Inform

Can you imagine your son or daughter is on there last deployment to a war zone, they leave and promise you they will return. However they do not return. They went missing along with 4999 other men. What would you feel like? You would want the truth right? So does it alarm you that this event did actually occur in the year 108AD. This was the case with the Roman Ninth Legion.

The Roman 9th Legion was Rome’s best fighting force, think of the 9th legion as today’s Marines, they were always the first in and always the last to go. They survived many campaigns in Gaul and Spain and Africa. They were famous for winning many battles and were the spearhead of any Roman that was going to take place.

In 43 AD the ninth took part in the invasion of Britain led by Emperor Claudius and General Aulus Plautius. Around 50 AD, the legion constructed a fort, Lindum Colonia at Lincoln. Under the Command of Caesius Nasica they put down the first revolt of Venutius between 52 and 57 AD. The Legion did however suffer a major defeat under the command of Quintus Petillius Cerialis during the rebellion of Boudicca, the ninth was later reinforced by legionaries from the Germanic Provinces. Around 71 AD they constructed a new fortress at todays York (Eboracum).

The last testified location of the Legion in Britain was the rebuilding of the fort in York in 108 AD. Its movements after that are unknown and have sparked many theories as to how 500 men simply disappeared. The last recorded action the ninth took part in was to push north further into Scotland and quell the rebellious Picts and various other tribes in the North of England. The Legion were last seen matching north towards Scotland. This gives many people the impression that the ninth was attacked and killed in an attack from the tribes in the north, but how does the most elite fighting unit in the world get attacked and killed by a bunch of paint covered rebels?.

However, names of several high ranking officers that served with the  legion during the Britain campaign are also known to have served with the legion after its alleged disappearance in 108 AD, suggesting that the legion continued to exist after 108 AD. It has been suggested that the legion was completely wiped out during the Bar Kochba revolt in the Ludaea province but there is no firm evidence to confirm this.

Further evidence of a major war in Britain under the rule of emperor Hadrian can be supported by a tombstone in Northumberland. Here the man commemorated, Titus Annius, a centurion to the Roman Ninth Legion has been killed in war. Further a field in Italy a tombstone commemorating a soldier who had also served in the  Legion has also been found. This supports the theory that the  Legion was decimated in Britain and was then transferred to another province where it fought in various rebellions and was later disbanded.

Two passages in particular from ancient literature seem to shed some light on the Ninth Legions tragic fate. Evidence found in these show that the Roman army took substantial troop losses in Britain is supplied by the Roman historian Marcus Cornelius Fronto, writing in 160 AD he addressed emperor Marcus Aurelius by reminding him of past disasters: “Indeed, when your grandfather Hadrian held imperial power, what great numbers of soldiers were killed by the Jews, what great numbers by the Britons’. Marcus’s warning loosely suggests that Roman lives were lost in Britain. Does this point towards the destruction of the Legion?

There is a strong possibility that the Legion did suffer incredibly losses at the hands of the tribes in the north but was later recalled to Rome and were then killed in the heat of battle by the Parthian’s. It is also possible that after the major defeat the in Britain led to the legion being disbanded and the records of the defeat removed from Roman history, this way the legion would never have existed and Rome’s dignity would still be intact. The signature crest of the ninth was the golden eagle that they used to take into battle with them, it was a sign of Rome and the power that Rome had, when the ninth disappeared the eagle went with them and to Rome, this was a great insult to Rome’s pride and dignity.