Rosemary Sutcliff‘s novel, The Eagle of the Ninth, argued that the Roman Ninth Legion (Legio VIIII Hispana) in Britain was annihilated by local Caledonian tribes. But did 5,000 Roman soldiers really go missing, or is this pure fiction?
Last epigraphic evidence
There is epigraphic evidence that the Legio VIIII Hispana was stationed in Northern England before 60AD (see R.P. Wright, Tile Stamps of the Ninth Legion found in Britain, Britannia, Vol. 9 (1978), p.379-382), but there is no historical evidence of when the Legion reached Britain. Historians assume that the Ninth was used in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD, although this is not confirmed by Tacitus’ Annals (missing books). Of the four legions that took part in the invasion, only the Eleventh and the Twentieth are documented in literal and epigraphic evidence.
In Legions and veterans: Roman army papers 1971-2000, Lawrence Kieppe mentions the only evidence we have is a fragmentary slab (now in Turin, Italy) of an unnamed senator who accompanied emperor Claudius to Britain and who stayed with a legion whose numeral began with V, the crucial part missing because the tablet is broken. Kieppe argues that no other legion with a numeral between V and X can be confidently shown to have participated and that VIIII would seem reasonable. He also argues that Flavius Vespasianus, the future emperor, was legate at II Augusta in the invasion army in 43AD. The Flavian family was later associated with the Ninth and one could assume that Flavius’ brother, Flavius Sabinus could have held a similar post with the Ninth.
Forum of Ancient coins, ANT AVG III VIR R P C
Legio VIIII Hispana was originally raised by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, proconsul of Rome in Iberia (Hispania), which he subdued in 71BC. Evidence shows that Julius Caesar later commanded the legion in Gaul in 58BC, and the legion was subsequently returned to Hispania after the Gallic wars and disbanded after Caesar’s African campaign in 46BC. The Ninth was recalled by Octavian after Caesar’s death to fight Sextus Pompeius in Sicily and later Mark Anthony at Actium (31BC). In 60AD, the Ninth was the first legion to reach a revolt in Eastern England led by queen Boudicca. According to evidence, the legion lost 2,000 men in the revolt. This helps historians place the Ninth in Eastern England, which is in line with its later postings at Lincoln and York. However, a list of legions compiled under Marcus Aurelius (161-180AD) does not mention the Ninth, which disappears from historical annals.
Keppie believes that the legion left Britain either in preparation for the Dacian Wars (101-106AD) or in the build up for the campaign against the Parthians in Mesopotamia (114-117AD). The last fragment of Legio VIIII tiling is found in York, 108AD. Legio VI Victrix was moved to York in 122 and there is no trace of the Ninth left. In 1964, Prof. J.E. Bogaers produced evidence of two discoveries that suggest the Ninth may have been stationed at Nijmegen (Holland) around the time Victrix moved to York. He quotes part of a tegula found in 1959 with the inscription LEG VIIII and some abbreviation of Hispana, found on the legionary site at Nijmegen. He also quotes the rim of a mortarium originally found in 1938 at Groesbeek, 4.5km from Nijmegen, stamped L and reversed G VIIII HIS.
Keppie also quotes evidence from a diploma found in 1972, reporting a Roman consul named Q Numisius Junior in 161AD. This consul could have been Q Camurius Numisius Junior, a known tribune of the VIIII legion according to a separate inscription without a date. Assuming this was the same consul, the diploma proves the Ninth was still in existence in 161AD and had not been annihilated by the Picts in Britain.
