Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix

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Deo Silvano / Cessorinius / Ammausius / ursarius leg (ionis) / XXX U (lpiae) V (ictricis) S (everianae) A (lexandrianae) / v (otum) s (olvit) l (ibens) m (erito)
Consecration of the bear catcher the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix to the god Silvanus , LVR-RömerMuseum Xanten

The Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix was a legion of the Roman army that was raised by Emperor Trajan around the year 105 for the Dacian Wars . It was active until the beginning of the 5th century.

Legion history

Origin, names and emblems

The Legion was set up between 101 and 105 AD by Emperor Trajan under the name Leg XXX Ulpia Germanica from Italian recruits. The number XXX (30) referred to the total number of legions at that time, with the consecutive numbers from 23 to 29 being omitted. Ulpia referred to the gentile name Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus). After their first successful missions in the second Dacer War (106-107), the Legio XXX Ulpia received the additional nickname Victrix (the victorious).

In inscriptions, the Legion was usually referred to as Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix , less often as Legio XXX Ulpia . Mentioning only with the number, Legio XXX or L (egio) TR (icensima) , was very rare. In individual cases the terms Legio Ulpia and XXX Victrix were used. The Legion first received the honorable nickname Pia Fidelis (loyal and loyal) from Septimius Severus around the year AD 211 . Emperor Gallienus (253-268) gave her this nickname for the seventh time: VII Pia VII Fidelis . Under Severus Alexander (222-235) the Legion was also passed down as XXX UV Alexandriana , XXX UV Severiana Alexandriana Pia Fidelis and XXX UV Pia Fidelis Severiana Alexandriana .

Their emblems in the 1st and 2nd centuries were the gods Neptune and Jupiter as well as the Capricorn . Around the middle of the 3rd century she led Neptune under Gallienus, under Victorinus around 270 the Capricorn and around 290 under Carausius again the god Neptune as a symbol.

Location of the legionary camps Vetera I and II, as well as the Colonia Ulpia Traiana

Adoptive Emperor and Antonine Dynasty

The missions in the Dakar War are not recorded. Presumably the legion belonged to the army group that operated from the Roman province of Moesia superior (Upper Moesia ). After the end of the second Dakerkrieges in 106 departments were the Legion in the province of Pannonia Superior (Upper Pannonia) in the military camp Brigetio stationed to get along with vexillations the Legio XIV Gemina to finish the construction of the military camp has already begun. Brick stamps are evidence of the troops' construction activities at the same time - also in Carnuntum and Vindobona (Vienna). Probably a vexillation of the Legion took part in the campaigns of Trajan against the Parthians between 114 and 116 and then returned to their Legion. Around 118/119, after the return of the Legio I Adiutrix to the completed legion camp of Brigetio, the associations of the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix were evidently withdrawn from there.

Presumably the Legio XXX belonged to the units that acted 118 under the command of Quintus Marcius Turbo against the Jazygen , who seriously threatened the recently organized province of Dacia .

Between 119 and 121/122 which XXX Ulpia Victrix in Brigetio was from the Legio I Adiutrix peeled off, and the camp Vetera II (near the present Xanten ) in Germania inferior laid, where the post Britannia ( Britain ) abkommandierte legio VI left in the following Replaced centuries.

At the same time (around 120) a vexillation was stationed in Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum (Nijmegen) for the next few decades . There is no evidence of participation in a vexillation in Hadrian's expedition to Britain. Inscriptions from the time of Antoninus Pius (138-161) indicate the use of vexillation in Mauretania.

In Iversheim , a district of Bad Münstereifel , the Legion operated a large lime kiln from 150 AD to 300 AD.

Between 162 and 166 vexillations of XXX Ulpia Victrix and I Minervia were used in the Parthian War of Lucius Verus in the Orient, 166 to 175 and 178 to 180 during the Marcomann Wars under Marcus Aurelius on the Danube and 173 under the command of the governor of the Gallia Belgica Didius Julianus against the Chauken .

The Ulpia Victrix supported the military leader Septimius Severus in his wish to become emperor. This denarius was minted in 193 in honor of the Legion.
Minervae sacrum / T (itus) Aurelius / Exoratus m (iles) l (egionis) / XXX U (lpiae) V (ictricis) magist (er) / calc (ariorum) / HS XXI (semis?) [V (otum) s (olvit)] l (ibens) m (erito)
This consecration stone was donated to the goddess Minerva by the soldier Titus Aurelius Exoratus, master lime kiln.

Second year of the four emperors and Severer

At the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd century, due to the peaceful situation in Germania inferior, parts of the XXX Ulpia Victrix could be stationed in other Roman provinces.

In the civil war of the Second Year of the Four Emperors in 193 the XXX supported Ulpia Victrix Septimius Severus and fought against the usurper Clodius Albinus in 196/197 , for which she was given the title Pia Fidelis (faithful and loyal). Since 197 a vexillation of legionnaires of the XXX Ulpia Victrix, I Minervia, VIII Augusta and XXII Primigenia was stationed in Lugdunum ( Lyon ), where the XXX Ulpia can be proven up to the time of Severus Alexander (222-235). Further vexillations were stationed in Rigomagus (Remagen) and on the border to the Germania superior in Antunnacum (Andernach), as well as in Châlons , Lutetia (Paris), Avaricum ( Bourges ), Eliumberrum ( Auch ) and at the Great St. Bernard Pass . In 197/198 Claudius Gallus, as Praepositus, led a vexillation of the four Germanic legions (I Minervia, VIII Augusta, XXII Primigenia and XXX Ulpia) in the Second Severan Parthian War.

