Legio I Adiutrix

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The Legio I Adiutrix ("the helper") was set up in 68 AD by Nero or Galba from naval units in the Misenum naval base . Their symbol was the Capricorn (mythological figure: half ibex, half fish), sometimes the Pegasus was also led.

Denarius of Septimius Severus with the inscription LEG I AD-IVT in honor of the Legion

Legion history

Four imperial year and Flavian dynasty

Brick stamp of the Legion in the Terra Sigillata Museum Rheinzabern.
Bronze infantry helmet of the Weisenau type, 1st century AD, found in the Rhine near Mainz. According to an inscription, the helmet belonged to Lucius Lucretius Celer, legionnaire in the Centurie of Gaius Mummius Lolianus of the Legio I Adiutrix .

The Legion was quickly set up in the face of the civil war which was just breaking out; this was the reason why one (just like with the Legio II Adiutrix ) resorted to naval crews that were actually considered to be militarily inferior. While legionaries usually had to have Roman citizenship, this was not the case with naval soldiers - the new legionnaires were therefore granted citizenship specifically in this case. In the year of the Four Emperors 69 the Legion was engaged first on the side of Galba, then in the army of Otho , where in mid-April 69 it was defeated in the First Battle of Bedriacum against the troops of Vitellius . However, she managed to capture the Aquila (legionary eagle) of the Legio XXI Rapax in battle. It was briefly relocated to Hispania by Vitellius, but was already used in the year 70 under Quintus Petillius Cerialis on the Rhine in the Batavian uprising .

After the end of the Batavian uprising, the Legio I Adiutrix was stationed together with the Legio XIIII Gemina in Mogontiacum (Mainz). The old wood-earth warehouse was rebuilt in stone. The aqueduct for the supply of camps, canabae and baths with a daily output of about 6500 m³ was also rebuilt in stone by the legions. The bricks required were burned by the Legion in Tabernae (Rheinzabern). In Aquae Mattiacorum ( Wiesbaden ) the legions I Adiutrix , XIIII Gemina , XXI Rapax and XXII Primigenia expanded the thermal baths in Flavian times .

Domitian , lacking in military fame, drew the legions I Adiutrix , XIIII Gemina , XXI Rapax , VIII Augusta , XI Claudia and vexillations of the three British II Augusta , VIIII Hispana and XX Valeria Victrix in Germania superior in AD 83 together. Domitian crossed the Rhine and started the so-called chat wars against the powerful but "restless" chats who lived in the foreland of Mogontiacum in the Taunus and in the Giessen basin. It was probably about a weakening of the chat as the last major trouble spot near the Rhine. Domitian advanced far into the heartland of the Chatten, today's Hesse. With further campaigns, the Romans succeeded in subjugating the Wetterau area in 85 , which was part of Domitian's German policy (reorganization of the border). As a result, the border fortifications of the Taunus and Wetterau limes were built . Domitian took on the victorious surname Germanicus and created two regular provinces from the areas of the Upper and Lower Germanic armies with propaganda efforts . After the end of the campaign, eight vexillations from the legions of Britain and Upper Germany under Caius Velius Rufus, the Primus Pilus of Legio XII Fulminata , were busy with extensive construction work in the area of ​​the Lingons (northern France). Parts of the legion were stationed in the small fort in Wagbach in Domitian times .

In 86, the Legio XXI Rapax replaced the Legio I Adiutrix in Mogontiacum, which had been assigned to Pannonia . The Legion was moved to Brigetio ( Komárom ) in the province of Pannonia and took part in Domitian's campaigns against the Dacians . Under the general Lucius Tettius Iulianus , the legion took part in the Battle of Tapae in 88 .

Adoptive Emperor and Antonine Dynasty

The rain wonder in Quadenland, depicted on the Mark Aurel column in Rome

Nerva deployed the Legion 96 in the Bellum Suebicum . Since the Legion was involved in the adoption of Trajan by Nerva in 97, Trajan gave it the nickname pia fidelis ("faithful and devoted"). She also took part with the Legio IIII Flavia Felix and Legio XIII Gemina in the conquest of Dacia (101-106) under Trajan. Under her Legatus Aulus Platorius Nepos , she was used against the Parthians from 115 to 117 . Under Hadrian (117-138) she returned to Brigetio , where she replaced the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix . The Brigetio camp , which was probably damaged in a flood, was rebuilt by the Legion around 119. In the first half of the 2nd century the Legion ran a brick factory in Dömös on the Danube Bend.

