Legions of Rome (19 page)

3RD CYRENAICA LEGION

LEGIO III CYRENAICA

3rd Cyrenaican Legion

EMBLEM:

Ammon/Jupiter (probably).

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn (possibly).

FOUNDATION:

Probably by Mark Anthony, c. 36 BC.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Originally, province of Cyrenaica.

POSTINGS:

Egypt, Judea, Bostra, Judea, Bostra.

BATTLE HONORS:

Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70.
Trajan’s Parthian campaign, AD 114–116.
Second Jewish Revolt, AD 132–135.

FROM EGYPT’S QUIET TO THE THICK OF CONFLICT

A resident legion of Egypt for many years, it occupied and created the new province of Arabia, then slugged through the Second Jewish War, which resulted in all Jews being banned from within sight of Jerusalem
.

The 3rd Cyrenaica Legion is known to have fought for Mark Antony, who, as its title implies, probably raised it in Cyrenaica in North Africa, which came under Antony’s control during the Second Triumvirate. It surrendered to Octavian at Actium in 31
BC
, and the following year became one of Augustus’ twenty-eight standing legions, posted to Egypt.

Neither the emblem nor the birth sign of the 3rd Cyrenaica is recorded, but the men of the legion were known to venerate the Cyrenaican god known in Egypt as Ammon, and which the Romans depicted as Jupiter with horns; it is possible that the 3rd Cyrenaica Legion bore this officially recognized manifestation as its emblem.

Based at Alexandria, the legion put down Jewish rioting in that city in the first century and contributed cohorts to Titus’
AD
70 Siege of Jerusalem. In
AD
106 the legion departed its longtime base at Alexandria, joined a task force led by Aulus Cornelius Palma, governor of Syria, and invaded the old kingdom of Nabataea. On the orders of the emperor Trajan, Palma carved out the new Roman province Arabia
Petraea. At Bostra, the 3rd Cyrenaica built itself a new base.

Between
AD
114 and 116, the legion took part in Trajan’s campaign in Mesopotamia and Parthia, before returning to its Bostra base. Between
AD
132 and 135 it took part in Julius Severus’ grinding operations in Judea that put down the Second Jewish Revolt. The legion continued to be based at Bostra for the next few hundred years, regularly fighting the Persians, with mixed fortunes.

By the end of the fourth century, the 3rd Cyrenaica was still in Arabia, accompanied by the 4th Martia Legion, a relatively new creation, plus twelve mounted units and five auxiliary cohorts.

3RD GALLICA LEGION

LEGIO III GALLICA

3rd Gallic Legion

EMBLEM:

Three bulls.

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn

FOUNDATION:

Reformed by Julius Caesar in Gaul in 49 BC; based on Pompey’s 3rd Legion.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Originally, Gaul. Under Mark Anthony, changed to Syria.

POSTINGS:

Emesa, Apamea, Cappadocia, Armenia, Judea, Moesia, Rome/Capua, Raphanaea, Judea, Danaba.

BATTLE HONORS:

Corbulo’s First Armenian Campaign, AD 58–60.
Corbulo’s Second Armenian Campaign, AD 62.
First Jewish Revolt, AD 66–67.
Defeat of the Roxolani Sarmatians, AD 68.
Second Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Cremona, AD 69.
Battle of Rome, AD 69.
Second Jewish Revolt, AD 132–135.

VESPASIAN’S TERRORS

One of Mark Antony’s legions, it was subsequently badly mauled in the First Jewish Revolt before single-handedly crushing 9,000 Sarmatian cavalry in Moesia, this feared legion led the way into Italy to defeat Vitellius and make its former general Vespasian emperor
.

“Under Marcus Antonius they had defeated the
Parthians, under Corbulo the Armenians, and
had lately discomforted the Sarmatians.”

(T
ACITUS
,
Histories
,
III
, 24)

The emblem of three bulls depicted on the coins of the 3rd Gallica Legion reflects the fact that this was the second 3rd Legion in existence at or shortly after the time that it was reformed by Caesar in 49
BC
. As Caesar himself wrote, the other 3rd Legion was marching for Pompey the Great in Greece at the time, and it fought against Caesar at Pharsalus. [Caes.,
CW
,
III
, 88] This legion’s Gallica title may have been given to
it by Caesar to differentiate it from Pompey’s 3rd and also to reflect the fact that it had been raised in Gaul. The original 3rd, having served Pompey in Spain, almost certainly carried the bull emblem.

The 3rd Gallica was one of the Caesarian legions that Mark Antony took to the East during the Second Triumvirate. There, it distinguished itself in Antony’s army during his disastrous 36
BC
campaign in Media. Prior to this campaign Antony filled several of his legions with Syrian recruits, and for at least the next hundred years the ranks of 3rd Gallica Legion were occupied by Syrians, most of whom, if not all, were followers of the eastern sun god Baal, or Elagabalus.

