The Missing Legion – Rome’s 'Lego IX Hispana' Disappears from History in the 2nd Century AD. Was it Wiped Out in Britain?

Roman legions that distinguished themselves in battle were often immortalized in stone reliefs, like this one emblazoned onto column celebrating Marcus Aurelius’ triumphs in Central Europe. Sometime after AD 108, Rome’s IXth legion disappears from all mention in such commemorations. Why? (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)

“This historical conundrum has grabbed the attention of academics and the public for hundreds of years.”

Dr. Simon Elliott

THE FATE OF the 5,500 men of legio IX Hispana is one of the greatest historical mysteries of all time. Uniquely among the Roman legions, we have no idea what happened to it. It simply disappears from history, and is a tale which I have loved researching for my recent book through Pen & Sword, Roman Britain’s Missing: What Really Happened to lego IX Hispana.

This historical conundrum has grabbed the attention of academics and the public for hundreds of years. One of the first to write on the subject was British antiquarian John Horsley who published his Britannia Romana: The Roman Antiquities of Britain in 1732.

Here he detailed when each Roman legion arrived and left Britain. However, he noted that there was no recorded departure date for legio IX Hispana, a fact he found difficult to explain.

Then, in the 1850s, the German scholar Theodor Mommsen published his multi-volume History of Rome. In this he speculated that the IXth legion had been the subject of an uprising by the Brigantes tribe of northern Britain around AD 117 and 118, it being wiped out in its legionary fortress at what’s now York (Roman Eboracum).

Such was Mommsen’s reputation that his theory became the received wisdom regarding the legion’s fate well into the 20th century, when it was then popularized by Rosemary Sutcliffe’s 1954 The Eagle of the Ninth. Her second book, this told the story of her hero Marcus Flavius Aquila who travelled north of Hadrian’s Wall to track down the fate his father’s legion, legio IX Hispana. Her conceit was the IXth legion had been annihilated in the far north of Britain, beyond the northern border rather than in York, during an uprising there. This novel captured the imagination of an entire generation, and is still a best-seller to this day. The story of the IXth legion later received the attentions of Hollywood with blockbusters such as 2011’s The Eagle.

Given this level of popular interest in the story, it’s often difficult to separate fact from fiction. However, there are a number of uncontestable hard facts known about the IXth legion and its history. Here is a timeline:

The IXth was initially formed in the first century BC. (Image source: HeritageHistory.com)

Between 90 and 89 BC, the original IXth legion participated in the year-long Siege of Asculum in the Social War in Italy under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo.

From 58 BC to 45 BC, the IXth legion participates in Julius Caesar’s Gallic conquests, including his two British incursions in 55 and 54 BC, and later in the civil wars when Caesar’s populares supporters fought Pompey’s optimates supporters in Greece, Egypt, Africa and Spain. It is then disbanded in 45 BC.

Between 44 and 43 BC, the actual IXth legion that is the subject of popular interest is raised by Octavian shortly afterwards to counter the rebellion of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily.

In 42 BC, this new legion takes part in the Battle of Philippi where Octavian and Mark Antony defeat the Caesarean assassins Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. It performs well and is awarded the cognomen legio IX Macedonia.

Between 27 BC to 19 BC, the IXth legion fights in Augustus’ Cantabrian Wars, the final stage of the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsular. The legion again serves with distinction, staying in Spain long enough for its cognomen to change from Macedonia to Hispaniensis, later shortened to Hispana.

Sometime around 10 BC, the IXth legion is redeployed to Aquileia in northeastern Italy.

Circa AD 14, the IXth legion is redeployed to a legionary fortress in Pannonia on the Danube. It’s one of three legions there that mutiny over poor living conditions.

In AD 20, the IXth legion is sent to North Africa to support legio III Augusta in its campaigns against the Numidian rebel leader Tacfarinas.

In AD 22, the IXth legion moves to the legionary fortress at Sisak in modern Croatia, later returning to Pannonia.

Roman troops land on the shores of Britain. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)

In AD 43, Aulus Plautius leads the Claudian invasion of Britain, with four legions including his own legio IX Hispana.

Between AD 44 and AD 49, the IXth legion heads north as part of the initial breakout campaigns in Britain, reaching the River Nene where it establishes a fort at Longthorpe. It continues north to found another fort at Leicester, and then a full legionary fortress at Lincoln on the River Witham.

In AD 60 and 61, a significant component of legio IX Hispana under its legate Quintus Petillius Cerialis is defeated trying to prevent the sack of Colchester during the Boudiccan Revolt.

In AD 71, Cerialis returns to Britain as governor and targets the Brigantes tribe in the north. He orders legio IX Hispana from Lincoln into Yorkshire where it constructs a new legionary fortress at York in Brigantian territory.

What the Romans really thought of the Brigantes of northern Britain. Mausoleum decoration, later used as a fountain head, Corbridge. (Image source: the author)

In AD 82, the legion is last mentioned in contemporary history by Tacitus in the context of Agricola’s campaigns to conquer the far north of Britain. He records that a IXth marching camp or castra is attacked and almost overrun by native Britons.

In AD 83, the IXth legion is present at the Battle of Mons Graupius in the far north of Scotland.

