Legions of Rome (18 page)

The 2nd Parthica also remained loyal to the co-emperor Maxentius, Constantine the Great’s brother-in-law. When, in
AD
312, Constantine marched into Italy with 40,000 men to dethrone Maxentius, the 2nd Parthica formed up for Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge just north of Rome, where Maxentius was defeated in the battle and drowned in the Tiber. Constantine, victorious, abolished both the Praetorian Guard and the Singularian Horse household cavalry, because they had fought for Maxentius, but he did not abolish the 2nd Parthica Legion; instead he shipped the unit to the farthest reaches of the empire. From that time forward, the 2nd Parthica was based in Mesopotamia, facing the Persian threat. Constantine gave the legion’s base at Alba to the Christian Church, together with the civilian
vicus
that had grown outside it. Many displaced family members would have trailed after the legion to their new base.

The legion later transferred to the hill town of Bezabde (today’s Cizre in Turkey), beside the Tigris, still in Mesopotamia. According to the historian Ammianus, who was familiar with the unit, the 2nd Parthica Legion was destroyed in
AD
360 when King Shapur led a siege of Bezabde which overran the city. The 2nd Flavia and 2nd Armeniaca legions were wiped out in the same battle. The majority of the men of the 2nd Parthica Legion were taken prisoner and became slaves of the Persians.

According to the Notitia Dignitatum, both the 1st Parthica and 2nd Parthica legions were garrisoned in Mesopotamia under the Duke of Mesopotamia, with the 2nd Parthica based at Cefae in the late fourth century. But not only had both legions apparently been destroyed by that time, but Mesopotamia had not been a Roman province for many years, having been surrendered to the Parthians by the emperor Jovian in
AD
363.

2ND TRAIANA LEGION

LEGIO II TRAIANA

Trajan’s 2nd Legion

EMBLEM:

Hercules’ hammer and lightning bolt.

BIRTH SIGN:

Aries.

FOUNDATION:

By Trajan, c. 105 AD

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Originally, probably German provinces.

POSTINGS:

Laodicea, Nicopolis.

BATTLE HONORS:

Trajan’s Parthian campaign, AD 111–114.
Defense of Alexandria, AD 172–173.

A LIFE IN EGYPT

Raised by Trajan, taking his name, this legion fought under him against the Parthians and took their capital
.

In the preparations for his second invasion of Dacia, Trajan gave orders for two new legions to be levied. One would support the Dacian operation, the other sent to the East in preparation for Trajan’s planned Parthian incursion.

The 2nd Traiana Legion, named after Trajan, was one of those two legions; the other was the 30th Ulpia. There is no record of why Trajan gave it the number 2, but it is likely that it was raised in the recruiting grounds of an existing 2nd Legion, which were probably then in the Rhine provinces—Hercules, patron deity of the legion, was, in the Germanic form of Donar, a revered war god among Germans.

Shipped to Syria, the 2nd Traiana was located at the port city of Laodicea in
AD
105. From there it moved south to Egypt, making its base at Nicopolis, not far from Alexandria. There the legion remained, possibly contributing a vexillation to operations in Judea during the Second Jewish Revolt of
AD
132–135.

In
AD
172, Bucoli herdsmen from the Nile Delta rose in revolt under the leadership of an Egyptian priest named Isodorus. After defeating an auxiliary force sent to deal with them, the Bucoli laid siege to Alexandria, which would have been defended by the 2nd Traiana Legion. The siege was only lifted in the new year, and the revolt put down, when Avidius Cassius, governor of Syria, came marching down from Syria with a relief force.

Presumably, the 2nd Traiana sided with Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in
AD
269 when she seized Egypt, for there is no record of it fighting her. Early in the fifth century the 2nd Traiana was one of six legions based in Egypt, according to the Notitia Dignitatum, answerable to the Duke of Thebes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire it would have been absorbed into the army of the Byzantine emperors.

