Legions of Rome (31 page)

How these men of the new 18th Legion came to be in Egypt is explained by another passage in Tacitus, which speaks of 2,000 legion recruits from Libya being stranded in Alexandria in
AD
66 by the outbreak of the Jewish Revolt in Judea. These recruits, raised to make up four cohorts of the 18th Legion, remained in
Alexandria until summoned to Judea by Titus to join his
AD
70 assault on Jerusalem.

Once Vespasian came to power, the 18th Legion ceased to be. Its six cohorts on the Rhine had surrendered to the rebels during the Civilis Revolt, but at least its cohorts in Judea had done nothing untoward, so it is likely that the men of the 18th were folded into Galba’s 7th to create the 7th Gemina Legion.

Following the Varus disaster and the loss of the 17th, 18th and 19th legions in
AD
9, three consecutively numbered legions would never again be permitted by the highly superstitious Romans to serve in the same force.

20TH VALERIA VICTRIX LEGION

LEGIO XX V-V

20th Valorous and Victorious Legion

ORIGIN OF TITLE:

Unknown. Use not attested before AD 90.

EMBLEM:

Boar.

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn.

FOUNDATION:

In 49 BC, by Julius Caesar.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Initially Italy. Later Syria.

IMPERIAL POSTINGS:

Hispania Tarraconensis, Illyria, Burnum, Cologne, Neuss, Camulodunum, Glevum, Viroconium, Deva, Luguvalium.

BATTLE HONORS:

Cantabrian War, 19-29 BC.
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Germanicus’ German campaigns, AD 14-16.
Battle of Idistavisus, AD 16.
Battle of the Angrivar Barrier, AD 16.
Invasion of Britain, AD 43.
Boudicca’s Revolt, AD 60-61.

THE POWERFUL CONQUERORS

The “brave and victorious” 20th served under Germanicus in the Panonnian War, then joined him on the Rhine. It took part in the invasion of Britain and was one of the last legions to leave Britain
.

Many authors have assumed that the title Valeria Victrix, or Powerful Conquerors, was granted to the 20th Legion in
AD
60–61 as a reward for the legion’s participation in the defeat of Boudicca and her rebel army in Britain. No ancient text or inscription supports this theory, and in fact the use of Valeria Victrix in the legion’s title is not attested before
AD
90. [Tom.,
DRA
, DRAC]

Furthermore, 3,000 20th Legion men at most took part in the
AD
60 Battle on Watling Street, and Tacitus described them as “veterans”; these were apparently members of the Evocati militia, recently retired, and called out under their old 20th Legion standards in the emergency. [Tac.,
A
,
XIV
, 34]

Another theory has the Valeria Victrix title awarded to the 20th Legion for participation
in Agricola’s victory over the Caledonians at Mons Graupius in
AD
84. The 9th Hispana Legion was identified by Tacitus at the forefront of that campaign; the 20th was not mentioned. Had the 20th received such an award after Mons Graupius, the 9th could be expected to have received the same, which it did not.

The one campaign where the 20th Legion is known to have played a leading role was the Pannonian War of
AD
6–9. Germanicus Caesar, who had led the legion during that war, said to it five years later: “You men of the 20th, who have shared with me so many battles and have been enriched with so many rewards.” [Tacitus,
A
,
I
, 42] This indicates that it may have received the Victrix award for Pannonian War service.

The original 20th was a reliable legion stemming from Caesar’s mass civil war enlistments in Italy. Another comment from Germanicus indicates that the legion was receiving recruits from Syria by
AD
14. [Ibid.] Gravestones in Britain show that by later that century there were indeed a number of men from the East serving in the ranks of the 20th Legion.

One of the legions involved in the
AD
43 invasion of Britain, the 20th thereafter took part in all the campaigns that saw Roman occupation spread west and north. During the
AD
68–69 war of succession, the legion became unruly and it took its new commander, Gnaeus Agricola, to discipline it in
AD
71, apparently by transferring troublemakers from the 20th to the newly arrived 2nd Adiutrix Legion. [See
2nd Adiutrix Legion
]

Surviving records of the 20th even include such day-to-day snippets as the fact that on November 7,
AD
83, Quintus Cassius Secundus, a legionary serving in the 20th Legion century commanded by the centurion Calvius Priscus, wrote an IOU to a comrade in his unit, Gaius Geminius Mansuetus, for 100 denari, or 400 sesterces. [Tom.,
DRA
, DRAC]

