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Page 5 of 7
[1826]
A lead seal (CIL XIII 10029, 52: P….l(egionis) XXX that was found in the river Saône near Lugudunum (Lyon) doesn’t play any role in this story, even if its connection to leg. XXX is verified.
The broken piece of a bronze-plate (CIL V 6890) was dedicated by a member of leg. XXX Ulpia, when he passed Mons Poeninus, where a street betwixt the mountains was the most common connection in the Alps between the Rhineland-troops and Italy.
There was presumably not much need for the use of Leg. XXX outside their province during the first decades of their presence in their new camp at the Lower Rhine. We can’t exclude the possibility that it took part in the form of a vexillation at Hadrian’s war in Britain, but there’s no evidence for that. Only since the period of Antoninus Pius had there been proof for such things by a tomb-inscription of one of its legionaries in Caesarea that mentions the fight against rebellious Moors (CIL VIII 21053, compare paragraph column. 1295). A vexillation of Leg. XXX was presumably joining Leg. I Minerva in its march to the Western Orient to fight in the Parthian war of L. Verus in the year 162 (column 1297f. and B at Leg. I Min. column 1427, 42ff.). It could be that this weakening of the frontier-defence had provoked the Germanics of the other side to invade the Roman territory at the Lower Rhine and that during this raid some of the coin treasures were buried in the Dutch and Belgian ground (Schilling, Diss. 61, 3); but we can hardly identify the exact date of the digging, so that it could be also related to the invasion of the Chauci around 173 or 174. The war against the Marcomanni was another case that weakened the Lower Rhine troops by urgent vexillations at the Danube.
That Leg. XXX and the other Rhine-legions were taking up the cause of Septimus Severus was proven by coins that were minted in 193 (Cohen: IV² p. 32 nr. 278); and it fought on his side against Clodius Albinus in 196/197, too. The honorary name pia fidelis was given to it for their attitude during these years (see column 1314) and the monuments of Legio XXX from the third century preserve this name, though not on a regular basis (see designation of the legion 1829). The vexillations of Rhine-legions, including Leg. XXX Ulpia, under Iulius Castinus (CIL III 10471-10473) were used to fight against troublemakers in Gallia and Spain around the years 206 to 208 (see paragraph column 1315 and B at Leg. I Minerva col 1429) and not – as Weichert (Westdeutsche Zeitschrift XXII 134) believed – in the year 194 against Pescennius Niger in Africa. There shouldn’t be any doubts that Leg XXX had participated in Severus’ Britannic battles since 208, but the fact that a relief-ornamented Sigillata-plate – mentioning the legion by illustrating some arena-fights against animals (LEGIONIS XXX CIL VII 1335, 3) – came to Camulodunum, should neither be connected with this inducement nor with others that played a role in the history of Leg. XXX.
[1827]
The assumption that Leg. XXX took part at the Parthian war of Severus Alexander is supported by the gravestone of a signifer in Ancyra (CIL III 6764), who belonged to this era. A similar opportunity during the third century probably made the centurio leg(ionis) XXX of the inscription from Zela near Cappadocia (Cagnat: IGR III 1441) go to the Orient. It is not possible to find out in which one of the numerous battles at the Danube-region the tribunus militum Aelius Carus died in Pannonia (CIL III 15188²) – maybe in a fight against foreign enemies, but it could have also been one of those battles between pretenders to the throne. The meaning of a fragment with the inscription mil. l. XXX V [something that looks vaguely like U is printed here, JO] (CIL XIII 10017, 1091). One may conclude the presence of units from our legion at this place from that fragment, if one doesn’t want to believe in the Lower Rhine-origin of a brick with the stamp LEG XXX from Basel (Mommsen Inscr. Helv. 346, 3). Some coins under the reign of Gallienus that referred to Leg. XXX were also minted with the cognomina “VI” and VII pia fidelis (Wien. Num. Zeitschrift V 1873, 86f. Taf. V 23. Cohen: V.2 394 nr. 552-557). The same happened in the time of the anti-emperor Victorinus (Cohen: VI.2 p. 76 nr. 69-73). Whether this concerns the original legion from Vetera or a new legion that was detached from it, is the question. The latest mention of this kind – at the late third century – is represented by coins of the anti-emperor Carausius (Cohen: VII² 17 nr. 146ff.). But we can assume that Leg. XXX was still present in Vetera, its old permanent camp, at the beginning of the fourth century and that it only vanished, when The Romans lost this whole region at the Lower Rhine. From the units that were detached earlier from Leg. XXX in favour of the field troops there was one that had later been separated from the sister-legion (I Minerva). This unit was mentioned at the siege of Amida in Mesopotamia in 359 (Ammianus XVIII 9, 3) and it was most likely extinguished in this battle. The presence of truncesimani yet in the time of the Notitia (occ. VII 108) as pseudocomitatensis intra Gallias leeds to the conclusion that during the time, the concerned paragraph in the Notitia was written down, a remnant of the old border-troops from the Lower Rhine was at least noted as still existent in the chancelleries of the army.
Frumentarii of leg. XXX, partly together with those of leg. I Minerva, are mentioned on late-Roman inscriptions (CIL VI 3334. 3360. 3361. 3362). X 6095 from the Via Appia might be added to that. The marble board from Rome (CIL VI 2409 = 32900) has a register of soldiers of Leg. I Minerva and XXX that seems to refer to those frumentarii that were ordered to castra peregrinorum (col.1429, 39ff.).
Legati legionis
- L. Aemilius L. f. Cam(ilia) Karus, legate at the end of Hadrian’s era, CIL VI 1333. XIII 8197 (he’s not identical with the governor of the tres Daciae, but maybe his father), (see column 1824 footnote).
- Canutius Modestus, in the year 223, (CIL XIII 8607).
- C. Iulius C. f. Fabia Severus, (CIG 4029. Prosopography II p. 214 nr. 372).
- C. Iulius CN. f. Verus, under Antoninus Pius around the year 148, (CIL III 2732 + 8714. Ritterling: Korr.-BL d. Westdeutschen Zeitschrift 1903, 214ff).
- Iunius Faustinus ...... Postumianus, third century, (CIL VIII 597. 11763); the preserved relicts say: [leg. Aug. leg]ionis …. M....e vi[ctri]cis piae fidelis may probably be filled out to [‘XXX’ (or ‘tricesimae’) Ulpia]e victricis piae fidelis, since this gap is too big for anther L.-name (VI or [Sexta]e victricis …) that would fit.
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