XLVIII. Leg. V Gallica. Column 1571. Tr. Alexandr Kolouch

 [1571]
The leg. V Gallica is mentioned only on several inscriptions from Antiochia Pisidiae, which were written at the time of Augustus, at least one or more decades after the battle of Actium: CIL III 6824 (T. Campusius C. f. Ser(gia) veteranus de legione V Galica). 6825, 6828; Journ. rom. stud. VI 1916, 90 (L. Pomponio Nigro vet(erano) leg(ionis) V Gal(licae)...). These are all epitaphs of veterans, who had settled there by the time of the foundation of the colony. The discharge of veterans of the legion is confirmed also through coins of the town, on which a legionary eagle between two signa with the inscription Leg V (minted at the time of Vespasians seventh consulsphip and also in 76 CE [Mus. Berlin]), as well as more signa beside ploughing colonists, between them number V (from the time of Gordian [Eckhel III p. 19]) are depicted. The colony had been founded earlier, perhaps around the year 729 = 25 BC immediately after the death of king Amytas and the takeover of his realm by Roman control (Ramsay Colonia Cäsarea in the Augustan age, Journ. rom. stud. VI 1916, 83ff.). The title Gallica in this early period identifies the legion as part of the army which fought under the dictator Caesar in Gaul. The suggestion of v. Domaszewski (N. Heidelb. Jahrb. IV 187, 5), who wanted to believe this legion was the one which was raised in the year 710 = 44 BC in Gaul by Munatius Plancus (Cic. fam. X 24, 3), is therefore not very probable. Since the aforementioned inscriptions of veterans name the legion at the time after the reorganisation of the army in 727 = 27 BC, there is the question, if the legion is identical with one of the likewise from the caesarian army arisen legiones quintae, Alaudae and Macedonica, or if a third legio quinta, namely the Gallica, existed besides the former two at one time. The last possibility attracted v. Domaszewski and he supposed, that this is the leg. V, whose eagle was lost in the defeat of M. Lollius by Germans in 737 = 17 BC (Arch.-epigr. Mitt. XV 189). Vellei. II 97, 1 ... accepta in Germania clades sub legato M. Lollio... amissaque legionis quintae aquila vocavit ab urbe in Gallias Caesarem; see also Gardthausen Augustus II 3, 676f. It seems, however, that a certain solution is with the so far known material impossible.