At some point between AD 104 and AD 120, a detachment or vexillation of legionaries from the IXth is redeployed to the legionary fortress of Nijmegen in Germania Inferior. This forms part of a composite force from Britain’s three legions to replace legio X Gemina that had redeployed to the Danube frontier to participate in Trajan’s Dacian campaigns.

In AD 108, the IXth is last recorded in epigraphy on an inscription referencing the legion in Britain. It appears on a limestone slab that formed the centre section of a monumental inscription referencing the rebuilding of the southeastern gate at the legionary fortress in York.

In AD 122, the legio VI Victrix arrives in York to replace legio IX Hispana.

During the AD 120s, Hadrian’s Wall is built, with no inscriptions suggesting legio IX Hispana participated.

Around AD 168, construction of the Collonetta Maffei pillar in Rome with its nomina legionum list of contemporary extant legions. The IXth legion is missing; it is never mentioned again.

Funerary monument to a standard bearer of the IXth legion, Yorkshire Museum, York. The last known home of *legio* IX *Hispana*. (Image source: the author)

Of these hard facts, five stand out when considering the fate of the IXth legion, namely that it is last mentioned in literature in AD 82, in inscription in Britain in AD 108, it was replaced in York by legio VI Victrix in AD 122, there are no inscriptions referencing it on Hadrian’s Wall, and it is missing from the Collonetta Maffei pillar list of legions in Rome from AD 168. The legionary tile and brick stamps from Nijmegen are also important, but the dating of between AD 104 and AD 120 isn’t precise enough to be especially useful.

Based on the above detail, in my recent book I was able to narrow the various theories regarding the fate of the IXth legion down to four hypotheses. These are that it was lost or disbanded in the north of Britain, that it was lost or disbanded in an insurrection in the south of Britain, that it was lost or disbanded on the Rhine or Danube, or that it was lost or disbanded in the east.

Taking these in turn, most commentators still favour the legion being ‘lost in the north’ as I style it. A number of scenarios are possible here, principally that the legion was the subject of a devastating local insurrection in the province as speculated by Mommsen, that it was lost campaigning north of the frontier in the region of modern Scotland as speculated by Sutcliffe, or that a combination of both led to a region wide conflagration.

In terms of ‘lost in the south,’ here a recent theory known as the Hadrianic War in London might provide context. This is based on research by the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s Dr. Dominic Perring who argued that three different events which occurred in London during the reign of Hadrian could be interpreted as evidence for such an event.

Perring points to the finding the remains of a large number of human skulls within the town boundaries in the upper courses and tributaries of the Walbrook valley (this an important stream in Roman London that bisected the city), which may be linked to the well-known Hadrianic fire in London and the building of the vexillation-sized fort at Cripplegate. The inference here is that there was some kind of revolt in London, referenced by the finding of the skulls and the (in this hypothesis associated) fire. The fort would have been built in the aftermath to put the empire’s stamp of authority back on the imperial capital.

A typical Roman soldier of the late first and early second centuries, as depicted in an 1898 engraving from the book *Caesar’s Gallic War.* (Image source: Internet Archive)

In my own research I considered whether this event might provide the setting for the loss of the IXth legion, with two scenarios being examined.

The first was that the insurrection in London – in this case timed around the accession of Hadrian in AD 117 – was actually caused by the legion rising in revolt and then being defeated as the insurrection was stamped out.

In the second, the legion was sent to London to actually put down a rebellion there; it too was wiped out. In both scenarios, the heads in the Walbrook would then be those of beheaded IXth legion soldiers.

For the third hypothesis considering the Rhine and the Danube, I examined the opportunities the IXth legion might have had to campaign there in the second century AD, having determined (based on my research) that the Nijmegen tile was actually from a single vexillation. The only significant opportunity here for it to engage in major conflict was in the Marcomannic Wars of the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, and later Commodus.

Finally, in terms of the legion being lost in the east, I considered whether Trajan’s eastern campaign, the associated second Jewish ‘Kitos War’ revolt, the Third ‘bar Kokhba’ Jewish Revolt or the AD 161 to 165 Roman-Parthian War might provide reasonable scenarios.

Based on the hard facts set out above, of these four candidate hypotheses regarding the fate of legio IX Hispana, the least likely is that it was lost fighting on the Rhine or Danube. There is simply no evidence that anything other than a very specific vexillation spent some time in Nijmegen. The next least likely hypothesis is that the legion was lost in the east. Moving on, Perring’s Hadrianic War in London has to be considered a serious candidate, perhaps with a damnatio memoriae then wiping it from the official record. However, given the plentiful analogous and anecdotal evidence, I think the most likely hypothesis regarding the disappearance of legio IX Hispana is that it was lost in the north of Britain, either within the province as the victim of a Brigantian revolt, or even further north in unconquered modern Scotland with the native tribes there the protagonists, or with the legion on the receiving end of a region-wide rebellion.

The reality of course is that unless some fantastical new piece of evidence comes to light, we will never actually know the fate of the IXth legion. Until then, based on what we do know, the above is where the available evidence ultimately points. The legion was lost in the north of Britain.

Dr. Simon Elliott is the author of Roman Britain’s Missing: What Really Happened to lego IX Hispana. An archaeologist, historian and broadcaster, he has written numerous books on the classical world, with a particular specialization in ancient warfare.