In around
AD
213, the second-in-command of the 20th Valeria Victrix Legion, military tribune Marcus Aurelius Syrio, from the town of Ulpia Nicopolis in the province of Thrace, dedicated an altar at the legion’s Luguvalium (Carlisle) base to Jupiter Best and Greatest, and to Juno, Minerva, Mars and Victoria. Syrio had previously served with the Praetorian Guard. [Tom.,
DRA
]

By
AD
230, with elements of the legion at both Eburacum and Luguvalium, Cassius Dio wrote that the legionaries of the 20th Valeria Victrix were “by no means called Valerians by all, and do not use that name any longer.” [Dio,
LV
, 23] The 20th Victrix Legion was withdrawn from Britain before the end of the fourth century, and was not replaced. It seems to have been destroyed in the battles with the invaders from east of the Rhine such as the Franks and Vandals.

21ST RAPAX LEGION

LEGIO XXI RAPAX

The Rapacious 21st Legion

ORIGIN OF TITLE:

Not known.

EMBLEM:

Boar (probably).

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn.

FOUNDATION:

49 BC, by Julius Caesar.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Originally Gaul. Later Syria.

IMPERIAL POSTINGS:

Gallia Transalpina, Raetia, Pannonia, Vetera, Vindonissa, Bonna, Mogontiacum, the Danube.

BATTLE HONORS:

Tiberius’ Raetian campaign, 15 BC.
Pannonian War, AD 6-9.
Germanicus’ German campaigns, AD 14-16.
Battle of Idistavisus, AD 16.
Battle of the Angrivar Barrier, AD 16.
First Battle of Bedriacum, AD 69.
Battle of Rigodulum, AD 70.
Battle of Augusta Trevorum, AD 70.
Battle of Old Camp, AD 70.

INGLORIOUS FATE:

Wiped out on the Danube during the reign of Domitian.

A CORPS OF OLD AND DISTINGUISHED RENOWN

After serving Germanicus in Germany, this legion fought for Vitellius in the war of succession, then, under Vespasian, was Cerialis’ lead legion when he put down the Civilis Revolt, only to be wiped out by the Dacians in the reign of Domitian
.

It is possible that the famed Roman historian Tacitus commanded the 21st Rapax Legion between
AD
89 and 92, departing from the unit shortly before it met its bloody end.

Tacitus served as a consul in
AD
97. To reach that elevated position he had to have previously commanded a legion. Away from Rome from
AD
89, when he was 34 years old, he was back in the capital in
AD
93; this would correspond with the period when Tacitus was of praetor rank and eligible for legion command, legion commands being typically of three to four years’ duration. Later writing in his
Histories
, which he commenced in around
AD
99, Tacitus described the 21st Rapax Legion as “a corps
of old and distinguished renown.” This was the most effusive he would be about any of Rome’s legions, and suggests a certain affection born of familiarity. [Tac.,
H
,
II
, 43]

This legion stemmed from the late republican period. Caesar raised a 21st Legion. Antony certainly had a 21st, and this may have been the unit that Octavian retained in his standing army from 30
BC
. Early in Augustus’ reign the legion served in Raetia. It was stationed on the Lower Rhine, at Vetera, by
AD
9, and from there it took part in Germanicus’ German campaigns of
AD
14–16. By
AD
47 the 21st had transferred to Vindonissa, today’s Windisch in Switzerland.

Fourteen years later, it seems that the legion gave up four cohorts of newly arrived recruits which were urgently transferred to Britain to make up for 2,000 men of the 9th Hispana Legion wiped out in Boudicca’s revolt. These men were never returned or replaced, leaving the 21st four cohorts down for the remainder of that enlistment period. This explains why it was the only legion not to leave cohorts on the Rhine when it marched with Vitellius’ other legions to Italy to overthrow Otho in the spring of
AD
69.

The 21st marched for Italy with its commander, the flamboyant Alienus Caecina, who wore colorful attire and included his wife in his column, complete with her own cavalry escort. Before it left Raetia, the 21st lived up to its Rapax title, which means rapacious, or greedy, by looting the Helvetian districts it passed through. It helped Caecina and his colleague Fabius Valens win the First Battle of Bedriacum, overrunning the opposing 1st Adiutrix Legion and killing its legate after the Adiutrix had initially carried off the Rapax’s eagle.