimius Severus (r. 193-211) (see below).

Theories about legion IX's disappearance

A stamp of the Ninth legion at York
the last definite attestation of the Ninth: a stone inscription at York dated 108

The Nijmegen finds, dating to ca. 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 in being 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 Dio Cassius, writing ca. 210-232 ("Roman History" LV.23-4). Both these lists date from after 197, as both include the 3 Parthica legions founded by Severus in that year. Both lists provide an identical list of legions. Neither includes a "IX Hispana". It thus appears that IX Hispana disappeared sometime in the period 120-97.

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."[11] He suggested that a revolt of the Brigantes some time 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”.[17] The emperor Hadrian (r. 117-38) visited Britain in person around 122 AD, when he launched the construction of Hadrian's Wall, because “the Britons could not be kept under Roman control”,[18] it is plausible that Hadrian was responding to a military disaster.[19]

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 ca. 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 the likely scenes of IX Hispana's demise:

  1. The Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans in Palestine (a.k.a. the Bar Kochba Revolt), which 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 (120-30). In this scenario, the Ninth may have been despatched to Palestine 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, which was normally based in Egypt, is actually documented in Palestine at this time and its surviving datable records also cease ca. 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.
  2. The emperor Marcus Aurelius' eastern war. The Roman historian Cassius Dio recorded that an unspecified legion was destroyed in 161 in Armenia.[3] This could plausibly have been the Ninth, but this theory has the drawback that there is a complete lack of evidence that the Ninth was present in the East in the period 130-60. Some scholars argue that the legion referred to by Dio was the XXII Deiotariana.

Several scholars continue to argue that destruction in Britain is the most likely scenario. 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".[20][21] 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.[11] 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. Lawrence Keppie 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.[22] Russell argues that "there is no evidence that the Ninth were ever taken out of Britain." 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."[20] 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.[22] However, Keppie believes that the legion may have been withdrawn from York around 117 to help deal with the war in Parthia at the end of Trajan's reign. Rather than the legion being destroyed in a British rebellion, Keppie suggests that absence of the legion encouraged the northern tribes to rebel, forcing Hadrian to send the Legio VI Victrix to Britain.[22]

In conclusion, the fate of the Ninth remains the subject of vigorous debate among scholars. As Sheppard Frere notes, "further evidence is needed before more can be said".[23]

The Ninth Legion's mysterious disappearance has made it a popular subject for historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

The Silchester eagle, the Roman eagle that inspired Sutcliff's novel. According to Reading Museum it "is not a legionary eagle but has been immortalized as such by Rosemary Sutcliff."[24]
  • 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 David Gemmell's "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 Great in Dark Prince (1991)) to help in battles.
  • In Will Murray's 1993 Doc Savage novel, The Forgotten Realm,[25] the Ninth Hispana founded a city called Novum Eboracum ("New York") in the African Congo, which survived until at least the 1930s.
  • A full-cast radio dramatisation of The Eagle of the Ninth was broadcast by BBC4 in 1996.[26]
  • 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's found the remains of a fort that housed the Ninth Legion in remote Eyemouth, Scotland.[27]
  • N. M. Browne's 2000 Warriors of Alavna accounts for the disappearance of the Legion by transporting it to an alternative reality.
  • In Ken MacLeod's 2002 science fiction novel Dark Light, the government of Nova Babylonia is descended from the Ninth Legion, the implication being that it was abducted by aliens and transported to that distant planet.
  • 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.
  • Jim Butcher's Codex Alera fantasy series (2004–2009) is populated by the descendants of the Ninth Legion and its camp followers, which had been transported to the world of Carna.[28]
  • 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 seen from the perspective of centurion Quintus Dias.
  • The 2011 movie The Eagle is based on the book The Eagle of the Ninth.
  • In Warhammer 40K two of the twenty super human Space Marine Legions are recorded as having all records of them deleted. This is a reference to the Ninth Legion as the Space Marine Legions were based on the Roman Legions.

