What happened to Legio IX Hispana?
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What happened to the IX Hispania Legion? How could an entire legion disappear from history?
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"What do you mean you just "lost" the IX Legion!"
I love how each Roman legion had a bit of its own personality.
The ice pick that killed Trotsky...Interesting name and I know with what kind of tool Trotsky was killed, and for a moment I thought that it is a mistake, but now I saw that it is called ice pick, that very important tool for alpinists... And no matter that the murderer hit him with that, I guess it entered into the scull, Trotsky didn't die immediately...
Honestly... yeah I wanna see a documentary on every Legion and it story now 😅
The 9th went on to become Rome's Shadow legion that fought against Rome supernatural enemies, and they will forever be known as the legion of the Damned.
I can get behind that.
Lmao, I'd watch a show on that 😅
There may have been records but forever lost to time, probably not a big deal back then but a mystery to us lol
Yeah for sure, but its so strange that the legion disappeared during the hight of the Empire, a relatively well documented period. If it was lost during the third century no one would have batted an eye
Exactly 👍
So many things lost to time. So many campaigns and battles that happened we may never know about.
"How many legions would you need to invade Britain?" "Ah. Hmmm. Four. Yes, and a great deal of auxiliary cavalry as well." "Couldn't you do it with three? They're very uncivilized." "It's not worth the risk. You see, on a fresh venture, you must hit hard and quickly. And if you have to send for reinforcements, it just gives the enemy breathing space" "I'll do it one day" "Well, I doubt it's worth it. There's nothing of value there and the people make very poor slaves..." *Conversation between Drusus the Elder (father of Emperor Claudius) and Augustus' heir Lucius*
Drusus: "You should read Julius' dissertations on his campaigns in Britannia." Lucius: "I've read it, twice."
Since we’re speculating. The US 2nd Armored Division was among the first US units to invade anywhere, in this case North Africa in WWII, the only US Armored division in Sicily. The first US Armored Division to land in Normandy on D-Day (on D+6) and the first AD to enter Germany. It was the US AD that stopped the German advance in the battle of the bulge, And hosted President Truman after the war. It stood the line during the cold war and was the US armored division that shattered Iraq’s armies in 1991. Today, it’s gone. Disbanded in 1995, hardly anyone knows, hardly anyone cares. Some component units were attached to other divisions and regiments, but the bulk were sent home. Perhaps this was the fate of the IXth.
My oldest brother was in 2nd Armored back in the 70s, I had no idea they had disbanded.
I was wondering where in the hell you was going with this story but that definitely makes sense sounds better than 9th possibly wind up in China .
There is a novel where they get transported to a fantasy realm where they get involved in a war against invading orcs. They fight alongside Elves and dwarves
Give me the name please
1:43 Speaking of Cassius Dio, he appears as a deutoragonist in the Netflix docu-series "Roman Empire: Reign of Blood", being his portrayal one of the best aspects of the entire show. He's depicted as a pretty intelligent character who survives Commodus' tyranny thanks to his simple prudence and lack of ambition, unlike the rest of the characters, whose lust for power makes them suffer a horrible end
They did a great job at portraying Cassius Dio, however he was very young when Commodus was emperor. They make him out to be an old wise man when he was only 5 years older than Commodus. I’m sure he still was a huge figure for the day but still.
Asking what happened to an entire Roman Legion is quite the haunting thought to me. Like, seriously think about it; The idea of such a storied Legion simply dissappearing and not having any track record of its movement or disassembly shows how large and mysterious history truly is. All the people groups, cities, cultures, religions, army units, fleets worth of ships... it doesn't matter. They may all be forgotten one way or another, facing fates forever unknown
I love this channel. My thanks SPQR Historian.
A fascinating and excellent documentary! Well done, keep up the good work my Roman friends !
Dear SPQR Historian ! Thanks so much for this excellent documentary explaining in detail the most plausible reason for the disappearance of Legio IX Hispana. I think that the simultaneous disappearances of four cohorts and an ala of Auxiliaries is sufficient circumstancial evidence that both legion and auxiliaries were lost in Britannia sometime around AD 120. Could you please tell us which auxiliary units these were - your viewers and I would be much obliged. Thanks again for your excellent work, which we all hope that you will continue as long as possible.
