This legion is probably connected to the Caesarian legion of the same serial number, although a tangible indication for this assumption has as yet not been found. Possibly the young Caesar raised it anew, as he did in the case of the VIIth and VIIIth, out of Caesarian veterans settled in Italy. On an early inscription, the legion has the nickname triumph(alis?). If this indeed dates back to 43 BC as Domaszewski suggests (Österr. Jahresh. II Beibl. 83), because it possibly took part in the victorious entry by the triumvirs (Appian, BC IV.7), then that would be the earliest known inscription of this legion. The nickname Macedonica, which was appropriate for the conquering legions of Phillipi according to Mommsen (RGDA 2 p.68) dates to the same period.
Tribunus mil. Leg. VIIII Macedonicae (CIL III 551) L. Aquilius Florus Turcianus would have served in the legion in the early Augustan age, about 25 BC. He probably occupied the post of proquaestor of Cyprus directly after the submission of this province to the senate in 22 BC. As his inscription was set up in Athens, the older nickname Macedonica cannot have been replaced by the younger Hispana yet.
But this nickname of Hispana or Hispaniensis (see CIL V 7443, Ephem. VIII nr. 530, CIL X 6098) necessarily supposes that the legions was stationed in Spain for a substantial period and was gloriously engaged in the quelling of the northern Spanish insurrections against the Roman occupation, which lasted until 19 BC.