The Debate

The fate of the Ninth The curious disappearance of Legio VIIII Hispana © ajbdesign.com Andrew Brozyna,

In 1954, published a novel about . The last testimony of the presence of It caught the imagination of an entire generation of readers with the Ninth Legion in Britain. Dated to AD 108, it testifies to a building project its tale of the Ninth Legion, destroyed in the mists of . A undertaken by the legion. BBC dramatisation captivated a fresh generation in 1977. And now a new motion picture is set to revive interest in the fate of the Lost Legion. But was it really destroyed in Britain during the reign of It was clearly a military building inscrip- tion, dating from the time when Roman ? Or have we fallen for a myth that should have been laid builders were gradually refurbishing to rest fifty years ago? the early turf-and-timber forts and fortresses in Britain, and reconstructing their defences in stone. The find-spot By Duncan B Campbell survived, however, for scholars of the was close to the original location of day to reconstruct the original text: the south-east gate into the On the morning of 7 October 1854, The fortress of Eburacum. So the inscription Herald and General Advertiser “The Emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan probably celebrated the construction of carried a short report, tucked away in the , son of the deified Nerva, the gateway, built by the emperor per bottom corner of an inside page. Under Conqueror of , Conqueror legionem VIIII Hispanam (“through the the headline “Antiquarian Discovery of Dacia, Chief Priest, in his twelfth agency of the Ninth Hispana Legion”). in York”, it announced that workmen year of tribunician power [AD 108], digging a drain in the English town acclaimed imperator six times, ... A very interesting stone had unearthed a massive inscribed through the agency of the Ninth The newspaper’s correspondent, slab. Measuring approximately a metre Hispana Legion.” commenting on “the very interesting square, the slab was the mid-section of Roman stone”, wrote that “it is a a monumental Roman inscription, both Roman Inscriptions of Britain § 665 valuable discovery, inasmuch as it ends of which had broken off. Enough fixes a precise period when the ninth

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legion was in York”. With hindsight, his Dessau’s Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae had lighted upon an inscription from assessment of the stone’s importance as ILS 1094 + 1100.) Minturno () on the Appian Way. It was a huge understatement. The missing inscription detailed detailed the career of Lucius Barbuleius Only a year earlier, the great German the career of Marcus Pontius Laelianus, Ligarianus (CIL X 6006 = ILS 1066). scholar Theodor Mommsen had begun who rose to the consulship in AD 144, Ligarianus began his military his Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum when he would have been aged in career as legionis (CIL) project to catalogue the surviving his early forties. Several years earlier, IX Hispanae (“senatorial of inscriptions from the Roman world. he had served as tribune of the Sixth the Ninth Hispana Legion”). Many He planned to publish a transcript of Victrix Legion, cum qua ex Germania prospective senators served for a year each one, and collect them together in Brittaniam transivit (“with which he or two as tribunus laticlavius. Some in giant folio-sized volumes devoted crossed over from Germany to Britain”). even served in more than one legion, to the various geographical regions of This event should have occurred in the biding their time until they qualified, the empire. The job of collecting the early AD , for legionary at the age of 24, to enter the Senate Roman inscriptions of Britain fell to his were usually nineteen or twenty years as a . As he was consul in colleague Emil Hübner, and the York of age. It seems more than coincidental AD 135, when we can assume that he inscription duly appeared as item 241 in that a new governor, Aulus Platorius was aged around 40 (although men as CIL volume VII (Inscriptiones Britanniae Nepos, had arrived in Britain from young as 32 could hold the consulship), Latinae, Berlin 