Roman emperors did not visit Britain unless there was a crisis. Hadrians arrival,together with the sixth legion,suggests that something had gone very wrong. The sixth replaced the ninth presumably because the ninth had been heavily damaged,and was incapable of being restored. The building of Hadrians wall was probably a response to the crisis. Presumably the ninth plus auxiliary troops marched north to deal with a problem and got annihilated. They would have left a garrison behind at York to defend the fortress,and those troops probably ended up being absorbed by the sixth legion.
The disappearance of one person is normal, but we're talking about the disappearance of an entire elite legion!
The disappearances of the four auxiliary cohorts and one cavalry ala at the same time clinches the matter for me. We are talking of about 2,500 men at least in the auxiliary units, and about 6,000 men of the legion that seemed to have vanished from the record. This makes the transfer of legio VI Victrix sense, which most probably also brought its own auxiliaries with them.
The career of Saturninus does indeed seem very unusual - he commanded a legion about 15 - 20 years later than usual, showing that something peculiar had happened in his career - probably connected with his term as Tribune of legio IX Hispana.
Terrific video!
Nobody ever thought of this, but maybe they headed down to Mexico, became farmers?
My moneys on Argentina mate
No I doubt it they probably went to Africa looking for gold and just decided to stay there it look like a nice retirement retreat .
The Romans didn't just swap legions, i e. Legio VI Victrix for Legio IX Hispana in about AD 122, for the fun of it. Transfering a legion from a province where it had been stationed for decades was not only a work intensive matter, it was extremely unpopular for the legionaries who had formed relationships with local woman, had families and children (irrespective of the fact that they were not officialy allowed to marry). There would have been an extremely important reason to transfer legio IX out of Britannia, but just to send a replacement legion to the province at the same time makes no sense at all. In certain cases, vexillations from the legions were sent elsewhere in the empire to bolster a major campaign, such as during Trajan's Dacian Wars, but these ad- hoc detachments were normally sent back to their normal garrison immediately after the campaign had ended.
Yay! Welcome back.
The theory that the Legio IX Hispana got wiped out by the Caledonian Picts is first proposed by Theodor Mommsen, a late 19th and early 20th Centuries German historian. This theory had gone unnoticed until 1954 when Rosemary Sutcliffe her book 'The Eagle of the Ninth' which utilized the theory of being wiped by the Caledonian Picts. Since then, it is now the predominant theory of explaining the disappearance of the Legio IX Hispana from Roman records in the list of legions during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus(r. 193-211 AD). However, there are no solid evidence that supports this theory. The last known attestation of the legion in Britain is a stone inscription dated 108CE when the legion was rebuilding Roman fortress in stone at Eboracum present day York. Since then, there are no more any records of the legion until in 1959 during an excavation of a Roman fortress at Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1959 where several tiles and a silver-plated bronze pendant, found in the 1990s bear the inscription "LEG HISP IX" in reserve. The tiles are dated around 120AD which indicate that the legion is still around in 120CE and it got relocated from Britain to present day Netherlands. Also an altar dedicated to Apollo from the period is found at nearby Aquae Granni (Aachen, Germany) and is erected in fulfillment of a vow, by Lucius Latinius Macer, who describes himself as primus pilus (chief centurion) and as praefectus castrorum ("prefect of the camp", i.e. third-in-command) of IX Hispana. Some historians of course argued that it is a detachment rather than the entire legion got relocated from Britain. The simplest explanation is that the legion got disbanded and the soldiers are relocated to other legion. The legion got disbanded once by Julius Caesar after achieving his final victory and had the veterans retired. Later Octavian reestablished it when he recalled the veterans to fight against the rebellion of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily. There are many reasons why legions got disbanded and being heavily decimated is one of them. During the Boudica Rebellion, the Legio IX Hispana got nearly annihilated when most of the infantry got wiped out by the Britons while the cavalry managed to escape. The legion later got replenished. Sometimes remnants of several legions are merged together to form new ones rather than replenishing them. In fact there are no records regarding the fate other legions beside the Legio IX Hispana. The Legio V Macedonica is the longest surviving Roman Legion from from 43 BCE to estimated 637 CE, lasting around 680 years. The last known record of the Legio V Macedonica is around 635 or 636CE when it is stationed in Egypt and is presumed to be destroyed by the invading Arabs in 637CE. The fate of the Legio IX Hispana remained unsolved.
