Legio XIX

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The Legio XIX was a legion of the Roman army. It was probably built under Octavian during the civil war around 41/40 BC. Set up. A reference to the civil war legions of Caesar and Pompey , both of which had a 19th legion, or to the Legio XIX Classica Marc Anton is only hypothetical.

Legion history

Perhaps the Legion was stationed in Aquitaine after the Battle of Actium (31 BC) . In the year 30 BC BC veterans of the Legio XIX were settled in the Pisa area. Around 15 BC The legion was moved to the Alpine region. It is believed that Publius Quinctilius Varus was during the conquest of the Alpine region in 15 BC. A legacy of the Legio XIX , as shown by a new reading of the inscription on a lead disk found in the Roman camp in Dangstetten . In the late 1960s three were military supporters in the then newly discovered camp Dangstetten found on the Upper Rhine, the presence of the Legio XIX testify or at least a part of it on the spot. The legion was evidently involved in the Alpine campaign in 15 BC. Involved. This conclusion has recently been impressively confirmed by a stamped catapult arrowhead from Döttenbichl near Oberammergau . Other testimonies from Augsburg and the Mont Terri (CH) may also be connected with this. This makes the previously assumed participation of this legion in its entirety in the campaigns of Drusus and Tiberius in the interior of Germania (12–7 BC) rather improbable, but it does not rule out that vexillations of this legion could have been assigned there.

Then the Legio XIX was relocated to Lower Germany. When the Legion came to the Rhine is completely open. A stopover of this legion in Cologne is possible, but by no means mandatory. At least parts of her were apparently temporarily stored in holders . The west gate of the former main camp was uncovered there during the excavations in 1971. In a pit on Via Principalis, an archaeologist found an ingot of lead with a weight of 64 kg and the inscription LXIX (= Legio XIX), which is the first archaeological testimony to be found in the invasion area between the Rhine and Elbe, one of the three in the Varus Battle annihilated legions.

Tiberius led at least eight legions in 6 AD ( Legio VIII Augusta and Legio XV Apollinaris from Pannonia , Legio XX Valeria Victrix from Illyricum , Legio XXI Rapax from Raetia , Legio XIII Gemina , Legio XIV Gemina and Legio XVI Gallica from Germania superior and one unknown unit) from the south against Marbod , the Marcomann king , while the Legio I Germanica , Legio V Alaudae , Legio XVII , Legio XVIII and Legio XIX marched from the north. That represented half of the total military potential of the Romans at the time. Shortly after the campaign began in the spring of 6, Tiberius broke it off again when he received news of the Pannonian uprising . However, Tiberius concluded a friendship treaty with Marbod in order to concentrate fully on the difficult task in Pannonia.

The Legio XIX belonged with the 17th and 18th legions to the army of the governor Publius Quinctilius Varus, which was destroyed in the Battle of Varus ( Clades Variana ) in 9 AD . The Legion's Aquila (legionary eagle) was regained from the Brukterians by Germanicus in AD 15 .

Epigraphic sources

Several members of the Legio XIX are known by name: The highest ranking is the military tribune Gnaeus Lerius, whom his fellow citizens in Fulginiae (Umbria) honored with an inscription. The centurion of this legion was also Sextus Abulenius, who after retiring from the army held the highest offices in his hometown Urbinum (Umbria). Veterans of the XIX. Legion are mentioned in the epitaph for Marcus Virtius from Luna (Etruria) and Lucius Artorius from the Ravenna area. The position of the Sextus Anquirinnius, whose tombstone was placed in Portus Pisanus / Livorno, remains unknown.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Matthew Bunson: Encyclopedia of the Roman empire , Sonlight Christian, 2002, ISBN 978-0816045624 , p. 313.
  2. ↑ a b c d Jonah Lendering: Legio XIX . In: Livius.org (English)
  3. ↑ Hans Ulrich Nuber : P. Quinctilius Varus won… In: 2000 Years of Varus Battle: Imperium . Theiss, Stuttgart, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8062-2278-4 , pp. 106-113.
  4. ↑ Helmuth Schneider (Ed.): Hostile Neighbors: Rom und die Germanen , Böhlau, 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20219-4 , p. 56.
  5. ↑ AE 1994, 1323
  6. ↑ AE 1975, 626
  7. ↑ Schillinger 00205
  8. ^ Alfred Michael Hirt: Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World: Organizational Aspects 27 BC-AD 235 (Oxford Classical Monographs), Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-019957287-8 , p. 171.
  9. ↑ Klaus-Peter Johne : The Romans on the Elbe. The river basin of the Elbe in the geographical world view and in the political consciousness of Greco-Roman antiquity , Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-05-003445-4 , p. 171.
  10. ↑ CIL 11, 5218
  11. ↑ CIL 11, 6056
  12. ^ AE 1974, 283
  13. ↑ CIL 11, 348
  14. ↑ CIL 11, 1524