1873). Lower Germany during the summer of Ligarianus probably served with the In Mommsen’s day, one of the classic AD 122, so he perhaps brought Pontius Ninth Hispana towards the end of texts on Roman Britain was Laelianus and the Sixth Legion with Trajan’s reign, perhaps around AD 115. Romana: The Roman Antiquities of him. Like Horsley, Borghesi was puzzled Britain, written by the Northumberland As for the Ninth Legion, Horsley could by the fate of the Ninth Legion. He was antiquarian John Horsley, and published find no trace of it. Last mentioned in AD aware of the fact that, shortly before in 1732. Horsley would have welcomed 82 by the historian Tacitus (in Agricola AD 165, when a list of existing legions the York inscription with open arms. 26.1), its ultimate fate perplexed the was drawn up at (CIL VI 3492 He lamented the fact that, between Northumberland antiquarian: “it might = ILS 2288), the Ninth Legion was not the departure of Agricola and the possibly be broke”, he wrote (meaning amongst them. He proposed that the arrival of Hadrian, the history of Britain that the legion could have been Ninth Legion had been overwhelmed was hidden in shadows: “the more so, destroyed), “or incorporated with the in a rebellion and had been replaced because we cannot borrow any light or legio sexta victrix” (a rather desperate by the Sixth, a solution that seemed assistance from any Roman inscriptions solution based on the misreading of a perfectly acceptable to his nineteenth © ajbdesign.com Andrew Brozyna, in Britain, there being none now extant, tile-stamp in which “this ninth legion century contemporaries. Mommsen, which we can be certain are so ancient is called legio nona victrix, tho’ the title for example, was happy to lend his as this”. of victrix belonged not to the ninth, but considerable authority to the theory: to the sixth”). The legions of Britain Unfortunately, there was no record “Under Hadrian, there was a terrible Nevertheless, by diligent study, Horsley of a legion having been “broke”, as catastrophe here, apparently an had identified the various legions of happened, for example, in AD 161, when attack on the fortress at Eburacum the in Britain. He knew the Parthians, “completely surrounding and the annihilation of the legion that, of the four original legions an entire stationed stationed there, the very same Ninth which garrisoned the province under under Severianus at Elegeia, a place in that had fought so unluckily in the Claudius and , legio XIV Gemina Armenia, shot it down and annihilated Boudican revolt.” had departed in AD 70. He also knew it with its officers” (Dio, Roman History that legiones II Augusta and XX Valeria 71.2.1). T. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte Victrix had remained for the duration Horsley did not consider the Book 8 (1885) of the Roman occupation. That left only obvious solution, that the Ninth Legion legio IX Hispana. had been withdrawn from Britain and However, as a native of Hadrian’s transferred elsewhere. The discovery of the York inscription Wall country, Horsley could not ignore enabled Mommsen to narrow the the abundant evidence of the presence The legion disappears chronology somewhat, because it of legio VI Victrix. And as a diligent In the meantime, others were taking a proved that the Ninth Legion was scholar, he was well aware that an keen interest in the fledgling science actively rebuilding the fortress during inscribed statue base, sketched in of prosopography, the study of persons Trajan’s reign. Thus, he announced that around 1420 prior to its disappearance and their careers from the evidence of the disaster had occurred “undoubtedly from Trajan’s forum at Rome, carried inscriptions. (This is a subject that has soon after AD 108”, adding that “this important information about this played a key role in the debate over was probably not caused by an enemy legion’s movements. (Broken into two the Ninth Legion, as we shall see.) In invasion, but rather by a revolt of the parts, it was published as CIL VI 1497 the 1830s, the Italian count Bartolomeo northern allied peoples, particularly + 1549, and reprinted in Hermann Borghesi, an accomplished antiquarian, the ”.