In the following decades it remained largely quiet on the Danube border, so that some vexillations were relocated to the Pontus and North Africa. From 171 to 175 the Legion was under the command of the legate and later Emperor Publius Helvius Pertinax and took part in the Marcomann Wars. In the Marcomanni wars 172 the famous "rain miracle in Quad country," it of the occurred Quaden enabled surrounded Legion, located freizukämpfen again. This event also found its way into the pictorial representations of this campaign on the Marcus Aurelius column in Rome.

Honorary inscription of Gaius Valerius Valentinianus, praefectus legionis of the Legio I Adiutrix Severiana

Severan dynasty and soldier emperors

After the assassination of Pertinax in 193, the Legio I Adiutrix supported Septimius Severus , the governor of Pannonia superior , against Didius Julianus and in the civil war of the second four-emperor year 193/194 against Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger . After Severus' Parthian campaigns in the eastern part of the empire (195 and 197-198), the Legion returned to Pannonia. When Septimius Severus set out on a campaign in northern Britain in 208, he was accompanied by the Legion under their legate Cornelius Valens (208-210). The legion or at least detachments of it probably took part in the Caracallas campaign (211-217) against the Parthians between 214 and 217 . In Severian times the legion was nicknamed Severiana .

Under Emperor Maximinus Thrax , the Legion took part in the campaign against the Dacians in 237 and in 244 under Gordian III. participated in the campaign against the Sassanid Empire . In the course of the 3rd century, the Legion received the honorary titles Pia Fidelis bis ("twice loyal and devoted") and constans ("reliable"). Gallienus (253–268) honored the Legion by minting coins.

Late antiquity

In the early 5th century the Legio prima Adiutrix was subordinate to the Dux Valeriae ripensis (West Hungary) as Limitanei (border army) and was still stationed in Brigetio and possibly also in Transiacinco ( Transaquincum ). The last mention of the unit is in 444, when the Legion was stationed in Brigetio . The Legion may have been disbanded after losing to the Huns . Formally, however, the Legio I Adiutrix remained in existence for at least another century: Since in late antiquity the civil administrative employees were also considered milites , they were pro forma assigned to a military unit when they were hired; And so in the 6th century under Emperor Justinian, the writers of the praefectus praetorio Orientis were assigned to the Legio I Adiutrix - regardless of whether they should have existed as part of the fighting force at all.

literature

Web links

Commons : Legio I Adiutrix  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jona Lendering: Legio I Adiutrix . In: Livius.org (English)
  2. ↑ Tacitus , Historiae 2, 39-49.
  3. ↑ Christoph PJ Ohlig: Water History Research: Focus on Antiquity, Volume 1 , Books on Demand, 2003, ISBN 3833003405 , p. 4.
  4. ^ Gabriele Wesch-Klein : Social aspects of the Roman army in the imperial era . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07300-0 , p. 86 (= Habil. Heidelberg 1995).
  5. ↑ Egon Schallmayer : The Limes: History of a Border . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-48018-8 , pp. 49-52. Reinhard Wolters : The Romans in Germania . CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44736-8 , p. 66 ff.
  6. ^ Emil Ritterling : Legio (VIIII Hispana). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 2, Stuttgart 1925, Sp. 1664-1668.
  7. ↑ Heinrich Beck , Dieter Geuenich , Heiko Steuer (Ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 20: Metuonis - Natural Science Methods , de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 3-11-017164-3 , p. 149.
  8. ^ Graham Webster: The Roman Imperial Army of the first and second centuries AD University of Oklahoma Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8061-3000-8 , p. 52.
  9. ^ Valerie A. Maxfield: The military decorations of the Roman army . University of California Press, 1981, ISBN 0-520-04499-1 , pp. 162 and 192.
  10. ^ Anthony Richard Birley : The Roman government of Britain , Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-925237-4 , p. 123.
  11. ^ András Mócsy : Pannonia and Upper Moesia: History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire , Routledge, 1974, ISBN 0-7100-7714-9 , p. 99.
  12. ↑ Márta H. Kelemen: A legio I adiutrix téglavetõje Dömösön - The brickworks of the legio I Adiutrix in Dömös. In Archaeologiai Értesitő . 121-122, 1994-1995, pp. 97-114.
  13. ↑ Werner Jobst: June 11, 172 AD. The day of the lightning and rain miracle in the Quadenlande . Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0258-5 (session reports of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, phil.hist. Class 335).
  14. ↑ a b AE 1957, 294 .
  15. ↑ Markus Handy: The Severers and the Army . Antike Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-938032-25-1 , p. 108 (Studies on Ancient History, Vol. 10).
  16. ^ Yann Le Bohec: The Roman army of Augustus to Constantine the Elder. Size , Steiner, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-515-06300-5 , p. 225.
  17. ^ Notitia dignitatum Occ. XXXIII.
  18. ↑ See Arnold Hugh Martin Jones : The Later Roman Empire . Blackwell, Oxford 1964, p. 566.