Legio I Minervia

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Antoninian of Emperor Gallienus in honor of the Legion with a depiction of Minerva, the emblem of unity

The Legio I Flavia Minervia was a legion of the Roman army. The legion's emblems were the goddess Minerva , who was also the patroness and namesake of the legion, and the ram. The naming also made reference to the Flavian dynasty , to which Domitian belonged.

Legion history

Flavian dynasty

The Legio I Minervia was set up in 82 AD by the Roman Emperor Domitian for his campaign against the Chatti . It was initially stationed in Bonna (today's Bonn ) in the province of Germania inferior (Lower Germany) , where it replaced the Legio XXI Rapax that had been relocated to Mogontiacum (Mainz) . The northern Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) was the capital of the Roman province Germania Inferior and the headquarters of the Lower Germanic army. Numerous legionaries served the governor with civil administrative tasks or as beneficiaries . But she took part in campaigns throughout the Roman Empire. In 89 she was involved in the suppression of the Saturninus uprising in the province of Germania superior and was nicknamed Legio I Flavia Minervia Pia Fidelis Domitiana (loyal and devoted to Domitian). After the murder and damnatio memoriae Domitians, the components of the name Flavia and Domitiana were omitted in the name of the Legio I Minervia Pia Fidelis . The military situation was calm in the 1st and 2nd centuries, so that the legion also operated brickworks ( Tegularia transrhenana ) and quarries in the adjacent area on the right bank of the Rhine .

Adoptive Emperor and Antonine Dynasty

Gravestone for the wife of Gaius Iulius Maternus, veteran of the Legio I Minerva (2nd century)

Under the command of the later Emperor Hadrian , the Legion took part in the Dacer Wars (101-106) Emperor Trajan , while it was represented in the Bonna camp by a vexillation of the Legio XXII Primigenia . Your standard is depicted on the Trajan Column . After the conquest of Dacia, the Legion returned to Bonn, where it is occupied again in 112. The Legio I Minervia worked several times on building projects with the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix from Vetera (Xanten), which was reflected in inscriptions as EXGERINF ( Exercitus Germaniae inferioris ; Heer Niedergermaniens) instead of the legion names . Subdivisions of the Legion worked in quarries, built lime kilns in the Eifel (see Roman lime distillery Iversheim ) and near Nijmegen. Parts of the legion are also recorded in the camps Carvo (also Kastell Kesteren, today Neder-Betuwe NL), Albaniana ( Alphen aan den Rijn ), Castra Herculis ( Arnhem ) and numerous other places of Germania inferior . The Legion also had venatores (hunters), whose job it was to catch animals for hunting animals in the amphitheatres . The centurion Quintus Tarquitius Restitutus boasted that he had caught 50 bears in half a year.

In the second half of the 2nd century, vexillations of the Legio I Minervia were used in several larger campaigns: 162–166 the I Minervia fought under their legate Marcus Claudius Fronto with a vexillation of the XXX Ulpia Victrix in the Parthian War of Lucius Verus in the Orient, 166– 175 and 178-180 during the Marcomann Wars under Marcus Aurelius and 173 under the supreme command of the governor of the Gallia Belgica Didius Julianus against the Chauken . The main camp Bonna developed after the inclusion of the Matronae Aufaniae in the festival calendar of the Legion into a center of the matron cults . Under Commodus (180–192) there was possibly fighting at Kerken on the Lower Rhine, in which the Legio I Minervia was also involved.

Second year of the four emperors and Severer

IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG
LEG I MIN, TR P COS
Denarius of Septimius Severus in honor of the Legio I Minervia

During the inner-Roman conflicts between Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus , the Legion had been on Severus' side since 193 and was actively involved in the fighting in 196/197. The Legion probably received the honorary title Antoniniana as early as 196 from Septimius Severus. Since 197 a vexillation of legionnaires of the XXX Ulpia Victrix , I Minervia , VIII Augusta and XXII Primigenia was stationed in Lugdunum ( Lyon ), the capital of the three Gaulish provinces. In 197/198 Claudius Gallus led a vexillation of the four Germanic legions (I Minervia, VIII Augusta, XXII Primigenia and XXX Ulpia) in the Second Severan Parthian War as praepositus vexillationum .

Gaius Iulius Septimius Castinus, the legate of Legio I Minervia and later governor in Pannonia inferior (208-211) and Dacia (214 / 215-217), led as Dux around 207/208 a vexillation of the four Germanic legions Legio VIII Augusta , Legio XXII Primigenia , I Minervia and XXX Ulpia Victrix against rebels and rebels in Gaul and Hispania . After Elagabals (218–222) murder, the Legion no longer held the honorary title Antoniniana . Under Severus Alexander (222-235), the Legio I Minervia Pia Fidelis Severiana Alexandriana, under their Legatus Titius Rufinus near Bonna, won a victory over a Germanic association on the right bank of the Rhine in 231 and built a victory altar on the battlefield. Possibly it was one of those Germanic pillaging trains that shaped the situation on the Rhine border in the 3rd century.

