Legio undecima

[Alter Ego]

I'd like to know if Legio XI was "anonimus" before Augustus reenlisted it as "Claudia Pia Fidelis". If so, means that it was the only "no name" cesarean legion, right?

 

Later edit: thanks Tzushka :gabilovetzushkaalot:

 

You don't know who is she!? Hm...Fortuna smiles in Estearn Europe, this ages...

Edited June 5, 2009 by Alter Ego

[sylla]

I'd like to know if Legio XI was "anonimus" before Augustus reenlisted it as "Claudia Pia Fidelis". If so, means that it was the only "no name" cesarean legion, right?

Actually, Caesar never used any names for his legions in his writings; as usual along all the Republican period, their identification was exclusively numerical (even when they were re-enlisted).

 

With the multiplicity of legion numbers after the Civil Wars and the coming of the military-based principate, most legions eventually accumulated honorific titles from satisfied emperors across many years, even centuries.

 

Additionally, subsequent new legions were named after their recruiting emperors.

 

For example, the Legion XI (and the VII too) were awarded with the title of Pia Fidelis (

Edited June 5, 2009 by sylla

[Primus Pilus]

I'd like to know if Legio XI was "anonimus" before Augustus reenlisted it as "Claudia Pia Fidelis". If so, means that it was the only "no name" cesarean legion, right?

Actually, Caesar never used any names for his legions in his writings; as usual along all the Republican period, their identification was exclusively numerical (even when they were re-enlisted).

 

With the multiplicity of legion numbers after the Civil Wars and the coming of the military-based principate, most legions eventually accumulated honorific titles from satisfied emperors across many years, even centuries.

 

Additionally, subsequent new legions were named after their recruiting emperors.

 

For example, the Legion XI (and the VII too) were awarded with the title of Pia Fidelis (

[sylla]

Indeed, Alter Ego would have been more accurate had he used Augustan rather than Caesarean. It's possible that X Equestris stemmed from a Caesarean era nickname (he did use some of these legionaries as equites). V Alaudae and VI Ferrata also may have had roots in Caesarean nicknames, but there is indeed a lack of official evidence and Caesar himself never offered the distinctions in De Bello Gallica.

Or in his other books, even those attributed today to Hirtius or Oppius; the legions were here always identified by number, even the Tenth.

That aside there were at least 3 legions without known titles in the Augustan era - the three legions lost at Teutoburg (XVII, XVIII and XVIIII) seem to have either been unnamed, or the written memory of such things was stripped due to circumstances.

And in addition to the already mentioned legions VII and XI, that seems to have been also the case for the legions I (future Germanica) and VIIII (future Hispana); apparently both were named by Tiberius. That doesn't mean that these seven legions were unnamed under Augustus, just that their names were not systematically used and/or recorded.

Sometimes legion names were also geographic rather than imperial namesake, Macedonica, Hispania, Italica, etc.

At least at earlier times, toponymical names were usually related to relevant military deeds, analogous to the honorific agnomina of the nobiles (Africanus, Asiaticus, Achaicus). That explains for example why the legion VIIII was Hispana after only a few years in Spain and another legion X was Fetensis after even less years guarding the Straits of Messina.

In the late Empire these names were simply related to the place of formation of the unit or even to their purported original predominant nationality; that was also the case for most auxiliary units.

 

Naturally, the naming of a Roman legion could have had many other mechanisms; ie:

- Classica when recruited from a naval force;

- Gemina when it was the product of the fusion of residual units;

- Adiutrix when it was intended to help already existing units;

- Victrix as a good omen, and so on

(Needless to say, its genre was always feminine).

 

BTW, the Pia Fidelis agnomen was awarded no less than 26 times to eight legions (up to seven times in two cases).

Edited June 6, 2009 by sylla