Legio II Herculia

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The Legio II Herculia was a legion of the late ancient Roman army, which was set up by Diocletian together with the Legio I Iovia around 285 and existed until the 5th century. The name of the legion refers to the co-emperor Maximian , who was nicknamed Herculius . The Legion's emblem has not survived.

Legion history

Remains of the Roman garrison in Troesmis

The Legion was stationed in the new Roman province of Scythia, which had split off from Moesia inferior (Lower Moesia ) . The main camp of the legion was Troesmis (today Turcoaia in the Tulcea district in Romania ) with an area of ​​2.8 hectares. A vexillation was stationed in the 0.6 hectare Axiopolis camp . The size of the camp shows that the legion has been reduced in size to a maximum of 2,000 men since it was set up. Other historians are of the opinion that the Legion was set up with the "old" target strength of 6,000 men.

Presumably a vexillation accompanied Caesar Galerius (293 / 305-311) between 296 and 298 on the campaigns against the Sassanids . Independently operating vexillations have occurred since the 4th century. So the Jovians and Herculians emerged from the legions I Iovia and II Herculia in Diocletian times . In the years 298/299 a vexillation from the 7th and 10th cohorts accompanied the Emperor Maximian on his campaign in Mauretania Caesariensis .

Around 300, Valerius Maximianus led a unit of legionnaires from Legio I Italica and Legio II Herculia as Praepositus vexillationis and left an inscription in Chersonesus Taurica ( Cherson ) in honor of the emperors and Caesars . Other inscriptions from Chersonesus Taurica indicate vexillations between 284 and 350 in the Bosporan Empire . Around 305 the Legion was given the honorable nickname Fidelis (The Reliable).

Around the year 400 the Legio Secunda Herculia or Legio Secunda Herculiana was under the command of the Dux Scythiae . The Praefectus legionis and the Praefectus ripae were with their troops in the Troesmis garrison (also Iprosmis ), while another Praefectus ripae was stationed with his troops in Axiopolis . There they guarded the border to the Barbaricum on the Danube as Legio ripariensis ("Shore Legion ") . A Cohors Secunda Herculia musculorum Scythicorum was stationed with other units under the command of the Praefectus ripae of the Legio I Iovia in Inplateypegiis .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Emil Ritterling : Legio (II Herculia). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 2, Stuttgart 1925, column 1467 f.
  2. ^ Richard J. Brewer (ed.): The Second Augustan Legion and the Roman Military Machine. Birthday of the eagle. National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff 2002, ISBN 0-7200-0514-0 , p. 171; see: Peter Herz , Peter Schmid, Oliver Stoll (Eds.): Between Region and Empire. The area of ​​the upper Danube in the Roman Empire. Frank & Timme, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86596-313-0 , pp. 20-23.
  3. ^ Hugh Elton: Warfare and the Military. In: Noel Emmanuel Lenski (Ed.): The Cambridge companion to the Age of Constantine. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-521-52157-2 , pp. 325–346, here p. 327.
  4. ↑ David M. Gwynn (ed.): AHM Jones and the later Roman Empire (= Brill's series on the early Middle Ages 15). Brill, Leiden et al. 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-16383-6 , p. 153.
  5. ↑ CIL 8, 8440
  6. ↑ AE 1994, 1539 .
  7. ↑ AE 1984, 809 , AE 1984, 805 , AE 1984, 808 .
  8. ↑ AE 1952, 231 ; for dating see Peter Pilhofer : Philippi. Volume 2: Catalog of the inscriptions by Philippi (= Scientific Studies on the New Testament 119). 2nd revised and expanded edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-16-149163-4 , pp. 938-939 ( photos ).
  9. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum : Notitia dignitatum partibus orientis XXXIX .