Soldier emperor

Inscription on which the name of the Legion was erased twice : The original three-line inscription "Leg (io) IM (inervia) / [...] Ant [o] / niniana p (ia) f (idelis)" is in the last line still recognizable by light lines. Under Maximinus Thrax, the lower lines were chiseled out and replaced by the new legion name "Maximini / ana pia fid (elis) / Antoniniana", which now required three lines. After Maximinus' death, the nickname "Maximiniana" was again very roughly chiseled out

During the imperial crisis of the 3rd century, the Legion probably helped Maximinus Thrax (235-238), the first soldier emperor , to the throne, who gave it the name Legio I Minervia Maximiniana Pia Fidelis Antoniniana . Since 238 the name part Maximiniana was omitted . Under Gordian III. (238–244) the Legion carried the name Legio I Minervia Gordianarum or Gordiana . Gallienus (253-268) honored the Legion on coins and with the title VI Pia VI Fidelis (six times dutiful, six times loyal). Then the Legion was under the emperors of the Gallic Empire (260-274). According to current knowledge, the invasion of the Franks in 274 AD did not lead to the destruction of the camp. However, the residential areas outside the camp were given up, the remaining civilian population lived in the camp itself with the garrison reduced to 1,000 men.

Late antiquity

Painted shields for the Minervii in the early 5th century

A vexillation of the Legio I Minervia was presumably imputed to the general and later British usurper Carausius between 285 and 290 for a campaign by Maximian against the rebellious Bagauden of Gaul or to fight pirates . Carausius (286 / 287–293) honored the Legion by minting coins. Until 295 the legion is documented as Limitanei (border army) in Bonna . Representations on the Arch of Constantine indicate that Constantine the Great (306–337) had included parts of the legion in his comitatus ("entourage"). The Prima Minerbes and the Minervii of the Eastern Empire presumably emerged from this legion . Around 353 Bonna was destroyed by the invading Franks , since then there are no more reliable reports about the "Germanic" Legio I Minervia . However, there is also no report about their end. In his report on the Battle of Argentoratum in the autumn of 357, Ammianus Marcellinus mentioned a Primanorum Legio (Ammianus Marcellinus 16, 12, 49), which could be part of the Legio I Minervia . Julian (360–363) recaptured Bonna and possibly rebuilt the camp. It is not known which troops were stationed in the camp.

The Minervii were a legio comitatensis (mobile field army) in the late antique army of the East in the early 5th century and were listed in the Notitia Dignitatum under the command of the Magister militum per Illyricum .

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jona Lendering: Legio I Minervia . In: Livius.org (English)
  2. ↑ Oliver Stoll : Römisches Heer und Gesellschaft , Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07817-7 , pp. 488-489.
  3. ↑ CIL 13, 8267
  4. ↑ Oliver Stoll : Römisches Heer und Gesellschaft , Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07817-7 , p. 311.
  5. ↑ Gabriele Wesch-Klein : Social aspects of the Roman army in the imperial period , Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07300-0 , p. 93.
  6. ↑ CIL 13, 12048
  7. ↑ CIL 6, 41142 ; see: Valerie A. Maxfield: The military decorations of the Roman army , University of California Press, 1981, ISBN 978-0-520-04499-9 , p. 133.199.
  8. ↑ Heinrich Beck , Dieter Geuenich , Heiko Steuer (ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Vol. 25, de Gruyter, Berlin - New York (2nd edition) 2003, ISBN 978-3-11-017733-6 , p. 122-123.
  9. ↑ a b Werner Eck : Crisis or Non-Crisis . In: Olivier Hekster , Gerda de Kleijn, Danielle Slootjes (eds.): Crises and the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the seventh workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Nijmegen, June 20-24, 2006) . Brill, Leiden 2007, ISBN 978-90-04-16050-7 , pp. 31-32.
  10. ↑ Marc Lodewijckx (Ed.): Belgian Archeology in a European Setting. Volume 1 , Leuven University Press, 2001, ISBN 9789058671660 , pp. 42-43.
  11. ↑ Gerold Walser : Römische Insschriftkunst , Steiner, 2nd verb. Edition 1993, ISBN 978-3-515-06065-3 , p. 208
  12. ^ AE 1957, 123
  13. ↑ CIL 3, 10471 , CIL 3, 10472 , CIL 3, 10473
  14. ^ Emil Ritterling: Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix . In: RE Volume XII, 2, Stuttgart 1925, Sp. 1821-1829.
  15. ↑ CIL 13, 8017
  16. ↑ AE 1931, 11
  17. ↑ CIL 13, 6763 , CIL 13, 7996
  18. ↑ Göbl 988r
  19. ↑ a b Conference report on the international colloquium "Roman legionary camps in the Rhine and Danube provinces - nuclei of late antique and early medieval life?" PDF
  20. ↑ a b Notitia Dignitatum Or. IX.
  21. ^ PJ Casey: Carausius and Allectus: the British usurpers , Routledge, 1994, ISBN 978-0-7134-7170-0 , pp. 82-83.
  22. ↑ a b Heinrich Beck u. a. (Ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Vol. 3, de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 1978, ISBN 3-11-006512-6 , p. 226.
  23. ↑ Hans Peter L'Orange , Armin von Gerkan : The late antique image jewelry of the Arch of Constantine (series: Studies on late antique art history 10 ), de Gruyter, Berlin 1939, pp. 110–111, 117.
  24. ↑ Dietrich Hoffmann : The late Roman movement army and the Notitia dignitatum , Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1969/70 (Epigraphische Studien, vol. 7), p. 204.