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is not necessarily the the only legion, V Macedonica, still in existence in the 2nd century when Appian wrote this; kai nun (even now) does not designate Appian’s time, but the time of his source (Asinius Pollio?). That the title Alaudae belongs just to the Rhinish legio V (as Grotefend Bonn. Jahrb. XXXII 45ff., following Borghessi, stated) is proven by the inscription of the legionary tribune Aemilius Fraternus trib. mil. legionis V Alauda[e] CIL II 4188: an officer of a legion situated on lower Danube would never have been commissioned to conduct the census in the province Aquitania (probably at the time of Nero). Later, after the decisive battle of Actium, but perhaps sooner, the demobilized men of V Alaudae were settled in the area of Ligures Baebiani by Augustus (CIL IX 1460); that these releases of veterans included also the legions which had previously belonged to the army of Antonius is well proven (Hygin. de limit. constit. p. 177, 9ff., see also above p. 1213). Also the …meiles leg. V donatus bis II vir Thuburn(icae) from the African inscription CIL VIII 10605 = 14697, who seems later to have been demobilized by Augustus, could have served in the old legio Alaudae.
The oldest traces of the legion after the organisation of the unified imperial army by Augustus suggest that Spain was the province where it was stationed. The veterans of legiones V and X were settled in the colony Augusta Emerita in Hispania Ulterior, which was re-established in 729 = 25 BC by Augustus‘ governor P. Carisius, as the coins of the town prove (Cohen I2 p. 149 no. 594. 595), and since the settlers came from the army which had successfully battled the Spanish tribes (Cass. Dio LIII 26, 1), we may assume that the Vth was already deployed in Spain at the time of the redistribution of troops in 30 BC. The representation of a helmet decorated with a peculiar crest, which can be found on coins from Emerita (so Hübner o. vol. V p. 2493, see also CIL II Suppl. p. LXXXVIII) could be regarded as a hint at the title of the legion Alaudae. The veterans of the Vth were settled also in Corduba (Cohen I2 p. 150 no. 605) and perhaps in Hispalis (CIL II 1176) (see also De leg. X gem. p. 23 adn. 6. Pfitzner 102). There is absolutely no other evidence for the presence of the legion in Spain; where the permanent camp of the legion was situated is unknown. The only thing we know for sure is that the legion also belonged to the army of Hispania ulterior after the assignment of X gem., the legion hitherto closely linked with V Alaudae, to the army of Hispania citerior (see below leg. X gem.). The centurion Sabidius, who served under Augustus in the Spanish legion (CIL IX 4122. v. Domaszewski Arch. epigr. Mitt. XV 186 comment 38), probably had to change Hispania ulterior for Hispania citerior when he was transferred from legio V to legio VI. The total lack of inscriptions of the legion in Spain (the military tribune of CIL II 4188 falls into the period when the legion had already long been out of the province) leads to the conclusion that the legion stayed in the province only for a short time.
The date when the legion was assigned to the Gallo-German
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