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Legio V Alaudae
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[1568]
the production of, at the least, brow-tiles with the stamp V·_|  at this site is considered certain by Haben (ibid). Bricks of leg. V have only been sporadically found in very few places in the other parts of the military district (Steiner Bonn. Jahrb. CXVIII 253f.): apart from Nijmegen (Brambach 128c 1-4), further  finds have been made in Vechten, Köln/Cologne and perhaps Cleve (Brambach 144a).
    Stone monuments of the legion are little known: besides the inscription on a tombstone CIL XIII 8644 and the fragment XIII 12078 from Xanten, only the tombstones of a missicius (CIL XIII 8711) near Heerlen in Belgium and of a freedman of a centurion CIL XIII 12059 have been found. On a wooden diptych found in Netherlands the name of a member of leg. V, T. Cesdius T. f., can be read among others (Cuq Compt. rend. de l’Acad. des Inser. 1919, 265ff. Année épigr. 1919 no. 51).
    It is doubtful whether the imprint A CAESI•L•V CIL XIII 1003, 1 on an axe found in the Rhine near Mainz can be read as l(egione) (quinta). Moreover, even if this assumption by Oxé is correct, we can hardly infer from it a temporary posting of the men of the legion to Mainz.
    The participation of V Alaudae in the mutiny of legions on the lower Rhine in 14 CE is described by Tacitus ann. I 31 and 45, as is its participation in campaigns against the Germans ann. I 51 and 64. When, in 21 CE, the army on the Rhine had to intervene against revolting Gallic villages (Tac. ann. III 41ff.), a vexillum of leg. V marched, together with detachments of the other three legions on the lower Rhine, under the command of the tribune Novellius Atticus ([trib(uni)] mil(itum) leg. I trib(uni) vexillarior(um) [leg(ionum) q]uattuor I•V•XX•XXI CIL XIV 3602). In 28 CE the legion particularly distinguished itself in the fight against the uprising of the Frisians, under the command of its legionary legate Cethegus Labeo (Tac. ann. IV 73). At the time of Caligula's operations on the Rhine and the coast of the North Sea, the Vth was commanded by the legate Plautius Silvanus Aelianus (CIL XIV 3608). Despite a far-fetched interpretation of the virtually harmless note by Cassius Dio (Pfitzner p. 29), there is no evidence for the participation of the legion in the British campaign of Claudius in 43 CE. However, a vexillation of the legion could have come to Britain affiliated to leg. XX, as was  common practice at that time, although the military decoration bestowed on the trib. mil. leg. V Alaudae by Claudius (CIL IX 3380) cannot be taken as evidence for this.
            In the uprising of the Rhine legions against Galba's rule on 1st January 69 leg.V was one of the most stubborn (Tac. hist. I 55). Part of leg. V, with its eagle, formed the core of the army mobilized from troops on the lower Rhine, which under the command of Fabius Valens had to help emperor Vitellius to gain recognition in Italy (Tac. hist. I 61: inferioris exercitus electi cum aquila quintae legionis). The fate of this detachment of the legion during the fights against Otho and then Vespasian



 
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