Once Octavian absorbed the 3rd Gallica into his new standing army in 30
BC
, the legion was made part of the Syria station. The coins of its wages were minted alternatively at Emesa, home of the shrine of Baal, and Apamea.

There was then a convention that legions were not stationed where they were recruited, and later indications put the legion in Judea, a sub-province of Syria. In Judea, the legion was not permitted to circulate coins bearing images of the emperor, nor raise their standards, because of the Jewish prohibition of graven images. And because the governor of Judea was only of Equestrian status, the legion was commanded by their tribune, an Equestrian, in the same way that only Equestrian officers were permitted in Egypt. At one time the 3rd Gallica’s senior tribune was an officer named Celer, who was put to death for defrauding the Jews of Judea. [Jos.,
JA
, 20, 6, 2–3]

By the spring of
AD
58, a six-cohort 3rd Gallica vexillation had marched up to Cappadocia under the legion’s camp-prefect, Capito, and took part in Corbulo’s lightning campaign in Armenia. In
AD
62, another vexillation participated in Corbulo’s second Armenian campaign.

When the Jewish Revolt erupted in Judea in
AD
66, three of the 3rd Gallica’s cohorts were surprised at the outset and were wiped out. The legion’s remaining cohorts took part in Vespasian’s
AD
67 counter-offensive in Galilee. But, despite the enthusiasm of its vengeful legionaries, the legion suffered so many losses by the end of the summer that the Palatium transferred it across the Roman world to Moesia, on the Danube, where it arrived in
AD
68.

In early
AD
69, just as the winter in Moesia was coming to an end, the depleted legion was called out to counter an invasion of the province by 9,000 heavily armored
Sarmatian cavalrymen from the Roxolani tribe. In a surprise attack on an icy day, the men of the 3rd Gallica killed the Roxolani to a man, with minimal casualties of their own. For their victory, the legion’s legate was awarded Triumphal Decorations by the emperor Otho.

In the late summer of
AD
69, the men of the 3rd Gallica learned that their former commander-in-chief in Judea, Vespasian, had been hailed emperor by the legions of the East. This was in opposition to the incumbent, Vitellius, who had overthrown Otho. The legion then swore for Vespasian and convinced the other legions of Moesia, Pannonia and Dalmatia to do the same. In September, a delegation from the legion, led by it chief centurion, Attius Varus, attended a war conference held at Poetovio, the headquarters of the 13th Gemina Legion, in Pannonia.

The legate of the 7th Galbiana Legion, Marcus Antonius Primus, then declared that he would march on Italy to dethrone Vitellius with just the few auxiliaries he had with him. When the other generals at the meeting failed to support Primus, Centurion Varus and the men of the 3rd Gallica with him immediately gave him their allegiance and support.

With Centurion Varus as his deputy and just Varus’ men of the 3rd Gallica and his auxiliaries, Primus marched into Italy where they were soon joined by the remainder of the 3rd Gallica and the other legions of Moesia and Pannonia. Primus’ army defeated the forces of Vitellius, first at Bedriacum and then at Cremona, with the 3rd Gallica at the forefront. At Cremona, “the 3rd broke down the gate with axes and swords. All authors agree that Gaius Volusius, a soldier of the 3rd Legion, entered first. Beating down all who opposed him, he mounted the rampart, waved his hand, and shouted aloud that the camp was taken.” [Tac.,
H
,
III
, 29]

The 3rd Gallica then marched on Rome and stormed into the city. After helping to bring down Vitellius, they then set about looting the homes of his supporters. When Vespasian’s deputy Mucianus arrived at Rome, he ordered the rapacious 3rd Gallica to spend the winter at Capua, to remove them from the capital. Capua was not only wealthy, but had supported Vitellius to the end, so the men of the 3rd Gallica had no reservations about systematically looting the town over the winter.

Varus, the legion’s chief centurion, was rewarded for his part in the defeat of Vitellius with a praetorship, but he was soon sidelined, and in the spring of
AD
70 his former legion was sent back to the East, where it could no longer influence events. The legion’s new station was remote Raphanaea, on the Euphrates river, in southern Syria.

The 3rd Gallica took part in the Roman counter-offensive in Judea during the Second Jewish Revolt of
AD
132–135. It was back at Raphanaea during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. During the reign of Septimius Severus the legion’s province was Syria Phoenicia, and the legion would have taken part in Aurelian’s
AD
273 campaign to take back the East from the rebel queen of Palmyra, Zenobia.

By the reign of Diocletian, the 3rd Gallica’s base was at Danaba, between Damascus and Palmyra. In the reign of Theodosius I, the legion was still at Danaba, along with the 1st Illyricorum Legion, a unit which dated from the late third century.