Numerous centurions and legionaries were entrusted with civil administrative tasks, public buildings and police matters in Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne), the capital of the province Germania inferior (Lower Germany). In Cologne there is hardly any evidence of LEG XXX building activity; different in Bonna , the main camp of the Legio I Minervia, where a VEX (illatio) L (egionis) TR (icesimae) (delegation of the 30th Legion) and also the cooperation of both legions was proven by building inscriptions. The two legions also worked together on construction work in other places in Lower Germany. The abbreviation EXGERINF (Exercitus Germaniae inferioris = Army of Lower Germany) was used for this.

Caius 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 against rioters and rebels in Gaul and Hispania . It is certain that from 208 a vexillation took part in the Britannia procession of the emperor Septimius Severus. Presumably a vexillation was involved in the Parthian campaign of Emperor Severus Alexander in 232/233 .

Soldier emperor

At 240 the Rhine border collapsed under the onslaught of the Alamanni and the XXX Ulpia Victrix must have suffered a defeat. The region could be brought back under control, but from 256 to 258 the Franks and Alamanni invaded Gaul again. Emperor Gallienus (253-268) was able to throw them back again. Coin finds indicate that the Legion has proven itself several times and received the nicknames VI Pia Fidelis and VII Pia Fidelis . In 260, another Frankish incursion was repulsed by Postumus . Postumus, to which the XXX Ulpia Victrix had also joined, was proclaimed emperor of the Imperium Galliarum by the troops . In 268 the Legio XXX supported the usurper Laelianus , who, however, was besieged and defeated by Postumus in Mogontiacum (Mainz) within a short time . Also from Victorinus (269-271) coins were minted in honor of Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix or her breakaway vexillations. After the reintegration of the Gallic Empire into the Empire in 274, Emperor Aurelian withdrew numerous troops. The Franks took the opportunity and destroyed the main camp of the Legion in Vetera and the civil suburb of Colonia Ulpia Traiana in 275/276 and occupied territory on the left bank of the Rhine for a quarter of a century.

Stamped brick from LEG (io) XXX V (lpia) V (ictrix)

Late antiquity

In the autumn of 286 or in the spring of 287 the garrison of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer), probably the Legio XXX, joined the usurper Carausius (286-293), who also had coins minted in honor of the legion. When Constantius Chlorus became co-emperor ( Caesar ) of the West in 293 , he took action against the usurper and first besieged Gesoriacum, whose garrison soon had to surrender. In the early 4th century a legion of vexillation fought for Constantine the Great against Maxentius . Several representations on the Arch of Constantine show legionaries of XXX Ulpia on this mission.

With renewed German invasions from 352 onwards, the Vetera camp was destroyed, but it was restored as Tricensimae (the thirtieth) around 359 . An earlier split-off vexillation was probably worn out during the Roman-Persian Wars in 359 during the siege of Amida in Mesopotamia .

The Legion was probably stationed in Tricensimae near Xanten in the early 5th century , but disappeared from the sources when the Rhine border was finally abandoned in 407. The Legion was named as Truncensimani for the last time in the early 5th century in the Notitia Dignitatum (occ. VII 108) as Pseudocomitatenses in Gaul. The origin of the Truncensimani from the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix is, however, controversial.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CIL 13, 8639
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio : 55,24,4 .
  3. ↑ Werner Eck : Trajan ; In Manfred Clauss (ed.): Die Roman Kaiser, CH Beck, 2005, ISBN 978-3-406-47288-6 , p. 119
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Emil Ritterling : Legio (XXX Ulpia Victrix). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 2, Stuttgart 1925, Sp. 1821-1829.
  5. ↑ Yann Le Bohec: The Roman Army: From Augustus to Constantine the Elder. Size , Steiner, 1993, ISBN 978-3-515-06300-5 , p. 287
  6. ↑ Thomas Franke: Legio XV Apollinaris under Traian in Egypt? In: Wolfgang Spickermann (Ed.): Rome, Germania and the Empire. Festschrift for Rainer Wiegels on the occasion of his 65th birthday. St. Katharinen 2005, ISBN 3-89590-159-8 . P. 322.
  7. ^ Gabriella Fényes: Investigations into the ceramic trade by Brigetio. In: Munster contributions to ancient trading history. No. 2/22, 2003. pp. 85-109; here: p. 85
  8. ^ Frank Vermeulen: Aspects of Roman Military Presence in the Northwest , Academia Press, Gent 2004, ISBN 978-903820578-6 , p. 117
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g Jona Lendering: Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix . In: Livius.org (English).
  10. ^ AE 1977, 558
  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. ^ HW Bird (transl.): Aurelius Victor: De Caesaribus , Liverpool University Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-85323-218-6 , p. 134
  15. ↑ Stephen Williams: Diocletian and the Roman recovery, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 978-0-415-91827-5 , pp. 47 and 71-72
  16. ↑ Oliver Schmitt: Constantin der Große (275-337): Leben und Herrschaft , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018307-0 , p. 143
  17. ↑ Hans Peter L'Orange , Armin von Gerkan : The late antique picture jewelry of the Arch of Constantine, Volume 2 , de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-002249-0 , pp. 43, 110 and 122
  18. ↑ Ingo Runde: Xanten in the early and high Middle Ages. Tradition of sagas - history of the monastery - becoming a town (= Rheinisches Archiv 147). Verlag Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-412-15402-4 , pp. 63-64
  19. ↑ Conference report on the international colloquium "Roman legionary camps in the Rhine and Danube provinces - Nuclei of late antique and early medieval life?" PDF

literature

Web links

Commons : Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files