Legio IX Hispana
| Legio IX Hispana | |
|---|---|
 Map of the Roman empire in AD 125, under emperor Hadrian, showing the Legio IX Hispana, then stationed (from AD 121 to ca. 132)[citation needed] on the river Rhine at Noviomagus (Nijmegen, Netherlands), in Germania Inferior province | |
| Active | Before 58 BC to sometime in the 2nd century |
| Country | Roman Republic and Roman Empire |
| Type | Roman legion (Marian) |
| Role | Infantry assault |
| Garrison/HQ | Eboracum (71 - ?) |
| Mascot(s) | Bull (likely) |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | |
Legio nona Hispana (Ninth Hispanic Legion)[1] was a Roman legion.
History
The legion was raised, along with the 6th, 7th and 8th, by Pompey in Hispania in 65 BC [2]. Caesar first commanded them as Governor of Further Spain in 61 BC. He brought them over to Gaul around 58 BC, where they were present during the whole campaign of the Gallic wars.
The 9th was withdrawn to Hispania in 49 BC where it earned the title “Hispaniensis”. (Caesar’s Gallic Wars) They 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.
Following Caesar's assassination, Octavian 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. With Octavian 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). Their surname Hispana likely dates from this event and was probably earned for distinction in fighting.
After this, the legion was probably a member of the imperial army in the Rhine border that was campaigning against the Germanic tribes. Following the abandonment of the Eastern Rhine area (after the disaster of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest — AD 9), the Ninth was relocated in Pannonia.
Invasion of Britain
In 43 they participated in the Roman invasion of Britain led by emperor Claudius and general Aulus Plautius. Under the command of Caesius Nasica they put down the first revolt of Venutius between 52 and 57. The Ninth suffered a serious defeat under Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the rebellion of Boudica (61) and was later reinforced with legionaries from the Germania provinces. Their last record in Britain dates from the late 1st century (AD71) when they set up a fortress which later became part of Eburacum once the colonia was established in what is now York.
Disappearance
It is often said that the legion disappeared in Britain in around AD 117.[3] However, the names of several high ranking officers of the Ninth are known, and the fact that the records show that these officers may have been active after 117, e.g., Lucius Aemilius Karus, governor of Arabia in 142/143, could suggest that the legion continued in existence after 117. It has been suggested that the legion may have been destroyed during the Bar Kochba Revolt in Iudaea Province, or possibly in the ongoing conflict with the Parthian Empire.[4]
That the fate of the 9th was settled somewhere in the East, following a strategic transfer, rather than being lost in a British catastrophe, has now become the preferred scenario, although ultimately the evidence for this is rather insubstantial. The last testified activity for the 9th in Britain is during the rebuilding in stone of the legionary fortress at York (Eburacum) in AD 107-8. Its subsequent movements remain unknown, but there is ample evidence of the Legion's presence at Nijmegen (Noviomagus) in the Netherlands, which had been evacuated by X Gemina.[5] A subunit appears to have stayed in nearby Ewijk. There is no need to doubt the transfer of IX Hispana to the Lower Rhine in the first quarter of the 2nd century.
The reduction of the number of Roman troops in Britain may have caused military problems. Evidence for substantial troop losses in Britain is supplied by the Roman historian Marcus Cornelius Fronto, writing in the AD 160s, who consoled the emperor Marcus Aurelius, by reminding him of past tragedies “Indeed, when your grandfather Hadrian held imperial power, what great numbers of soldiers were killed by the Druids, what great numbers by the British”[6]. Details of these casualties remain unknown, but, as the emperor Hadrian himself visited Britain in AD 122, because “the Britons could not be kept under Roman control” [7], it is plausible that Hadrian was responding to a military disaster.[8]
The Ninth was certainly no longer in existence by the mid 2nd century as a series of army listings compiled during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 161 – 180) fails to mention the legion. Prof. Sheppard Frere, an eminent Romano-British authority, has concluded that "further evidence is needed before more can be said".[9]
Further evidence of a serious British war after the transfer of IX Hispana may be supplied by a tombstone recovered from Vindolanda, Chesterholm in Northumberland. Here, the man commemorated, Titus Annius, a centurion of the First Cohort of Tungrians, had been “killed in ... war” (in bello ... interfectus)[10]. Further afield, a tombstone from Ferentinum in Italy was set up to Titus Pontius Sabinus, who, amongst other things, had commanded detachments of the VII Gemina, VIII Augusta and XXII Primigenia Legions on the “British expedition”, taking reinforcements to the island after (or even during) a major conflict, probably early in the emperor Hadrian’s reign (AD 117 – 138)[11].
See also
The 2010 movie The Last Legion depicts the Ninth Legion as being part of the legend of King Arthur
In August 2010, author Stephen Lorne Bennett published the novel Last of the Ninth in which 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 follows the son of Flavius Aquila as he sets out to solve the mystery of the Legion's disappearance. It is based on The Eagle of the Ninth, a novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff.
References
- ^ "York's Spanish connection". BBC.co.uk. 13 January 2008.
- ^ Caesar's Legion, Stephen Dando-Collins, 269-270
- ^ E.g., Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, vol.1 (1956).
- ^ [1]
- ^ Jan Kees Haalebos, "Römische Truppen in Nijmegen", in: Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 465-489.
- ^ Fronto Parthian War 2, 220
- ^ Scriptores Historiae Augustae Hadrian, 5, 1
- ^ E.g. D. Breeze & B. Dobson, Hadrian's Wall, 4th edn. (2000) Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, p. 25.
- ^ S.S. Frere (1987) Britannia. A History of Roman Britain. Third edition, extensively revised, London, p. 124
- ^ Roman Inscriptions of Britain, vol. 3 (Oxford 2009) no. 3364
- ^ B. Dobson Die Primipilares (Cologne/Bonn, 1978) no. 117, where the connection with Hadrian is considered "likely".
External links
- livius.org account of Legio IX Hispana
- Legio IX Hispana, U.S. reenactment group website
- Legio IX Hispana, USA re-enactment group
- LEG VIIII HSPA, Australian re-enactment group
- Legio IX Hisp, Roman unit in 'The Vicus' re-enactment group.