Enjoying all your videos on the Roman emperors. I wanted to ask a question I was always curious about. All the human sculptures we see on the emperors were they life like portraits of what the emperors looked like in life?
They are indeed life like portraits of the emperors after named Roman statues found in Italy and elsewhere.
Yes,the portraits are lifelike. The Romans were brutally realistic with their sculptures,if an individual was overweight that’s how they were portrayed. As an Englishman I find it amusing that we know exactly what Roman emperors looked like,but have no idea what our medieval kings looked like!
@@paulmasterson386 yes that is very true. I’m in Canada but I’m mostly English too. My grandparents were English. It’s true though some of the paintings of Medieval English kings and queens arnt as realistic. I find a lot of the queens or women painted in especially Tudor and Charles the 2 nd time they all look alike sometimes. It’s neet though seeing what the Roman emperors really looked like. I always think too being English I wonder if some of our ancestors were Romans because the Roman soldiers were in Britain too
Losing the standards would have been a big deal. I find it surprising that there is no record of any attempt to recover them. The career stall of Saturninus is interesting and I hadn't considered that angle. The legions existence seems to cover all of the Julio-Claudian period and we know how that ended. Perhaps the year of the four emperors holds a clue.
I love how mobile were these roman legions.
Remember, they also built the roads.
What a treat. 😊
Might have been sears roebucked out of existence. Units hived off and sent elsewhere until what was left amalgamated with another unit.
I wonder if somewhere north of Hadrian's walll the Ninth legion is in a bog and waiting to be discovered??.
Safe to say Boudicca didn't destroy the IX as Britons of today like to fantasise about.
I suspect 9th is obliterated by picts.
They didn't mysteriously just evaporate.Roof tiles with Legio1X stamped on them were found after they left Britain on the Rhineland-Palatinate frontier.I makes for an interesting mystery but possibly due to losses in battle they may have been divided amongst other legions.i really should have watched this before commenting, DOH !!!!!🤪🤪🤪
Thank you ! There IS no evidence at all that Legio IX Hispana ever left Britannia in its entirety. The only evidence are a couple of inscriptions from the Nijmegen region which prove only that soldiers from the legion were stationed there in the 120's AD, but they were nost probably only members of a vexillation of the legion, a sub- unit comprising of a cohort or two sent there for reasons unknown. I truly believe that the legion was lost in Britannia at the end of Trajan's reign, circa 117 AD, or at the beginning of Hadrian's reign, n battle with the Britons or Caledonians.
One of the Legendary Legion...Who spearheaded the attack of Scotland...
Who were the 4 Auxiliary Cohorts and the single Cavalry Ala that also disappeared from the record at the same time? You can't say that and then just rush by it like that. That many troops are basically half a legion worth of men, does anyone know?
Very good question! Each legion had its dedicated group of auxiliary cohorts as support troops. If we find that these cohorts also vanished from trace at the same time, well.....!
I guess they found some local tail and went feral.
161 or 121???
10th 🦅 Are the 9th not traitors that fought against Ceaser in Greece with Pompey ?
No the 9th served during the Gallic Wars and the Civil Wars but they mutinied against Caesar at Placentia - and it almost cost the Ninth its existence
@@TheSPQRHistorian it was tenth that were causing problems as payments and lack of alcohol supplies was slow in arriving and was causing friction with the hookers in camp. Anyway Ceaser said he had showen them glory and told they would be spoken about in 2000 years and revered. But they were now free to go back to civilian life and leave all that behind with full pay as they did not wish to accompany him on one last campaign 😏 I thought it was the 10th that mutineed ant the 9th ended up fighting with Pompey in Greece. Are you sure ?
