XXIII. Legio II Brittannica. Column 1466-1467. Tr. Jeroen Pelgrom
[1466]
Legio II Brittannica, which appears with this name among the legiones comitatenses in the Not. Occ. V 241, was, in all probability, not separated from the legio secundani Brittones (or Brittaniciani) Not. Occ. VII 84, which lists the troops under the command of the magister equitum Galliarum. With regard to the first name, it is likely that it (legio II Brittannica) was originally a mobilized and later an independent unit of the old II Augusta in Brittania Superior. This legion (II Augusta) was still in the 5th century a ripensis of the comes litoris Saxonici per Brittaniam (Not occ. XXVIII 19). Next to the II Brittanica in Gaul, the Notitia names another legion with the same number, the secundani iuniores under the comes Brittaniarum. This latter unit must be seen separately from the former, if a uniform and simultaneous editorship of the different parts of the notitia is taken into account. In this case, the legion secundani iuniores is not mentioned in the general troop survey of Not. Occ. V,…..

[1467]
just as its twin legion primani iuniores (Not. Occ. VII 155). This pairing makes is likely that both trace their origin back to the core-legion of the province Valeria, I Adiutrix and II Adiutrix (see also 1452).