The mysterious Ninth
In his piece on the Roman Ninth Legion (History’s Greatest Mysteries, June), Miles Russell makes the sweeping statement: “Until more conclusive evidence is found to illuminate the final days of the Ninth, we can only speculate as to what happened to them. However, it seems likely that somewhere in northern Britain, there’s a corner of a forgotten field that is forever Rome.” Sorry, but where specifically? I would point out that, in the summer of AD 122, men from 13 cavalry alae and 37 auxiliary cohorts in Britain were given honorary discharges, having served 25 years. Surely local tribes would have seen this as a golden opportunity to ‘get their own back’. I’m afraid Russell doesn’t convince me that the Ninth met their end in Caledonia. To point out the obvious comparison with the events of AD 9, had the Scots destroyed a legion would they have not celebrated the fact?
Having been born in Northumberland and spent a considerable amount of time in Scotland, I know of no site where there is any evidence such an event happened.
Richard Gunn, Gateshead
Miles Russell replies: The statement “somewhere in northern Britain” was deliberately vague (and sweeping) as that’s precisely the nature of the mystery. We simply don’t know where in Britannia the Ninth Legion was destroyed – but somewhere in Britain it certainly was.
Roman historian Fronto noted, in the early years of Hadrian’s reign, that large numbers of Roman soldiers were killed by the British, and the later Augustan History said Hadrian visited the province with huge reinforcements because the Britons could not be kept under control. We know it wasn’t just the frontier (everywhere north of York) that was in disarray at this time, however: the provincial capital, London, was burnt to the ground in the uprising, so the Ninth could have been destroyed anywhere. Only the novelist Rosemary Sutcliff placed the destruction north of York, which is why I deliberately avoided specifying ‘Caledonia’. Roman troops were being discharged after 25 years’ service all the time, and AD 122 wasn’t unusual in that respect – nor was the garrison particularly depleted.
The Scots wouldn’t have participated in native celebration, as they were still in Ireland at the time. Because British tribes and rebels never wrote anything down, only the Roman perspective survives
– and we have to believe them, given that they say there were massive troop losses in Britain early in Hadrian’s reign. The trick is to try to find out where the losses occurred. One day, traces of the legion will be found – they’re out there somewhere.