The legendary Ninth Legion – Legio IX Hispana (The “Spanish Legion”) – was one of the oldest and most feared units in the Roman army by the early 2nd century AD. Raised by Pompey in 65 BC, it had fought victorious campaigns across the Empire, from Gaul to Africa, Sicily to and Spain and Germania to Britain.
No one knows for sure why, but sometime after 108/9 AD, the legion all but disappeared from the records. The popular version of events – propagated by numerous books, television programmes and films – is that the Ninth, at the time numbering some 4,000 men, was sent to vanquish the Picts of modern day Scotland, and mysteriously never returned.
The real explanation is very likely much more mundane – the unit was probably either simply disbanded, or continued to serve elsewhere, before finally being destroyed at another battle some years later. The myth, as is so often the case, tends to overshadow the truth.
Rome’s Most Fearsome Fighting Machine
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Roman historians could be very reticent in recording the facts about legions that had been disgraced, and officials weren’t adverse to covering up the fate of vanquished armies for sake of public morale.
