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Page 4 of 11
[1410]
…(Tac. Hist. III.35 “The defeated legions were dispersed over Illyricum for their allegiance was still ambiguous in the Civil War”), Legio I Italica was ordered to Moesia. It was one of the units the new governor of this province, Fonteius Agrippa, was provided with from the army of Vitellius to occupy them with foreign wars in the interest of peace and prudence (Hist. III.46). The legion was part of the army which was heavily defeated in the winter of 69/70 by the Sarmatians who had invaded Moesia. Agrippa was killed on this occasion (Josephus, Bellum Iudaicum VII.4.3). When his successor, Rubrius Gallus, managed to chase the enemy from the province with new reinforcements, still in the course of 70 CE, the army – both legions and auxilia – in the province were reordered.
a) It’s unknown where Legio I Italica was initially camped. But it’s highly probable that it was already in the same place known for later periods, namely Novae (near modern Sistov). This city had already had a legionary camp during Nero’s reign, but it’s garrison, VIII Augusta, was now in Germania Superior. The other legionary camps in Moesia, Viminiacum and Oescus, were occupied by other legions. Durostorum and Troesmis, further east in the Danube delta, were no focal points for the border defences as yet. Therefore, Legio I Italica was probably in Novae since Vespasian’s reign. A tombstone (CIL III 7441) was found there, dating from either the Flavian or at the latest Trajanic period, and a second one (CIL III 6232 p.1366) is probably from Novae (see Westd.Ztschr. XIV 17 footnote 74). There is sufficient evidence to prove the stay of the legion in this place for centuries: firstly, Ptolemy III.10.5 (see also De leg. X gem. 49, note 1, Beuchel 61ff. and broad basics Kubitschek Jahrb.f.Altertk. VI 1912, 24ff.), secondly Itinerarius Antonini 221.4, then Geographia Ravennatis 187.7; 189.10 and the Notitia Dignitatum Orientalis XL 30 and 31.
The number of surviving monuments stands in no relation whatsoever to the hundreds of years of the legion’s stay in the area. Even rooftiles with the legion’s stamp are rare, or at least only a few have been made known (CIL III 785, 1.6239a, 7617, 14464-1, and on the left bank of the Danube near Novae, near modern Rečka: CIL III 12522). The altar to the Bonus Eventus (good outcome) of the legion comes probably from the shire of the standards (see Von Domaszewski West.Ztschr. XIV 17, footnote 74). This altar (CIL III 6223) was set up by the legion’s primipilus in 182 CE, another altar (CIL III 750, add.p.992 and 1338), also from the shrine, to <i>Liber Pater</i> was dedicated by another primipilus as is the altar dedicated to the <i>dis militaribus genio virtuti aquiliae sanct(ae) signisque</i> (To the military gods, the spirit of courage and the holy eagle and standards) by again another primipilus on September 20th 224, clearly on the birthday of the legion (CIL III 6224).
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