Reenactment groups

Several historical reenactment groups play the role of the Ninth Legion:

  • The Vicus (UK) represents a vexillation of the Ninth[29]
  • Legio IX Hispana (USA)[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ "York's Spanish connection". BBC.co.uk. 13 January 2008.
  2. ^ a b Bowman, Alan K; Garnsey, Peter; Rathbone, Dominic (2000). The Cambridge Ancient History: The High Empire, A.D. 70–192 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 497. ISBN 978-0-521-26335-1.
  3. ^ a b Bowman, p. 158.
  4. ^ Keppie, Lawrence (1984). The Making of the Roman Army, from Republic to Empire. London: Batsford. p. 68. ISBN 0-7134-3651-4.
  5. ^ Dando-Collins, Stephen (2002). Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome. New York: Wiley. pp. 269–270. ISBN 0-471-09570-2.
  6. ^ Keppie, Lawrence (1984). The Making of the Roman Army, from Republic to Empire. London: Batsford. p. 208. ISBN 0-7134-3651-4.
  7. ^ Keppie, Lawrence (1983). Colonisation and veteran Settlement in Italy, 47–14 BCE. London: British School at Rome. p. 54. ISBN 0-904152-06-5.
  8. ^ Keppie, Lawrence (1984). The Making of the Roman Army, from Republic to Empire. London: Batsford. p. 133. ISBN 0-7134-3651-4.
  9. ^ Wright, R. P. (1978). "Tile-Stamps of the Ninth Legion found in Britain". Britannia. 9: 379–382. JSTOR 525953.
  10. ^ Herbert W. Benario, Tacitus - Agricola, Germany, and Dialogue on Orators, Hackett Publishing, 2006, p.42.
  11. ^ a b c D. B. Campbell, "The Fate of the Ninth: the Curious Disappearance of the VIIII Legio Hispana", Ancient Warfare, IV-5, 2010, pp.48-53.
  12. ^ AE (1996) 1107
  13. ^ AE (1968) 323
  14. ^ Willems & Enckevort (2009): Ulpia Noviomagus (Journal of Roman Archaeology supp. series no. 73) p.56
  15. ^ Willems & Enckevort (2009) 56
  16. ^ Seyrig (1923) 488
  17. ^ Fronto Parthian War 2, 220
  18. ^ Scriptores Historiae Augustae Hadrian, 5, 1
  19. ^ e.g. Breeze, D.; Dobson, B. (2000). Hadrian's Wall (4th ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 25. ISBN 0-14-027182-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ a b Russell, Miles (May 2011). BBC History Magazine: 41–45. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. ^ Russell, Miles (2010). Bloodline: The Celtic Kings of Roman Britain. Amberley. pp. 180–5. ISBN 978-1848682382.
  22. ^ a b c Lawrence Keppie, "The Fate of the Ninth Legion: a problem for the Eastern Provinces?", in Legions and Veterans: Roman Army Papers 1971-2000, p.247 ff.
  23. ^ Frere, S. S. (1987). Britannia. A History of Roman Britain (Third, extensively revised ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 124. ISBN 0-7102-1215-1.
  24. ^ Reading Museum's Silchester Eagle PDF
  25. ^ Robeson, Kenneth (1993). Doc Savage: The Forgotten Realm (1st ed.). Bantam Spectra. ISBN 0-553-29555-1.
  26. ^ BBC, Eagle of the ninth. ISBN 1-4084-6776-3
  27. ^ Amazon reviews of The Shadowy Horses.
  28. ^ Q&A with Jim Butcher
  29. ^ "What We Do: Roman Units". Vicus – Romans and Britons. Retrieved 27 March 2014. The Vicus represents two Roman military units. A vexillation of Legio IX Hispania: The choice of portraying Legion IX was an easy one as most of the legions that were present during the invasion and early occupation of Britain were already being portrayed in the UK and also the ninth does seem to have been involved in many of the significant military events....
  30. ^ "Legio IX Hispana: Bringing Rome to Life!". Legio IX Hispana.

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