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A British war? occurred only in AD 119 and 128, but the Sixth Victrix Legion was occasioned In Mommsen’s opinion, two passages coin expert Harold Mattingly believed by the destruction of the Ninth Hispana from ancient literature pointed to this that he could differentiate certain coins Legion. This had simply been an conclusion. Firstly, Hadrian’s biographer within this period on stylistic grounds. assumption first proposed by Borghesi enumerated the troubles that greeted The coins which display the figure of and followed by Mommsen. But if the the emperor on his accession in AD 117: Britannia he assigned early in Hadrian’s Ninth Legion was still in the province, reign, confidently explaining that fully operational, then clearly Hadrian “The nations that Trajan had these coins “celebrate the restoration had intended temporarily to increase subjugated were defecting, of peace in the North after the revolt the provincial army to four legions. the Moors were attacking, the under Trajan, in which the ninth legion Indeed, other troops were arriving, Sarmatians were making war, the was destroyed”. too. Weber had drawn attention to Britons could not be kept under This was, of course, Mommsen’s the career inscription of Titus Pontius Roman control.” scenario of destruction soon after Sabinus, with its mention of an expeditio AD 108. But it is easy to see that, if Brittanica (“British campaign”) under Augustan History, Life of Hadrian Mattingly was wrong in his stylistic Hadrian (CIL X 5829 = ILS 2726). Weber 5.2 analysis, the coins could then fall some presumed that this had occurred in AD years later (though still pre-AD 128), 119, and Ritterling followed him. Secondly, the author Marcus Cornelius and might celebrate a different event However, it should be clear by Fronto wrote a letter to the emperor in Britain. For example, the emperor’s now that there was never any direct , his former pupil, on own visit (normally dated to AD 122, but linkage between the disappearance of the occasion of that emperor’s Parthian perhaps later) might have merited an the Ninth Legion and Hadrian’s “British War in AD 162. announcement on the coinage, as his campaign”. Nor, indeed, was there other provincial visits certainly did. Yet, any compelling evidence to date the “Under the rule of your grandfather to this day, many scholars still assume campaign to AD 119. This particular link Hadrian, what a number of soldiers that Hadrian’s coinage proves that a was based on Mattingly’s subjective were slain by the , what a war was won in Britain in AD 119. assessment of the coins. So the arrival number by the Britons.” of these massive reinforcements could Massive reinforcements equally have been linked with Hadrian’s Fronto, On the Parthian War 2 And so, when Emil Ritterling published decision to build his Wall in the years his magisterial survey of the Roman following AD 122. Hadrian’s Jewish war was a major event, legions in 1925 (in volume 12 of Paulys Ritterling had largely followed proved by archaeology and coin studies. Realencyclopädie), it was generally Weber for events during the reign of The supposed British war, on the other accepted that the Ninth Legion had Hadrian. Weber’s opinion was given hand, is more ephemeral. The Berlin met a violent end by the early years of a further boost, barely a decade later, professor Wilhelm Weber summed up Hadrian’s reign. Ritterling summarised when it appeared in English in the the situation in 1907, in a short work the debate like this: influential Cambridge Ancient History. entitled Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrianus (“Studies in the “The transfer of VI Victrix to Britain “Next came the crushing of the History of the Emperor Hadrian”). He had been caused by a dangerous Britons, who had destroyed the wrote that “the timing is uncertain, uprising; it is now clear that the Legion IX Hispana in the camp and the views of scholars fluctuate fighting was in AD 119, but the of Eburacum, and the expeditio regarding the date of the uprising.” outbreak could already have Britannica, which ended in 119 with However, in the end, he decided upon occurred in the previous year. The the pacification of the country, and a revolt which had been crushed by revolt was significant in that, not was followed, on his visit in 122, by AD 119. But what had caused him to only was an entire legion transferred the construction of Hadrian’s Wall.” overturn the verdict of Mommsen and to the island for the duration, but the date of AD 108? vexillations of 1,000 men each W. Weber, Cambridge Ancient Unlike the Jewish war, which can be were drawn from the two Upper History 11 (1936) pinned down to the period AD 132-136, German legions and the Spanish there is only circumstantial evidence legion. … Whether VIIII Hispana had It is plain that Hadrian’s “British war” for a British war. Some of Hadrian’s already met its end, or only several was, by now, controversial enough to coins carry the figure of Britannia (the years later, around AD 125, remains form the subject of its own Ancient divine personification of the Roman unknown.” Warfare debate. So let us leave it to province) on the reverse, and these one side and return to Ritterling, who have been taken to imply warfare in E. Ritterling, “Legio (Hadrian)”, is always the firm foundation for any Britain; specifically warfare during the RE 12 (1925) Roman legionary debate. years AD 117-119. But their evidence is problematic. As Ritterling astutely realised, there Legionary tribunes Major changes in Hadrian’s coinage was no guarantee that the transfer of Ritterling harboured doubts about