3RD AUGUSTA LEGION

LEGIO III AUGUSTA

Augustus’ 3rd Legion

EMBLEM:

Lion, on first-century numismatic evidence. (Pegasus also suggested, but not proven.)

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn.

ORIGIN OF TITLE:

Granted by Augustus, c. 19 BC.

FOUNDATION:

Probably raised by Octavian.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Originally, Cisalpine Gaul. Later, North Africa.

POSTINGS:

Africa, Ammaedra, Tebessa, Lambaesis.

BATTLE HONORS:

Tacfarinas’ Revolt, AD 17–23.
Battle of Carthage, AD 238.

DISBANDED:

AD 238. Reformed, AD 253.

NOTABLE COMMANDER:

Marcus Aurelius Probus, future emperor (AD 276–282).

GUARDIANS OF NORTH AFRICA

From putting down the long-lasting Tacfarinas’ Revolt in Tunisia for Tiberius to paying the price for loyalty to Maximinus, for hundreds of years it was Rome’s only legion in North Africa
.

The 3rd Legion that arrived in the province of Africa in 30
BC
may have descended from Pompey the Great’s 3rd Legion. It served Octavian during the war against Antony and Cleopatra.

Sometime between 27
BC
, when Octavian took the title of Augustus, and his death in
AD
14, the 3rd Legion was granted the title “Augusta” by the emperor. After a campaign against desert tribes in 19
BC
, the governor of Africa, Cornelius Balbus, was awarded a Triumph by the Senate. It has been suggested, with some merit, that this was when and why the 3rd Augusta Legion was given its title. [Kepp.,
MRA
, 5] It was perhaps not coincidental that 19
BC
was the year of the final termination of the Cantabrian Wars in Spain, during which four legions all received the title of Augusta. It was also in 19
BC
that one of those legions had its Augusta title removed, for cowardice.

The 3rd Augusta Legion’s finest hour came with its termination of the
AD
17–23 Tacfarinas’ Revolt in Africa. In
AD
75, the legion was transferred by Vespasian to Tebessa, known today as Timgad, where the men of the legion then built a handsome town astride the road to their old base at Lambaesis, laid out in military grid pattern. The legion would continue to labor on the city’s major building projects for another half century.

In
AD
238, leading citizens in the province of Africa rebelled against the emperor Maximinus, declaring the province’s governor Gordian I and his son Gordian II coemperors in opposition to Maximinus. But the resident 3rd Augusta remained loyal to Maximinus and defeated the usurpers’ army of raw levies in a one-sided battle outside Carthage, when Gordian II was among the many killed. On learning of his son’s death, Gordian I committed suicide.

But the Senate, which despised Maximinus, declared two of their members, Pupienus Maximus and Balbinus, co-emperors. Maximinus, in Pannonia and about to go to war with the Goths, turned his army around and marched into Italy. But as he was besieging Aquileia, which was held by forces loyal to the Senate, his own troops murdered him in his camp.

With Maximinus dead, the Praetorian Guard murdered Pupienus and Balbinus, allowing Gordian I’s 13-year-old grandson to become the next emperor, Gordian III. Because the 3rd Augusta Legion had remained loyal to their emperor, Maximinus, and had been responsible for the deaths of his grandfather and uncle, Gordian III ordered the 3rd Augusta Legion abolished. Its troops were dispersed around other units.

Fifteen years later, in
AD
253, a year when there were three emperors, the 3rd Augusta Legion was reformed, apparently by Valerian, with Sattonius Jucundus as its chief centurion, Sattonius having previously served with the legion prior to its disbanding. [
ILS
, 2296]

With Africa in a peaceable state, vexillations from the 3rd Augusta frequently served in Europe in the decades that followed. One such detachment was stationed in Macedonia and saw action against the Goths. [
AE
1934, 193] The legion was eventually withdrawn from Africa. Numbered among the comitatense legions under the command of the Master of Foot, its men recruited in Gaul, the legion was part of the army sent by Stilicho in
AD
395 to put down Africa’s rebel governor, Gildo.