Legions of Rome (27 page)

Similarly, Dr. Robert O. Fink, in the
American Journal of Philology
[Vol. 63, No. 1, 1942, pp. 61–71], in discussing Mommsen’s interpretation of a papyrus about troop movements within the Cohors I Augusta Lusitanorum, was highly critical of Mommsen’s work, showing that it was “certainly wrong,” “mistaken” and “not consistent” on various points. He also discounted as “absurd” one of Mommsen’s suppositions, and railed against “Mommsen’s wholly unnatural assumption” on another point.

Professor Chester Starr has shown how Mommsen was wrong time and time again in his conclusions about Rome’s navy. [
See below
] Similarly, there is a more credible scenario for the maritime origin of the 10th Fretensis Legion’s title than the one proposed by Mommsen, one that discredits his theory that the 10th Gemina Legion was Caesar’s original 10th.

10TH GEMINA LEGION

LEGIO X GEMINA

Twinned 10th Legion

ORIGIN OF TITLE:

After its combination with another legion by Octavian, c. 30 BC.

EMBLEM:

Bull.

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn (probably).

FOUNDATION:

By Octavian, 30 BC or earlier.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Unknown.

POSTINGS:

Petavonium, Carnuntum, the Rhine, Batavia, Noviomagus, Aquincum, Dacia, Vindobonna.

BATTLE HONORS:

Cantabrian War, 29-19 BC.
Battle of Old Camp, AD 69.
Trajan’s First Dacian War, AD 101-103.
Trajan’s Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.
Aurelian’s Defeat of Queen Zenobia, AD 272-273.
Aurelian’s Egyptian campaign, AD 273.

NOTABLE COMMANDER:

Marcus Aurelius Probus, future emperor, AD 272-275

THE QUIET CAREER OF THE TWINNED TENTH

A reliable legion thrown into many of Rome’s major imperial conflicts—the Cantabrian War, the Civilis Revolt, Trajan’s Dacian Wars and the defense of the Danube
.

Theodor Mommsen wrote that the 10th Gemina Legion was the direct descendant of Julius Caesar’s famed 10th Legion, and for over a hundred years his claim has been accepted as fact by many historians. As demonstrated in the preceding history of the 10th Fretensis Legion, Mommsen was almost certainly wrong and the 10th Fretensis is more likely to have been Caesar’s 10th, having acquired its Fretensis title while in Caesar’s army in the winter of 49/48
BC
by fighting a battle on water to reopen the vital Otranto Strait between Italy and Epirus.

The 10th Gemina Legion of the imperial era was created by the merger of two existing legions by Octavian, following the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the 31
BC
Battle of Actium, one of them an existing 10th Legion from either Octavian’s
army or Antony’s. In 30
BC
, the 10th Gemina Legion arrived in Nearer Spain. In the following year it formed part of Octavian’s army, which fought the bitter ten-year Cantabrian Wars to clear the Cantabrian Mountains in the north of Spain of hostile tribes. The legion was subsequently based in Spain at Petavonium, today’s Rosinos de Vidriales.

In the
AD
60s, the 10th Gemina Legion, like the 14th Gemina Martia Victrix, was transferred to Carnuntum in Pannonia in preparation for Nero’s invasion of Parthia, but with the outbreak of the Jewish Revolt in Judea in
AD
66 it was returned to Spain. In
AD
70, the legion marched from Spain to the Rhine to take part in the final stages of Petilius Cerialis’ campaign to put down the Civilis Revolt. In one of the last battles of that revolt, rebels killed the camp-prefect and five first-rank centurions of the 10th Gemina. The legion was thereafter based at the Batavian capital, Nijmegen, where it built a new stone fortress.

The legion transferred to Aquincum on the Danube in the spring of
AD
101, and from there took part in both Dacian Wars for Trajan. Following the annexation of Dacia in
AD
106, the 10th Gemina remained in Dacia for the following twelve years. In
AD
118 it left Dacia for the Pannonian base at Vindobonna, today’s Vienna in Austria. It was still there when the emperor Marcus Aurelius died in the city in
AD
180, and also when Cassius Dio listed legion locations half a century later. In the fourth century, the legion was still in existence, and still in Pannonia, but split into two border guard elements, each commanded by a prefect and at different locations. [Not. Dig.]

11TH CLAUDIA LEGION

LEGIO XI GLAUDIA-P-F

Claudius’ Loyal and Patriotic 11th Legion

ORIGIN OF TITLE:

Awarded by Claudius for helping put down the Scribonianus Revolt, AD 42.

EMBLEM:

Neptune’s trident and thunderbolts.

BIRTH SIGN:

Gemini (she-wolf and twins).

FOUNDATION:

58 BC, by Julius Caesar.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Originally Cisalpine Gaul.

IMPERIAL POSTINGS:

Gaul, Illyria, Burnum, the Rhine, Batavia, Vindonissa, Brigetio, Oescus, Durosurum, Dacia, Durosturum.

BATTLE HONORS:

Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
Trajan’s Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.
Second Jewish Revolt, AD 134-135.

THE LATE ELEVENTH

Raised by Caesar, a legion that was victorious in the grinding Pannonian and Dacian Wars, and gained its title for preventing an internal revolt against Claudius in Dalmatia
.

The first legion raised for Julius Caesar in Italy for his Gallic campaigns, the 11th Legion, became part of Octavian’s standing army in 30
BC
and was posted to Dalmatia. It would have served there throughout the Pannonian War, and was stationed at Burnum, the Dalmatian capital, during the mutiny of
AD
14 and into the reign of Claudius.

When Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia, attempted to revolt against Claudius in
AD
42, the legion initially went along with the uprising, but after five days, men of the 11th and the 7th killed Scribonianus and those of his officers who supported him, terminating the revolt. Claudius rewarded both legions with the title “Claudius’ Loyal and Patriotic.” The legion would be known as the 11th Claudia for centuries to come.

In
AD
69 the men of the 11th Claudia swore allegiance to Otho, and were marching from Burnum to his support when they learned they were too late; Otho was dead, and Vitellius was emperor. Soon after returning to Burnum the legion swore
for Vespasian, but when other legions marched into Italy to do battle with Vitellius’ legions, the 11th hesitated. Only when Marcus Antonius Primus and his army had defeated Vitellius’ troops at Bedriacum and Cremona did the 11th Claudia arrive, joining the march on Rome that ended in the death of Vitellius and elevation of Vespasian in December of that year.

In
AD
70, Vespasian posted the legion to Vindonissa on the Upper Rhine, to replace units disgraced in the Civilis Revolt. It remained there until transferred to Brigetio on the Danube in
AD
101, where it remained during the First Dacian War. It took part in the second war in Dacia, and at the war’s end spent time in Oescus and Durosturum. The latter, today’s Silistra in Bulgaria, became its permanent base.

The legion, or a vexillation of several of its cohorts, was briefly transferred from Moesia to Palestine to take part in the final stage of Sextus Julius Severus’ offensive against the Jewish rebels led by Shimeon bar-Kokhba. An inscription records the legion’s presence at the
AD
135 siege of Bar-Kokhba’s fortress at Bethar, just south of Jerusalem. [Yadin, 13]

The 11th Claudia Legion remained at Durosturum for the next 200 years, but by the time of the Notitia Dignitatum in the late fourth century it had ceased to exist. Part of an 11th Legion, a comitatense legion, was then shown in Spain, with another in the East, these possibly having descended from the 11th Claudia.

12TH FULMINATA LEGION