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an early destruction of the Ninth AD 120s, to which the legion fell victim.” cashiered, there is no doubt, and it Legion. His reasoning was based Unfortunately, the Oxford don H.M.D. seems evident that this fate, at the on prosopography. He saw that the Parker, who drew freely upon Ritterling hands of the disciplinarian Hadrian, careers of certain officers seemed to for his book about The Roman Legions followed an ignominious defeat. have peaked too late for their service (1928), seems not to have appreciated But the unit was not annihilated. in the Ninth Legion to be restricted this. He wrote, with misplaced Some of its officers at least survived to the Trajanic period. The legion had confidence: “the Roman legions were and nothing whatever is reported surely survived into the early years of unable at first to cope successfully with of the circumstances or place of the Hadrian’s reign at least. the [British] revolt, and IX Hispana was trouble.” One of these officers, already noticed destroyed not later than AD 122.” by Borghesi but forgotten again, was I.A. Richmond, Roman Britain (1955) Lucius Aemilius Karus (a variant An ignominious defeat? spelling of Carus). This former tribune So this is how things stood. A British The extent to which theory had become of the Ninth Legion was governing the war was universally believed to have fact in his account is astonishing. And praetorian province of Arabia in AD 142, occurred in AD 119, despite both the thus, the carefully weighed caution of the task of a man in his mid- to late- absence of direct evidence and the Ritterling and the perceptive theories thirties (CIL VI 1333 = ILS 1077; a recently fragility of the circumstantial evidence. of Birley were swept aside by the pre- discovered diploma confirms the date And the Ninth Legion was universally eminent Roman military scholar of the of his Arabian governorship). believed to have been destroyed in that day. Governors of Arabia normally war, despite Ritterling’s warning. proceeded to the consulship within a Two British scholars now took The Eagle of the Ninth few years. So the classicist Sir Ronald centre stage in the debate. First, the When the children’s author Rosemary Syme proposed that Karus was the archaeologist Eric Birley voiced concerns Sutcliff sat down to write her novel “Lucius Aemilius” who was on record in one of his annual contributions to about The Eagle of the Ninth, she would as consul in AD 144. Coincidentally, this the Durham University Journal. In his not have read Richmond’s fantastical was the same year as Pontius Laelianus, 1948 on “The End of the Ninth theory. The source for her background whom we met previously. Ritterling Legion”, he took note of Ritterling’s research was probably the Cambridge suggested a date “only after AD 120” warning and proposed two possible Ancient History. In any case, her writing for Karus’ service in the Ninth Legion, scenarios. owed more to the influence of her for it ought to have been at roughly the Either the Ninth Legion had been favourite author, Rudyard Kipling, and same time as Laelianus’ service in the transferred from Britain under Trajan his late Roman in Puck of Sixth Legion. in connection with the Parthian war, Pook’s Hill. (Her mention of the province Another senatorial tribune also which certainly saw other legionary of Valentia, an anachronism in her gave Ritterling pause for thought. This transfers. (In this case, the Sixth Legion Hadrianic setting, definitely came from was Lucius Novius Crispinus Martialis arrived several years later to bring the Kipling.) She explained the starting Saturninus, who became consul garrison back up to three legions.) Or point for her novel in a foreword: in AD 150 after vacating his post as else the Sixth Legion was brought over Augusti pro praetore provinciae to Britain, not to replace the Ninth “Sometime about the year AD Africae (“the emperor’s legate with the Legion, but to supplement the garrison 117, the Ninth Legion, which was powers of a propraetor in the province during the building of Hadrian’s Wall. stationed at Eburacum where York of Africa”, the official designation of (In this case, the Ninth Legion might now stands, marched north to deal the commander of the Third Augusta, have been transferred from Britain at a with a rising among the Caledonian in charge of the de facto province of later date, perhaps in connection with tribes, and was never heard of again. Numidia where the legion had its Hadrian’s Jewish War, which certainly … no one knows what happened to fortress). saw other legionary transfers.) the Ninth Legion after it marched As he was probably born in around But Birley’s wise suggestions were into the northern mists.” AD 105, he was thus a little younger than ignored by Ian Richmond (later to Aemilius Karus and Pontius Laelianus. become Professor Sir Ian Richmond). It R. Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth Ritterling realised that Crispinus’ was he who spun the familiar tale in (1954) service in the Ninth Legion “could not its fullest version and thus created the reasonably have fallen before AD 123”. myth: Only a few years later, the Dutch Destruction in a British war of AD 119 archaeologist Jules Bogaers discovered was out of the question. “[Trouble in Britain] is to be clues in his native Netherlands that Ritterling’s only mistake lay in connected with the issue of victory would open up a new line of enquiry. not stressing this logical conclusion. coins in AD 119 and the fact that For in 1959, while excavating the Instead, he simply advised that “we by AD 122 the Ninth Legion was legionary fortress on the Hunerberg at should reckon on the possibility that a replaced at York by the Sixth and Nijmegen (Netherlands), archaeologists second British revolt broke out towards disappeared from the army list unearthed a roofing tile which bore the the middle or in the second half of the thereafter. That the legion was ownership stamp of the Ninth Legion.

