THE NINTH LEGION

The Ninth Legion, subject of recent films Centurion and The Eagle, was in all likelihood destroyed in Scotland. Those with pro Roman agendas argue that the legion in question reappeared on record elsewhere in the empire after their proposed defeat, but this holds little water. It was perfectly normal for legions reduced through heavy casualties to be brought up to strength with new recruits, thus giving the impression that they had never sustained any damage.  Even in armies other than Roman, it was quite customary to bring regiments up to strength after heavy losses, the American Seventh Cavalry after the Little Bighorn is a case in point.

The Ninth Legion already had to be put together again after being annihilated by Boudicca's forces, so it is not as if we do not have a precedent. Tacitus says that the Ninth Legion sustained a night attack by the Caledonians, who stormed and entered their fortifications,and clearly on the defensive, the legion was only saved by arrival of reinforcements. He specifically describes it as weakened at this time. It should be no great surprise therefore if the Caledonians later finished the job.

Another Roman source, Dio Cassius, claims that the Romans lost 50,000 men against the Caledonians and Maeatae during the Severan Campaign alone, and the Emperor Severus died soon after from sickness, still not having conquered the Scottish tribes.

The Caledonians recieved a fortune in tribute money from the Romans to stop attacking their forts.

In the light of the above, it is difficult to see what is so astounding about the destruction of one legion. It was not that unusual. A Roman legion was destroyed by the Germans in the Teutoburg Forest; three Roman consular armies were trounced by the Celto-Germanic Cimbri; the biggest Roman army ever assembled was annihilated by Hannibal and his Celtic and Iberian allies at Cannae; Gothic cavalry destroyed a Roman army at Adrianople, and the Huns of Attila routinely defeated most of the Roman armies sent against them.

The Roman population was so easily downcast by news of defeats at the hands of so called barbarians that it was usual for the propoganda machine to play down the disaster. Sadly this practice still continues to this day, with pro Roman academics and the equally ill informed quite prepared to accept inflated figures of barbarian dead in battle, yet never fail to question numbers of Roman dead when the barbarians won, even when the sources for these figures are Classical Roman writers.

Dio Cassius, specifically says that 50,000 Romans perished on campaign against the Caledonians and Maeatae during the Severan war. Now, even allowing for the usual Roman propensity to exaggerate (though in this case, it would seem distinctly odd why a Roman writer would wish to deliberately inflate figures of Roman dead), the Romans clearly suffered very heavy losses, and we must bear in mind that Severus as emperor had his most elite forces with him. So those Roman academics who split hairs about whether the Ninth Legion suffered a second disastrous defeat or not, they are somewhat of a drop in the ocean of Romans that fell on campaign in Scotland.

For more information on the Ninth Legion's likely fate, may the reader's attention be drawn to:

http://www.romanscotland.org.uk/pages/campaigns/Lost_Legion/Lost_Legion_1.asp http://www.romanscotland.org.uk/pages/narratives/IXth.asp