Famous Roman Legions

[Xtiaan72]

Besides the 10'th and the 13'th; Which legions would you guys consider the most famous in relation to historical exploits? I thought it would be interesting to
keep it in mind during my current campaign. ( I'm using the 1'st Cohort mod)

[Boyar Son]

Legio IX Hispana: York
Legio XX Valeria Victrix and Legio II Adiutrix: Chester
Legio II Augusta: Caerleon
Legio XXII Primigenia and Legio X Gemina: Nijmegen
Legio VI Victrix: Neuss
Legio XXI Rapax: Bonn
Legio XIV Gemina: Mainz
Legio I Adiutrix: near Mainz
Legio VIII Augusta: Strasbourg
Legio XI Claudia: Vindonissa
Legio XV Apollinaris: Carnuntum
Legio XIII Gemina: Poetovio
Legio VII Claudia: Viminacium
Legio V Macedonica: Oescus (modern Gigen)
Legio I Italica: Novae (modern Svishtov)
Legio V Alaudae: near Danube
Legio IV Flavia Felix: Burnum
Legio XVI Flavia Firma: Satala
Legio XII Fulminata: Melitene
Legio VI Ferrata: Samosata
Legio IV Scythica: Zeugma
Legio III Gallica: near Damascus
Legio X Fretensis: Jerusalem
Legio XXII Deiotariana: Nicopolis
Legio III Cyrenaica: Coptos
Legio III Augusta: Lambaesis

In the year 80 (bc or ad?) methinks most likely AD
Choose one and see if it has a glorious history

[edyzmedieval]

Germina and Macedonica, after 106 AD, were stationed in Dacia. Gemina at Apulum.

[Eduorius]

Legio II Parthica made by Septimus Severus ;)

[L.C.Cinna]

legio I Minervia is my fav name for a legion

for individual histories go here>

http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/legions.htm

[vonhaupold]

Legio VI Victrix & Legio X Gemina, both stationed in Hispania.

[Boyar Son]

Names and numbers were not permanent

[L.C.Cinna]

Names and numbers were not permanent

What do you mean? Names and numbers were permanent(post Augustus) o,O

[Boyar Son]

What do you mean? Names and numbers were permanent(post Augustus) o,O

What do you mean? (with respect)

Legions names were not permanent. Take gemina for example (twins in latin) they were most likely formed out of two understrength legions and formed into one.

[L.C.Cinna]

Yes but most of this change and merging took place after the civil war. From Augustus onwards the names and numbers are not changed. Some legions were lost or disbanded but in general the augustan and imperial legions kept their names and numbers until they disappear.

[Boyar Son]

Yes but most of this change and merging took place after the civil war. From Augustus onwards the names and numbers are not changed. Some legions were lost or disbanded but in general the augustan and imperial legions kept their names and numbers until they disappear.

You win this round...

*looks it up

[L.C.Cinna]

you can check the link i posted above. most legions keep their names until the end of the empire. Just the additional titles were sometimes added or dropped.

a good example is Legio I Flavia Minervia:

founded around 82CE

recieved the honorific title Legio I Flavia Minervia Pia Fidelis Domitiana

after the death of Domitian the titles referring to the Flavians were dropped:

Legio I Minervia Pia Fidelis

in 231 it carried the title:

Legio I Minervia Pia Fidelis Severiana Alexandriana

under Maximinus Thrax it was called:

Legio I Minervia Maximiniana Pia Fidelis Antoniniana

It still appears as Legio I Minervia in the 4th century

Other Examples:

XV Apollinaris: founded around 40BCE still attested in the 5th century in the east

V Macedonica:founded around 43BCE, "The old mother-legion had remained in Moesia, where it is still attested at the beginning of the fifth century"

and to add one of the Geminae:

X Gemina:

Octavian settled veterans at Patras. However, the Tenth revolted and was punished: it lost its prestigious name Equestris. Veterans from other legions were added to the unit, and it was from now on called X Gemina ('the twin legion'). Octavian, now known as the emperor Augustus, sent the Tenth to Petavonium in Hispania Tarraconensis...The tenth, 'twin' legion was still in Vienna in the early fifth century.

[Boyar Son]

But I would like (but cant find) is what happened to the legion in 476 A.D. and after for the Western Roman Empire.

[L.C.Cinna]

Well we don't know. They can only be attested as long as they appear in documents or leave some other things like stamps on bricks.

I think the legions left simply disbanded after they didn't recieve payment anymore. Some soldiers might have joined the Germanic tribes as mercenaries or simply went home to their houses. I know that some units, for example in Pannonia kept on fighting and stayed together even some time after the payment stopped but in general they just disappeared.

It's a quite complicated situation as the Germanics were not really seen as conquerors and the state simply fell apart over time. The disposal of the last western emperor was not seen as the end of the empire by contemporaries.

[Boyar Son]

Ah, yes because I've heard of Frankish kings defeating Roman legions after the Emperor was deposed. I thought that was very interesting.

[Intranetusa]

what about the 7 legions (35,000 legionaries) + 9000 auxillaries that were wiped out by the Parthians at Carrahe?

[L.C.Cinna]

We don't know who they were.

Crassus "private" army. Before the Augustan reforms there was no standing army. Troops were recruited for a certain purpose by their commanders, like Marius had done against the Teutones. From that time on the troops were mainly hired and payed by the commander with permission from the senate. This is what Caesar did for example when he raised V Alaudae in Gallia Narbonensis.

That was one of the factors why the civil wars in the late republic could take such large scales as people like Caesar, Sulla, Cinna, Pompeius, Marcus Antonius or Augustus had troops more loyal to them than to the state.

Another thing is that it was not common to have a legion in continuous service. They were raised when needed and settled after their service with the whole legion disbanding. It was not common practice to refill troops but rather raise completely new ones. That's why Caesars famouse legions are all down to 1/2 or even 1/3 strenght by the end of the civil war. I'll look up the source for numbers but I think the X. legion for example hat only about 1.000 servicable soldiers left when they went to Egypt with Caesar.

This trend is still visible during the early reign of Augustus. When he finally made his reform and brought the over 50!!! legions (but none on full strenght anymore) he had after the civil war down to the fixed number of 28. Most Veterans were retired and the rest refilled or merged. That's why we have the X Gemina for example, a merged unit. Only after this reform we have a fixed number of legions with fixed names. The core were the old Caesarians which had served him in the civil war like aformentioned V Alaudae, X Gemina, X Fretensis and so on.

From that time on those legions were kept and constantly refilled when needed.

That's the reason for the "weird" numbering too. In the beginning when there were 4 legions a year they were numbered 1-4. then when more were needed like I said before, especially after Marius, the commander tended to recieve certain "standing" legions from the state and add his own newly recruited with following numbers:

Caesar for example had VII, VIII, IX, X at first, if I remember correctly. The legions added later were just "counted on" like XI and XII in 58BCE, XIII, XIV in 57, V and VI in 52 and so on.

Of course other commanders had troops as well, so pompei might have numbered HIS troops in the same way independently from Caesar. when the merge took place under Augustus the numbering was not changed so we have some legions with the same numbers but different names to distinguish them.

Later on legionary numbers were added in the way the emperor liked it to be. Domitian added the I Minervia as the "first minervian legion" while for example Traian when he recruited XXX Ulpia Victrix preferred to give it the number 30 because all in all he had 30 legions although there was no legion with a number from 23 to 29