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This was not an isolated find. Earlier in Lower Germany. An altar to Apollo, 5 km south of Carlisle. excavations at the legionary and discovered near the Roman spa of Intriguingly, stamped tiles of the tile-works, located at De Holdeurn less Aquae Granni (Aachen, Germany), Ninth legion discovered in York were than 5 km from the fortress, had turned was set up by Lucius Licinius Macer, invariably marked LEG IX HISP, whereas up the stamped rim of a mortarium, (“chief ”) of the those from Carlisle and Scalesceugh one of the army’s thick ceramic bowls Ninth Legion, who had been promoted (and indeed from Nijmegen) were used for grinding food. It was usual for to the highly prestigious position of marked LEG VIIII HISP. It seemed official products to be stamped by the praefectus castrorum (“prefect of the possible to Bogaers that the legion unit responsible for their manufacture. camp”, AE 1968, 323). Eric Birley believed had brought its distinctive Scalesceugh This one was stamped LGVIIIIHIS, that “the praefectus castrorum could tile-stamps over to the Holdeurn tilery clearly an abbreviation for l(e)g(io) VIIII not have been serving with a mere near Nijmegen, to continue production His(pana). vexillation”, but in theory he could have there. Up until then, tile-stamps been commanding one. Of course, only Besides the tile-stamp and the from the Nijmegen area belonged the presence of the aquilifer would be mortarium fragment, an inscribed overwhelmingly to the Tenth Gemina a cast-iron guarantee that the entire pendant from a horse harness also Legion, which had rebuilt the fortress legion was there, but it would have advertised the presence of the Ninth in stone towards the end of the first been odd for the primus pilus to receive Legion. Intriguingly, the pendant was century AD. But the requirements of a promotion while absent in charge of found some 10 km west of the Nijmegen Trajan’s Dacian Wars soon caused the a vexillation. camp, near the site of a Roman villa; its Tenth Legion to vacate the Hunerberg inscription, LEG IX HISP, suggests that fortress. (The legion is mentioned as The travels of the Ninth its owner had learned the ‘York’ version still operating in Lower Germany in ca. At around the same time, the Romano- of the legion’s name, rather than the AD 101/102, but tile-stamps at Sucidava British pottery expert Brian Hartley was ‘Carlisle/Nijmegen’ version. prove its involvement in the occupation questioning whether the Ninth Legion In the meantime, other officers had of Dacia.) Its eventual destination might have occupied a base in the appeared, whose careers supported the was the new fortress at Aquincum Carlisle area of Britain in the early years continued existence of the Ninth Legion. (Budapest, Hungary), before finally of Hadrian’s reign. In his opinion, the Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus was settling further up-river at Vindobona ceramic record indicated that the York known to have moved from the post of (Vienna, Austria). fortress was under reduced occupancy legatus legionis VIIII Hispanae (“legate The next most common tile- in the early second century, whereas of the Ninth Hispana legion”) to the stamp from Nijmegen reads VEX BRIT, stamped tiles of the Ninth Legion were proconsulship of Gallia Narbonensis, the abbreviation for a vex(illatio) being produced at Scalesceugh, around and finally to the governorship of Brit(annica) (“detachment from Arabia, but the dating had always been Britain”). Most scholars now follow uncertain. Then, in the 1960s, a newly Bogaers in assuming that, discovered papyrus finally showed during the early years that his governorship fell of the second century, around the year AD 127. Such the vacant Hunerberg a man ought to have held fortress was occupied his legionary command by mixed troops no more than five years detached from the earlier. garrison of Britain. And the German However, Bogaers classicist Werner Eck lent his realised that such a considerable authority to the vexillation would be dating of