During the civil war 9th fought in Spain at the battle of Ilerda (Summer 49); later, the soldiers were transferred to Placentia, where they briefly revolted. In the spring of 48, the 9th served at Dyrrhachium. It was present at Pharsalus (9 August 48). After this battle, the soldiers were sent back to Italy to be pensioned off, but in 46, they participated in Caesar's African campaign. Some veterans were settled in Picenum, others at Histria
@@TheSPQRHistorian right so what your saying is the hookers got paid and the boys got their wine 🍾🤪 I new Ceaser wouldn't let the men down. Just not his nature. I thought had read or hear somewhere they had fought on Pompeys side. Did the 10th not smash that Libinus in Africa. I need to read up on all this again. I have terrible memory. Ave the 9th and the 10th 🤚 It's been over 2000 years and we still in aww of them
I don't know I think it's stretching to say that saturninus fucked his career in only two ways, it's pretty well documented that you could get executed or banished by sneezing in front of the emperor when he's in a bad mood
Yeah, you are right. But his lack of a career after his posting with the 9th is a working theory, but with the lack of our sources its just speculations
@@TheSPQRHistorian I guess I was being a bit salty there, I just would hate to be forced to listen to Nero's crappy lute solo too
Did they check down the back of the sofa 😋
Check if Publius Varus was involved. lol
Sarcasm aside in that particular case the romans were still keen to retrieve the standards. But not here.
did the ninth legion betray the empire?
So service as a legionary could last 25 years at one point?
25 years with lots of combat is effectively a death sentence. In a peaceful province with a cushy job it's probably a good life. Once you reach veteran status you become part of first cohort which is nearly double strength, about 800 men. They are the last to go into battle if at all. So even in the worst case scenario you wouldn't be on the front line for all your service.
i believe most ligions mixed with the people little by little very easy commen sense gos without saying
It was aliens fam!!! - The History Channel
They went up against the Picts in Caledonia (today's Scotland) and got massacred 😂
Interesting vid but you start off with a statement of 'Fact' which isn't. The only legion we KNOW took part in the invasion of Britian is the II Augusta becasue Vespasian was the legatus. There is very strong evidence that at the very least there were vexillation's from the VIII Augusta and the V Alaudae involved, the other 'legions' may have all been vexillations rather than full legions as well. Just becasue the IX Hispana, XIV Germina and the XX VV were known to be in Britain 17 years later is not proof that they took part in the invasion as whole legions, or even vexillations. I'm sure you will mention it but the last firmly attested mention of the IX Hispana in Britain is dated AD 107-8, one Sextus Florus was legate of the legion in AD 121 long after it left Britain. It's more likely to have been destroyed in the Jewish revolt of AD 132-135.
an entire legion disappeared without a trace... what happened out there?
Probably not, but all historical record is gone. They probably knew what happened at the time, but its odd that nothing is mentioned in the historical record
LOL surprised History Channels Ancient Aliens havent solved this mystery yet.
just went to Novio Magum......Nijmegen
I want to know what ever became of Caesar's Legio X Equestris. The most feared Legion of all of antiquity. Hail Caesar! 👑
Augustus disband them if I remember
Hey guys lets create a 30th Legion???it can be made from folks throughout the world!!! We meet in Rome!! Who in favor??
ROOOOOOOMMAA AETERNA ROOOOOOOMMAA INVICTA ROOOOOOOMMAA VICTRIX
Maybe they switched sides at some point or another during a civil war and were disgraced.
Roma Aeterna
It's a good thing they are not spoken of in the Bible or you would say they never existed in good anti-Bible bigot fashion.
The Roman Ninth Legion is the Theban Legion. They were conscripted from newly conquered Egypt and initially sent to Gaul as a joke. They were soon ordered to construct a fort across the channel, which the Roman Emperor would cheekily term “Eboracum”. Racum is the Latin root for raccoon, so this fort was coined “Ebo raccoons”after the black soldiers who were camped there during Roman times. That fort would later become York. The Ninth Legion was led by a man named Maurice, who the Romans would, with great irony, later saint into St Maurice. The 9th legion is also the same legion that was decimated for refusing to worship the Roman pantheon. Yes, black soldiers formed a Roman legion. That’s why Rome tried to erase all memory of them.
LOL, what the heck was this? All he says is "Nobody knows what happened to the IX-th.", the rest is speculations about what happened to two Legion commanders. 👎