Legio XIX ("Nineteenth Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was destroyed in 9 AD in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The emblem of the XIXth legion is unknown but was probably the Capricorn like other legions levied by Augustus. [1]
It was founded in 41 or 40 BC by Augustus. [2] Their first assignment was in Sicily where Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey, was leading a revolt. This revolt put Rome's grain supply in peril and it needed a harsh response.
In 30 BC, veterans of the XIX legion were settled near Pisa, [1] and after that, the rest of the legion was allocated in the Rhine frontier with base camp at Cologne. The XIX legion participated in the German campaigns of Drusus (13–9 BC) and Tiberius (8–5 BC). By the year 5 BC Germania was a Roman province and Publius Quinctilius Varus was assigned as governor.
The legion could have been stationed in Dangstetten. It is possible the reason the legion was stationed here was to police the nearby Roman Road. [3] [4]
In September 9 AD, Arminius, leader of the Cherusci and a Roman ally, set a trap. He had reported a major revolt of one of the western tribes and suggested the return of both governor and his legions to the Rhine. Varus accepted the suggestion and went with the XVII, XVIII and XIX legions. The army was trapped near Osnabrück and was completely destroyed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Between 16 and 18, Germanicus, the leader of the Rhine armies, looked for the remains of the legions. The Legion XIX Eagle was captured by the Bructeri. [3] [5] In 15 AD troops under the command of Lucius Stertinius rescued the eagle: [6] After its destruction, the Romans never used this legion number again.
| Name | Rank | Time frame | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gnaeus Lerius | Tribunus angusticlavius | ? | CIL 11, 05218 |
| Sextus Abulenius | Centurion | 27 BC - 14 AD | CIL 11, 06056 |
| Marcus Virtius | Legionary | 10 BC - 30 AD | AE 1974, 00283 |
| Lucius Artorius | Legionary | 27 BC - 14 AD | CIL 11, 00348 |
| Sextus Anquirinnius | ? | ? | CIL 11, 01524 |
Germanicus Julius Caesar was an ancient Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.
The 10s decade ran from January 1, AD 10, to December 31, AD 19.
AD 9 (IX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Camerinus. The denomination "AD 9" for this year has been used since the late medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, described as the Varus Disaster or Varian Disaster by Roman historians, was a major battle between Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire that took place somewhere near modern Kalkriese from September 8–11, 9 AD, when an alliance of Germanic peoples ambushed three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus and their auxiliaries. The alliance was led by Arminius, a Germanic officer of Varus's auxilia. Arminius had acquired Roman citizenship and had received a Roman military education, which enabled him to deceive the Roman commander methodically and anticipate the Roman army's tactical responses.
Arminius was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe who is best known for commanding an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, in which three Roman legions under the command of general and governor Publius Quinctilius Varus were destroyed. His victory at Teutoburg Forest precipitated the Roman Empire's permanent strategic withdrawal from Germania Magna, and modern historians regard it as one of Rome's greatest defeats. As it prevented the Romanization of Germanic peoples east of the Rhine, it has also been considered one of the most decisive battles in history and a turning point in human history.
The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the plains and forests of northwestern Germany in the area of the Weser River and present-day Hanover during the first centuries BC and AD. Roman sources reported they considered themselves kin with other Irmino tribes and claimed common descent from an ancestor called Mannus. During the early Roman Empire under Augustus, the Cherusci first served as allies of Rome and sent sons of their chieftains to receive Roman education and serve in the Roman army as auxiliaries. The Cherusci leader Arminius led a confederation of tribes in the ambush that destroyed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. He was subsequently kept from further damaging Rome by disputes with the Marcomanni and reprisal attacks led by Germanicus. After rebel Cherusci killed Arminius in AD 21, infighting among the royal family led to the highly Romanized line of his brother Flavus coming to power. Following their defeat by the Chatti around AD 88, the Cherusci do not appear in further accounts of the German tribes, apparently being absorbed into the late classical groups such as the Saxons, Thuringians, Franks, Bavarians, and Allemanni.
Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Roman general and politician under the first Roman emperor Augustus. Varus is generally remembered for having lost three Roman legions when ambushed by a coalition of Germanic tribes led by Arminius, the chieftain of the Cherusci tribe in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where he committed suicide to avoid capture and shameful reproach.
Legio V Alaudae, sometimes also known as Legio V Gallica, was a legion of the Roman army founded in 52 BC by the general Gaius Julius Caesar. It was levied in Transalpine Gaul to fight the armies of Vercingetorix, and was the first Roman legion to comprise non-citizens. Historians disagree whether the legion was destroyed during the Batavian rebellion in AD 70, or during the First Battle of Tapae.
Legio I Germanica,, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, possibly founded in 48 BC by Julius Caesar to fight for him in the civil war against Pompey. The title germanic is a reference to its service in the Germanic Wars, rather than the place of origin of its soldiers. After the Revolt of the Batavi, the remaining men of the Germanica were added to Galba's seventh legion, which became VII Gemina. The emblem of Legio I is unknown, but it was probably Taurus, like all the other legions levied by Caesar.
Legio XVIII was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded ca. 41 BC by the future emperor Augustus. The legion was, along with Legio XVII and Legio XIX, destroyed in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. The legion's symbol and cognomen are unknown.
Legio IX Hispana, also written as Legio VIIII Hispana, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army that existed from the 1st century BC until at least AD 120. The legion fought in various provinces of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. The nickname "Hispana" was gained when it was stationed in Hispania under Augustus. It was stationed in Britain following the Roman invasion in AD 43. The legion disappears from surviving Roman records after c. AD 120 and there is no extant account of what happened to it.
Legio XVII was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded by Augustus around 41 BC. The legion was destroyed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The legion's symbol and cognomen are unknown.
Germania was a short-lived Roman province for the duration of 16 years under Augustus, from 7 BC to AD 9. The possible capital of this province was Marktbreit, a castrum with a nearby canaba from the period of Emperor Augustus, located 70 km east of the "Limes Germanicus" on the River Main.
The wars of Augustus are the military campaigns undertaken by the Roman government during the sole rule of the founder-emperor Augustus. This was a period of 45 years when almost every year saw major campaigning, in some cases on a scale comparable to the Second Punic War, when Roman manpower resources were stretched to the limit. This period also saw expansion through diplomacy and annexation, without the direct use of military force. The result was a major expansion of the empire that Augustus inherited from the Roman Republic, although the attempted conquest of Germania ended in defeat despite the enormous deployment of resources involved. As a result of these campaigns, the Roman Empire assumed the borders it would hold, with a few modifications, for its entire history.
Aulus Caecina Severus was a Roman politician and general who was consul in 1 BC. He was Emperor Augustus' representative in Moesia when the Great Illyrian Revolt broke out. As a result, he spent 4 years in heavy fighting against the Illyrian tribes before the revolt was suppressed by the Romans. In 14 AD he was in charge of several legions on the lower Rhine which mutinied on the death of Augustus. He was recorded as having handled this poorly, with the situation only being salvaged by the intervention of his commander-in-chief, Germanicus.
The 0s began on January 1, AD 1 and ended on December 31, AD 9, covering the first nine years of the Common Era. It is one of two "0-to-9" decade-like timespans that contain nine years, along with the 0s BC.
The Roman campaigns in Germania were a series of conflicts between the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire. Tensions between the Germanic tribes and the Romans began as early as 17/16 BC with the Clades Lolliana, where the 5th Legion under Marcus Lollius was defeated by the tribes Sicambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri. Roman Emperor Augustus responded by rapidly developing military infrastructure across Gaul. His general, Nero Claudius Drusus, began building forts along the Rhine in 13 BC and launched a retaliatory campaign across the Rhine in 12 BC.
The Battle of the Angrivarian Wall was fought near Porta Westfalica, Germany in 16 AD between the Roman general Germanicus and an alliance of Germanic tribes commanded by Arminius. This battle followed immediately after the Battle of Idistaviso, and was supposedly sparked by Germanic outrage over the trophy erected on that prior battlefield by the Romans.