another legionary tribune, unlikely to have stamped Quintus Numisius Iunior, to around their products with the AD 140. The discovery that this man was name of the Ninth Legion. consul in February AD 161 should have His solution was to suggest closed the issue, once and for all. It is that the Ninth Legion took up unthinkable that his glowing career residence in the Hunerberg fortress (CIL XI 5670) could have begun as long after the vexillation had returned to ago as AD 119, for this would mean that Britain, and continued the production Pendant from a horse harness found at he only achieved the consulship at the of ceramics at the Holdeurn tilery. Ewijk, about 10 km west of the legionary age of sixty! Unfortunately, no firm date could be at Nijmegen. The punctured And so, a new chapter in the Ninth applied to these events, except that they inscription reads LEG IX HISP. Now in Legion’s history was taking shape were broadly “early second century”. the Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen. during the 1970s. It seemed that, if the Further evidence supported the case legion was already forming a stop-gap that the Ninth Legion was quartered © Jona Lendering, Livius.org in Lower Germany, it might be called

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upon to fulfil other duties further along the frontier. Trajan’s Parthian War had caused some dislocation of units, and Hadrian’s Jewish War would © Jona Lendering, Livius.org do the same. So it is interesting to note that a previous soldier of the Ninth Legion, Aelius Asclepiades, hailed from the east, in present-day Turkey (CIL X 1769). Other explanations are possible, but both Bogaers and Birley thought it significant that the man bore Hadrian’s family name, Aelius, which he might have taken on enlistment to the legion in his native Cilicia. Of course, all of these tiny clues served to refute Richmond’s fantastical theory (and Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel) by prolonging the life of the legion beyond AD 119. In his book on The Roman Soldier (1969), the classicist G.R. Watson felt confident enough to write of “the loss of IX Hispana … probably during the Jewish War of AD 132-5 … or even in Armenia in 161.” Of Hadrian’s shadowy British war, there was no mention.

Fresh doubts Nevertheless, archaeology is an inexact science. Most theories can be objected to, at some level. Many survive such scrutiny, but some theories are less robust than others. For example, the destruction of the Ninth Legion in a British war at the beginning of Hadrian’s reign is a very weak theory. There is no direct evidence for any of the required elements. And yet, the idea has exerted such a hold on the popular imagination that it is difficult to dispel the myth. The logical alternative, that the legion continued to exist at least until AD 140, in order to accommodate the tribunate of Numisius Iunior, has even been questioned. Professor Lawrence Keppie has suggested that the consul of AD 161 was actually the son of the The splendid tomb of Lucius Aninius tribune of the Ninth Legion. He has Sextius Florentinus in Petra (Jordan) also doubted that Aelius Asclepiades underlines the fact that legionary Further Reading was recruited to the legion while in commanders were high-status indivi- J.K. Haalebos, “Römische his native Cilicia, preferring to see him duals. The inscription (not visible) Truppen in Nijmegen”, in: Y. transferred from the Italian fleet at testifies to Florentinus’ career spanning Le Bohec & C. Wolff (eds.), Les Misenum. the breadth of the . légions de Rome sous le Haut Clearly this is a debate which is Empire. Lyon, 2000. Haalebos destined to rumble on. Whether only hope that further epigraphic has references to the earlier the Ninth Legion met its end in discoveries will bring clarity. n works of Birley, Bogaers, Eck, Hadrian’s Jewish War, or with the ill- and Keppie. fated Severianus at Elegeia in 161, or Duncan B. Campbell is a regular somewhere entirely different, we can contributor.

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