It was only a matter of time and the Mail, perhaps inevitably, has come up trumps with a spectacular load of bollocks written by William Napier (who should really know better) about the Legion IX:
For there was the defeat of Mons Graupius for the Picts to avenge, and, a generation before that, there was the dying curse of a flamehaired queen called Boudicca...
Somewhere out on those godforsaken Scottish moors, death closed in upon the brave, much-honoured IX Legion.
Only the faintest rumours ever returned of what had befallen the men - rumours of some terrible battle one winter's day among the heather-clad hills, of an alien army led into some lethal mire.
Of the red-crested foreigners fighting to a heroic finale in freezing rain and hail, a last small, wounded band gathered about their silver Eagle totem, fighting to the last man, the motto of every legion on their lips: 'Eagle lost - honour lost; honour lost - all lost.'
All we know for certain is that the IX Hispanica disappeared abruptly from the records, an entire legion vanished.
A fresh legion, the VI Victrix, was brought over from the Lower Rhine to replace them and stationed at York in AD122.
But one visible landmark remains testimony to the Ninth's disappearance.
When the new Emperor Hadrian visited Britain soon after, on hearing of the loss of the IX, he commanded a huge wall to be built, a wall studded with fortresses and watch towers, 80 miles from the Solway to the Tyne.
Oh dear. The full story is here, if you must. As I have mentioned before, the best overview of Legio VIIII Hispana is at Livius.org.
The hook for Napier's drivel is the competing Roman films about the Legion IX currently in production. On the same suject and much better, Den of Geeks has an on set interview with Neil Marshall, director of the film Centurion.
Oh dear indeed.
(Now let's see if that comment makes it through. It seems your email program has decided my address is spam.)
Posted by: Gabriele | April 25, 2009 at 12:26 PM