XXV. Legio II Herculia. Column 1467-1468. Tr. Jeroen Pelgrom
[1467]
Legio II Herculia was created together with leg. I Iovia in the first years of the reign of Diocletian. It was garrisoned in the new province Scythia which was split off of Moesia Inferior (see also col.1351). She was still there during the time of the Notitia (Not. or. XXXIX 29-31):  praefectus legionis secundae Herculiae, Trosmis. Praefectus ripae legionis secundae Herculiae cohorti[um] quinque pedature inferioris Axiupoli, also with the camp Iprosmis (= Trosmis).
An epitaph of a praefectus, from the time of Diocletian, was found in the headquarters at Troesmis, CIL III 6194: Val(erio) Thiumpo qui militavit in leg(ione) XI Cl(audia) lectus in sacro comitatu lanciarius, deinde protexit annis V, missus, pr(a)ef(ectus) leg(ionis) II Hercul(iae) [e]git ann(is) II semisse et decessit, vixit ann(is) XXXXV, m(ensibus) III d(iebus) XI …
Both the Scythian legions (legio I Iovia and legio II Herculia) were the core legions for the most famous of the legion couple of the late-Imperial army, the Ioviani and Herculiani.

[1468]
This development already took place under Diocletian at the end of the developments after the death of both rulers (Diocletian and Maximian), whose name the troops carried. Already in the bloody war of Maximian in Mauretania in the year 298/ 99, a part of leg. II Herculia accompanied him, whose membership in the boundary legion in Scythia appears here yet unsolved. Not much younger is the city of Rome inscription (AE 1909 nr.94), with Val. Antolius mil(es) leg. II Herculiae and his father with the name Petronius Castor eq(ues) r(omanus). The legion appears in the sarcophagus inscription of Saloniki of an ….arius leg(ionis) II Her(cu)li[a]e succura Muciani… (CIL III 1420340) as more as a mobile independent unit. The further developments can only be seen in a larger picture.