Legio III Isaura

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The Legio III Isaura (third Isaurian Legion) was a legion of the Roman army, which was set up by Diocletian (284-305) to protect the Roman province of Isauria .

description

The thesis advocated in older research, namely that Probus (see also Lydius ) raised to fight against predatory Isaurian mountain tribes in Asia Minor around 278/279, is considered to be refuted. The Legion had a troop strength of about 6,000 men in the early 4th century, which was reduced to about 2,000 men in the course of the century.

Ammianus Marcellinus describes in his historical work that the Isaurians left their country in the middle of the 4th century, probably in the 350s, and devastated the coastal region around Seleucia for several years as wandering robbers . In 354 the Legio I Isaura Sagittaria , Legio II Isaura and Legio III Isaura successfully defended the city of Seleucia under the command of Comes Castricius.

In the year 368 there were again raids of the Isaurians. The vicarius Asiae Musonius was wiped out with his diogmites (police auxiliaries). Only the deployment of the legions could end the unrest.

In the early 5th century, the III Isaura and its sister legion II Isaura were subordinate to the Comes per Isauriam as Limitanei .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historia Augusta : Probus , 16.
  2. ↑ Karl Feld: Barbarische Bürger , p. 133.
  3. ↑ a b Karl Feld: Barbarische Bürger , p. 92.
  4. ↑ Ammian 14: 2-8.
  5. ^ Karl Feld: Barbarische Bürger , p. 147.
  6. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum Or. XXIX.

literature

  • Karl field: barbarian citizens. The Isaurians and the Roman Empire (= Millennium Studies 8). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2005, ISBN 3-11-018899-6 (also: Berlin, Univ., Diss., 2004), ( excerpts ).

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