It is hard to imagine losing a whole Legion – but as we know it wasn’t the first time. The book explores what happened to Legio IX Hispana which mysteriously disappeared in Roman Britain. Hadrian's Wall resisted all comers in its day and defended an empire that stretched from Britain in the west to Jordan in the east. Roman legions did not simply cease to exist so, clearly something very dramatic must have happened between these two dates. The question of what happened to the Ninth Legion is one of the great mysteries of history. Here, sometime before AD 160, they were wiped out in a war against the Persians. The announcement puts an end to Seoul's hopes of using the Games to engage with Pyongyang. Now, a new book delves into each alternative hypothesis - that the men were killed by rebels in Roman London; that they were transferred to the Rhine; or that they were dismissed after failing to suppress an uprising in what is modern-day Palestine. A ditch would be dug around the perimeter of the camp, and the spoil used to erect a rampart, which would … Actually there was a little bit more to it than that. The British problem was of deep concern to Roman central government. The early years of the 2nd Century were deeply traumatic for Britannia. The find also exposed underground tunnels used by rebels during the revolt. Presumably it remained with Agricola for the rest of his campaign; yet following its end in 84 AD, all mention of the Legion in surviving literature vanishes. Paying homage to Roman Emperor Trajan, it reads: 'The Emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan Augustus, son of the deified Nerva, Conqueror of Germany, Conqueror of Dacia, pontifex maximus, in his twelfth year of tribunician power, six times acclaimed emperor, five times consul, father of his country, built this gate by the agency of the 9th Legion Hispana.'. The Auschwitz arrivals unaware of their fate: Unseen photos... Roman Britain's Missing Legion - What Really Happened to IX Hispana? The mystery of what happened to the Roman Army's Ninth Legion, who came to these shores with Emperor Claudius's invasion, continues to vex experts. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Following the barbarian crossing of the Rhine in the winter of 406–407, Roman military units in Britain rebelled and proclaimed one of their generals, who happened to be named Constantine, to be the new emperor. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, 'I love my family. For the English, the massacre of the Ninth is an inspiring tale of home-grown "Davids" successfully taking on a relentless European "Goliath". The number of warriors in a legion varied throughout Roman history, from 3,000 to 7,000. The legions of Rome were the nucleus of Rome’s military might for centuries. Our last literary mention of the Legiondates to 82 AD, amid Agricola’s campaign in Scotland, when it is severely mauled by a Caledonian force. Battle of the Teutoburg Forest; Part of the Early Imperial campaigns in Germania: Cenotaph of Marcus Caelius, 1st centurion of XVIII, who "fell in the war of Varus" ('bello Variano'). The loss of such an elite military unit had an unexpected twist which reverberates to the present day. Three stamped tiles bearing the unit number of the Ninth found at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, have been used to support the idea of transfer from Britain. Patrick Lynch - February 18, 2017 Legio IX Hispania, or the Spanish Ninth Legion, stamped its name in history when it apparently disappeared off the face of the earth in the 2nd century AD. He also considers whether the legion was destroyed during Rome's war with the Parthian empire between AD161-166. And that's exactly why I decided to kill them': Depressed college dropout, 19, and his brother wrote chilling letter before shooting dead parents, sister and grandmother and committing suicide, Even Florida Dems slam 'intentionally false' 60 Minutes for claiming Republican Gov. The Legion's full name - Legio IX Hispana - comes from when its men served during Rome's conquest of the Iberiana peninsula, which concluded in 19BC. From campaigning in northern Scotland to the Persian Gulf, these devastating battalions extended and cemented Roman power. It is plausible that the remaining legionnaires may have been sold to the Mongols as mercenaries or captured. The fact that they took up residence in the legionary fortress of York suggests that the "great losses" of personnel, alluded to by Fronto, had occurred within the ranks of the Ninth. The Ninth legion's prefect, Lucius Latinus Macer, is listed as the man who commissioned the altar, at the Roman spa town of Aachen-Burtscheid. 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