The Ninth Legion — Legio IX Hispana — was no ordinary army unit. These soldiers fought under Julius Caesar during his conquest of Gaul (modern France) in the 50s BC. They followed him into the civil war that destroyed the Republic and gave birth to the Empire. By AD 43, when Emperor Claudius sent them to invade Britain, the Ninth had been fighting for over a century. Five thousand hardened veterans, stationed at York — northern England’s military capital — holding Rome’s most dangerous frontier.
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Riddles of the Past·1/2·1′
The place
Hadrian's Wall
The Lost Ninth Legion
Five thousand Roman soldiers marched north into the mist — and were never seen again
Early 2nd century AD (c. AD 108-120)Hadrian's Wall
Moral of the Story
“Even the greatest empires have limits. Sometimes five thousand men march beyond those limits — and the only thing that comes back is silence.”
Characters
L
Legio IX HispanaE
Emperor HadrianT
The Picts of CaledoniaM
Marcus Flavius Aquila (fictional, Sutcliff)R
Rosemary SutcliffSource
Rosemary Sutcliff, "The Eagle of the Ninth" (1954); Cassius Dio, "Roman History"; Duncan B. Campbell, "The Fate of the Ninth" (2018); Miles Russell, "The Lost Legions of Fromelles" (2019); Film: "The Eagle" (2011, dir. Kevin Macdonald)