Domitian's Dacian Wars - Roma Victrix

[vespasian70]

Thank you gentlemen - I'll go with five. Much appreciated, you are legends.

 

cheers

 

Russ

 

Sir Ronald Syme states only one legion was lost. (Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 18 (1928), pp. 41-55)

 

Brian Jones also agrees to one legion was lost. (Suetonius: The Flavian Emperors, p.135)

 

Pat Southern in her bio of Domitian says one standard was lost by Fuscus (possibly a Praetorian standard and not a legionary eagle), however she also agrees with Jones that it cannot be that of the V Alaudae because that legion was lost long before the Dacian campaign. Jones states the legion did not survive 69/70 AD. (Southern - Domitian: Tragic Tyrant, p. 98 and Jones - The Emperor Domitian, pp. 138-143)

Edited October 31, 2010 by vespasian70

[Melvadius]

Lawrence Keppie in his 1984 book 'The Making of the Roman Army' has this to say about the destruction or disbanding of the V Alaudae:

 

perhaps on Danube, under Domitan, AD85-86? The legion was once thought to have been disbanded in AD70, along with I Germaniaca and XV Primigenia, and for the same reason [collaboration with the rebel leader Civilis], but an inscription reports a colonist at Scupi (mod. Skopje) seemingly under Domitian, which could indicate that it was transferred to the Balkans after AD70, and lost somewhat later. See A Mocsy, Gesellschaft und Romanisation in der romischen Provinz Moesia Superior (Budapest-Amsterdam 1970) 68): but it would be hard to argue that the survival of the legion into the Flavian period has yet been decisively proved.

 

Keppie also makes the point that

 

Roman historians under the Empire are reticent about mentioning the loss of Roman legions. Apart from the catastrophe under Varus, no legion is specifically reported as destroyed by an ancient author (but see Dio lxxxi.2 on a disaster in AD 161)....

[Lanista]

Hi guys - so, if I say five legions and hint at a cover up, do you reckon I'm on safe ground. Or should I hedge and say three?

 

I'm going into fantasy after this...much easier *lol*

 

Cheers

 

Russ

[Melvadius]

Hi guys - so, if I say five legions and hint at a cover up, do you reckon I'm on safe ground. Or should I hedge and say three?

 

I'm going into fantasy after this...much easier *lol*

 

Cheers

 

Russ

 

If you intend saying that five legions were involved in the campaign then you are probably on safe ground but saying that five legions were lost is in all likelihood well past 'over-egging the pudding'

 

The perenial problem is that if a legion was lost in such a way that the Roman authorities disbanded them then you would expect the archaeological evidence for the use of the legion stamps on roof tiles or other marterial to all stop together. As far as I am aware this doesn't seem to have happened after Domitian's Dacian adventures - even the 'Lark's' disappearance according to Keppie( and a few others) cannot be definately linked to that late a date. The evidence however is probably 'fluid' enough that you could pin their disappearance on that campaign along with the loss of a standard praetorian or otherwise.