XI. leg. I Macriana. Columns 1417-1418
[1417]
See also Mommsen CIL VIII p.XX; extensive discussion in Cagnat, L’armée romaine d’Afrique vol.2, p.141-146; see above, column 1212.
L.Clodius Macer, legate of the African legion at the time of Nero’s death, raised a new legion to support his quest for independence. There’s no doubt about that from Tacitus report (Hist.II.97):

[1418]
“in Africa legio cohortesque delectae a Clodio Macro, mox a Galba dimissae” (the legions and cohorts raised in Africa by Clodius Macer, were soon dismissed by Galba). The name of this legion is given by the coins of its founder. See Cohen I, vol.2, p.317, nr.1, 2 and 8; Mowat, ‘Le monnayage de Clodius Macer’, in Riv.ital. di numism. 1902, p.17, nr.12-14 (only known to me through Cagnat): leg. I Mac(riana) or in full leg. I Macriana lib(eratrix), illustrated in Cagnat, p.143. It has been proven without doubt that this legion was not a simply renamed Legio III Augusta. That legion continued to exist and Legio I Macriana is therefore a separate unit, as has been shown first by Cantarelli, Bull.com.di Roma 1886, 117ff and Cagnat. Legio I Macriana was immediately dissolved (Hist.II.97) after Macer’s murder by the procurator Trebonius Garutianus by order of Galba (Tacitus, Hist. I.7). Tacitus next sentence in II.97 has been understood as if it was reinstated as an idependent legion by Vitellius when he was preparing himself for the fight against Vespasian. This however, is not correct. It is more probable that the demobilized troops were recalled and – in so far as they heeded that call – were assigned to other units (see also Cagnat, named above). However it may be, we hear no more of a second legion in Africa. Lipsius surely correctly altered the plural in Tacitus Historiae I.11 “Africa ac legiones in ea interfecto Clodio Macro contenta qualicumque principi” in “legio” (Africa and its legion (instead of legions)…).