HISTORY FACT CHECK TIME!
CLAIM: The Roman Ninth Legion disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Northern Britain.
RATING: False.
ORIGIN: The origins of the Legio IX Hispania begin in Republican Rome under the command of Caesar when he became governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 58BC, inheriting command of four legions, VII, VIII, IX and X.
Whilst they were named the Ninth, this legion was totally reformed in Imperial times under Augustus and took part in wars against the Cantabrians on the Iberian Peninsula, earning themselves the name ‘Hispania’ in return. It’s worth noting that whilst some soldiers were recruited from local areas at this time, throughout a legion’s lifetime, they would consist of men from many nations and retain the name given to them either as a nickname or from where they were first raised.
They became part of the Rhineland legions until the disastrous defeat at the Teuteborg Forest in 9AD, although they were not involved directly in that action. They were then withdrawn to Pannonia, the area now composed of Hungary and Austria.
They then appear in Britain very early after the invasion of 43AD, suggesting they were part of the landing forces. They defeated the British leader Caratacus in 50 and put down rebellions between 52 and 57.
Perhaps their most famous commander was Quintus Petilius Cerialis who became governor of Britain in 71, although by this time he was leading the Legio II Adiutrix. During the Boudiccan rebellion of 60-61, Cerialis attempted to drive the rebels out of the city of Camulodunum, modern day Colchester and then the capital of the province. The Ninth suffered a catastrophic defeat, losing all their infantry. Cerialis escaped with his cavalry and managed to hold out in a heavily fortified camp.
The ninth soon bounced back with reinforcements from the German legions and taking command of them again as governor of Britain, led them into the north defeating the rebellious Brigantes and building a new fort at York. When Julius Agricola became governor, they were with him on the invasion of Caledonia (modern Scotland) in 81-83.
The last trace of them in Britain is an inscribed stone dated 108, when the fort at York was rebuilt in stone, where they are mentioned as LEG VIIII.
At this point, the ‘theories’ of the sudden disappearance in Scotland (they no longer appear in official records) begin to take hold. The principal culprit for this is Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth in which the hero of the story is sent north into Scotland to recover the legion’s lost Eagle Standard after the Ninth are wiped out by ambush. Other fictional works including novels, plays, songs and films have since followed claiming that the Ninth were either wiped out totally or fell under the spell of some kind of Pictish magic that terrified them and drove them mad. In the Karl Edward Wagner 1976 novel Worms of the Earth (which borrowed heavily from Conan creator Robert E Howard), the Ninth escape underground where they live with the titular creatures. All this has created a myth over the fate of the Ninth.
But what happened to them in Scotland? Tacitus (who was Agricola’s son-in-law) tells us that the Ninth were ambushed at night and struggled as the Picts stormed their camp. But Agricola was able to call on cavalry support and saved the day.
“...the men of the Ninth Legion recovered their spirit, and sure of their safety, fought for glory…”
(Tacitus, Agricola)
Later in the campaign they fought at the massive battle of Mons Graupius (wherever that might have been) where the Romans effectively crushed the Picts. So, in 83 or 94, they were still very active and part of a large legionary force. That and the date of 108 for the rebuild at York almost certainly rule this action out as the cause of the ‘disappearance’.
But could there be another action that caught the Ninth out? There is certainly no further mention of them in Britain or record of their withdrawal. Hadrian, on starting the wall that bears his name, around 122, does so because the “Britons could not be kept under control”. Traditionally the view is that the wall was to keep the Picts out, but the wall is only reinforced later to the south, and anyway, the ‘Picts’ are a post Roman civilization. The whole area was ‘bandit country’ and the wall simply a measure to exact control. It’s possible Hadrian ordered the building due to some unknown colossal military defeat, but there is no hard evidence. Further, the Roman writer Fronto, wrote to Marcus Aurelius saying “when your grandfather Hadrian held imperial power, what great numbers of soldiers were killed by the Jews, what great numbers by the Britons" again suggesting some large defeat in Britain in Hadrian’s time.
However, these suggestions have been frustrated by the discovery, at Noviomagus Batavorum, modern day Nijmegen, Netherlands, of pottery dated from 104-120 including the inscriptions ‘Leg IX Hisp’. We know also that a ‘vexillatio Britannica’ (British detachment) arrived in the area around the same time. It’s possible that this small body of men where all that remained of the Ninth, but more realistically any stragglers would have been recruited into other legions and sending a detachment of men to Nijmegen simply to make pottery seems unrealistic (even if the Ninth were known as good builders). It seems more likely the whole legion was there
Furthermore, the discovery of an altar dedicated to Apollo, the legion’s deity of choice was found at Aachen, Germany. The dedication was from one Lucius Latinius Macer, who uses the titles ‘primus pilus’ and ‘praefectus castrorum’ (Chief Centurion and Camp Prefect, the 3rdin command of a legion) of the IX Hispania.
Arguments have since gone on challenging the dating of the pottery but the archaeology seems quite clear that the IX Hispania left Britain sometime after 108 and were in Nijmegen until at least 120. At this point they, ironically, disappear. Records from inscriptions of Rome and a list of ‘current’ legions by the historian Cassius Dio (Roman History, LV.23-24) suggest that ninth were no longer in existence at the time of the raising of the 3 Parthica legions under Septimius Severus in 197. The Ninth disappeared between 120 and 197 and not in Britain.
The reason for this disappearance is not given. No records show their fate or a matching battle that could define their annihilation. It is more likely that they were simply disbanded as part of military reforms and the men divided among other legions. This is a common fate for many legions. They die in bureaucracy rather than battle.
Whilst it’s fair to say the Legio IX Hispania disappeared, they likely did not disappear from the face of the Earth, but rather into the empty realms of incomplete history. That we don’t know their fate is because the records are lost. Roman history has many gaps in this manner. Tacitus’ most famous works ‘Annals of Imperial Rome’ has chunks of text missing. His views on some events simply didn’t survive. Annals ends, tantalisingly, mid-sentence in 66AD:
“Then as the slowness of his end bought with it grievous anguish, turning his eyes on Demtrius…”
The IX fell into the same historical void as the end of that sentence.