L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano T he Roman army is legen- dary: whether you think of Cae- sar's Republican days or the greatness of the Empire, its strength, prowess, organization are not only known among classicists and military historians, but also among common people, used to the centurions and legio- naries pictured in Hollywood movies. One of the most recent c i n e m a t i c p o r t r a y a l s o f Rome's fearless soldiers is K e v i n M a c D o n a l d ' s T h e E a g l e , r e l e a s e d i n 2 0 1 1 , where the mysterious end of one of Rome's most trusted l e g i o n s , t h e L e g i o I X Hispana or, to say it in English, the Ninth, is told. The movie supports one of the theories behind its sud- d e n d i s a p p e a r a n c e f r o m history's annals: it was enti- rely annihilated by Queen Boudicca's revolutionary w a r r i o r s , o r w a s l e f t s o weakened by their aggres- s i o n t o b e i n g e v e n t u a l l y incorporated into another legion, the Legio VI Victrix, the Victorious Sixth, created by Octavian — soon to be Emperor Augustus. Truth i s , t h e N i n t h w e n t f r o m being the strongest, most courageous of all legions, to disappearance and, what seems even more strange, to being almost forgotten by the Romans. B u t w h a t d o w e k n o w , h i s t o r i c a l l y , a b o u t t h e Ninth? Its first inception, the Legio IX Triumphalis Macedonica, fought with Caesar in Gaul in a series of crucial battles, including that of Alesia, where the fierce Gaulish people were f i n a l l y s u b d u e d . L a t e r , during the civil war, it was s e n t b y C a e s a r t o t h e Spanish peninsula, then c a l l e d t o f i g h t i n M a c e d o n i a , n o t b e f o r e returning to Italy, revolting, being disbanded and refor- med by Caesar himself. In Macedonia, the Ninth hel- p e d C a e s a r d e f e a t i n g Pompey at Pharsalus. It was then moved to Africa and, upon the coming of a lengthy period of peace, its m e m b e r s w h e r e f i n a l l y allowed to retire. Once a sol- dier, always a soldier they s a y , a n d t h a t m u s t h a v e b e e n t r u e f o r t h e f o r m e r members of the Ninth, who couldn't adapt to civilian life a n a s k e d t o O c t a v i a n ( o r Anthony: history gets hazy there), in 44 BC, to reconsti- tute the legion, which got then the name of Legio IX Hispana. After a number of years fighting around Europe, the Ninth was sent to Britain in 43 AD, where it took part to the Roman conquest under t h e r u l e o f E m p e r o r C l a u d i u s . H e r e , h i s t o r y tells us, the legion suffered d e a d l y l o s s e s a g a i n s t Boudicca's rebels in 60-61 AD. After that, little about it is known: some say it may have been reformed with soldiers coming from other l e g i o n s a n d r e m a i n e d i n Britain, others think it was moved somewhere else. Last official records of the legion date to the early 2nd cen- tury, around 108. A n d t h a t ' s w h e r e t h e mystery begins. Now, there are a number of theories about the Legio IX's demise, more or less historically founded. Let's begin with the one we partly m e n t i o n e d , t h e o n e t h a t inspired MacDonald's 2011 movie The Eagle. In truth, he wasn't the first one to p r o p o s e t h e N i n t h w a s a n n i h i l a t e d b y B r i t a i n ' s rebels, he was inspired by a very popular 1954 novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth, where a f i c t i o n a l p r o t a g o n i s t , R o m a n s o l d i e r M a r c u s Aquila, travels to the Adrian Wall to find out the truth about his own father's, a member of the Ninth, disap- pearance. Sutcliff based her work on a theory that goes as follow: the Ninth, who had remai- ned in Britain after being defeated by Boudicca, was called to sedate a revolt in Caledonia, in 117 AD. Here, t h e y w e r e a n n i h i l a t e d b y local warriors and erased from the memory of time. Sutcliff continues stating the t h e o r y i s s u p p o r t e d b y a r c h a e o l o g i c a l f i n d i n g s , namely, a headless Roman eagle found in the mid-20th c e n t u r y n e a r S i l c h e s t e r . However, this seems a pretty flimsy piece of evidence, as the eagle was a symbol of all l e g i o n s , n o t o n l y o f t h e Ninth. This doesn't mean t h a t t h e N i n t h w a s n ' t i n S c o t l a n d , t h o u g h , a s i t seems, on the basis of epi- graphical fragments found around the Adrian Wall, that it participated to the con- struction of a stone building there during the 12th year of Emperor Trajan's rule, that is, between December 107 a n d D e c e m b e r 1 0 8 A D . While this epigraph could p r o v e t h e l e g i o n w a s i n Britain after the Boudicca debacle, it doesn't support in a n y w a y t h e i d e a i t w a s d e s t r o y e d b y a g r o u p o f Scottish rebels, as Sutcliff maintains. However, sources coeval to the supposed last years of the Ninth, including histo- rian Marcus Cornelius Fronto, do note that a large number of Roman soldiers were killed by British rebels in the 2nd century AD. The later (3rd century) Historia Augusta confirms it, noting that the people of Britain were hard to control and rebelled often. Epigraphical e v i d e n c e f o u n d n e a r F r o s i n o n e , L a z i o , p r o v e s that fresh troops were sent to England in those years, in a n a t t e m p t t o c o n t r o l r e v o l t s , i n c l u d i n g a n e w legion, the Sixth, which was sent to York. It isn't so diffi- cult to imagine, then, that an a l r e a d y w e a k e n e d N i n t h legion could have ended its days fighting rebellions in the northern-most lands of Rome's British possessions or, as other historians main- tain, that it may have been incorporated into the new Sixth legion. W h i l e t h e " B r i t i s h hypothesis" is the one that attracted popular attention the most, historians are far from agreeing on it. There are, in fact, a series of other ideas we should take into account: some say the Ninth w a s s t r a t e g i c a l l y m o v e d from Britain to the Middle East, where it was eventually and finally defeated by the Persians around 160 AD. A n o t h e r t h e o r y w a n t s i t transferred to modern day Germany, along the lower Rhine river, a fact suppor- ted by a number of archaeo- l o g i c a l f i n d i n g s , w h i l e another still talks about a t r a n s f e r t o C a p p a d o c i a (modern Turkey) and wants the end of the Ninth taking place in 161 AD in Armenia, during an ambush. T h e l e g e n d a r y N i n t h disappeared after centuries of loyal and courageous ser- vice, but its myth, symboli- zed by the interest its fate s t i l l r i s e s t o d a y , r e m a i n s strong. FRANCESCA BEZZONE HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS The mysterious end of Rome's glorious Ninth Legion The Roman Army was known for its prowess and the Ninth was no exception (Photo: Mykola Korolkov/Dreamstime)

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