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Page 1 of 8 XXXII. Legio III Cyrenaica. Columns 1506-1514
[1506]
Literature see col. 1212
The legion was a part of the imperial army right from the beginning. Dio LV 23, 2 lists her as a part of the legions which dates back to the time of Augustus. Her origins however remain unclear. The usual assumption that she was taken over by Augustus after the surrender of the army of the triumvir Lepidus. This is only based on her surname, which is borrowed from a province which was commanded by Lepidus. The legion could also have received this surname under Augustus because of certain military actions in Cyrenaica, which seems to be the case with the auxilia units coh. I Lusitanorum Cyrenaica and coh. II Hispanorum Scutata Cyrenaica.
To all probability, the legion formed a part of the garrison of Egypt, which strength was set at the beginning by the victor to three legions (Strab. XVII 1, 12 p.797), since the organization of military territories in the conquered lands. The oldest precisely dated evidence for its presence in this province comes from the year AD 11: “ ε̉τους μ´ Καίσαρος Παϋνί α´ άγαθη̃ τύχη έπ<ί> Ποπλίου ´Ιουεντίου ´& Rho ;ούφου χιλιάρχου τη̃ς τερτιανη̃ς λεγι̃ωνος χαί έπάρχου Βερενίχης…” (="In the 40th year of Caesar on the 1st of Pauni, good fortune to Publius Iuventius Rufus, chiliarch [=commander of 1000 men] of legio III and eparch [=prefect] of Berenike") (Année épigr. 1910 nr.207). The inscription from Philae CIG 4922, which is three years older and deals supposedly with a praefect of the legion and some of his soldiers (see Meyer Heerwesen 158), contains after better reading no trace of the legion. (see Cagnat IGR I 1308). If she was stationed in the beginning at Thebais, which is usually assumed, remains doubtfull. Because the legion which was stationed in Alexandria, was for certain the XXII (Deioteriana), the III can only have been one of the two “έν τη̃ χώρα” which were mentioned by Strabo, of which one had its camp at Babylon (Strab. XVII 1, 30 p.807: “(Βαβυλὼν) νυνὶ δ́ ὲστὶ στρατόπεδον ὲνὸς τω̃ν τριω̃ν ταγμάτων τω̃ν φρουρούντων τὴν Αι̉γυπτον”) (= "Babylon is now the camp of one of the three bodies of troops [=legions?] guarding Egypt"). One cannot conclude that leg. III was stationed in upper-Egypt on the sole fact that several military tribunes during Augustus and Tiberius held the office of praefectus montis berenicidis, as well as other mines which were within the area of Thebais, at the same time: in addition to the already named M. Iuventius Rufus in the year 11 and also in the year 18 (Cagnat IGR I 1236), L. Pinarius Natta (CIL X 1129) tr. Mil. Leg. III praefecto Bernicidis at the time of Tiberius (see Prospogr. III p.39 nr.309). The consecration inscription found in Pselcis of the soldier T. Servillius of III Cyr. from the 21 year of the reign of Tiberius (= AD 35), also belongs to the time in which the garrison of two legions of the country were united in Alexandreia (see below).
In the list of legions’ vexillations which were constricted together with detachments of the auxilia for the extensive building of streets, cisterns and castles in upper-Egypt (CIL III 6627), the entire first column refers to units of III Cyrenaica:
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