Legio V Macedonica

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Legio V Macedonica

Legio quinta Macedonica (5th Macedonian Legion) was a Roman legion
Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
. It was probably originally levied by consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus
Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus

Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus , consul of the Roman Republic in 43 BC. He supported Julius Caesar in the Caesar's civil war.Tribune in 51 BC, during the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, he joined the cause of the Caesarians....
and Octavian in 43 BC, and it existed in Moesia
Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
at least until 5th century. Its symbol was the bull, but the eagle was used as well. The cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen was originally a middle name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary ....
Macedonica comes from the fact that the legion was stationed in Macedonia
Macedonia (Roman province)

The Roman province of Macedonia was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus defeated Andriscus of Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics established by Rome in the region were dissolved....
for a period of its life.

First century BC: Creation and deployment in Macedonia
The Legio V was one of the original twenty-eight legions raised by Octavian.

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Legio quinta Macedonica (5th Macedonian Legion) was a Roman legion
Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
. It was probably originally levied by consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus
Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus

Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus , consul of the Roman Republic in 43 BC. He supported Julius Caesar in the Caesar's civil war.Tribune in 51 BC, during the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, he joined the cause of the Caesarians....
and Octavian in 43 BC, and it existed in Moesia
Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
at least until 5th century. Its symbol was the bull, but the eagle was used as well. The cognomen
Cognomen

The cognomen was originally a middle name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary ....
Macedonica comes from the fact that the legion was stationed in Macedonia
Macedonia (Roman province)

The Roman province of Macedonia was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus defeated Andriscus of Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics established by Rome in the region were dissolved....
for a period of its life.

History

First century BC: Creation and deployment in Macedonia

The Legio V was one of the original twenty-eight legions raised by Octavian. There are two fifth legions recorded: the V Gallica and the V Urbana. It is possible that these both were early names for the V Macedonica. The legion probably participated in the Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium

The Battle of Actium was the final engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Augustus and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII....
(31 BC). It later moved to Macedonia, where it stayed from 30 BC to AD 6, gaining its cognomen
Cognomen

The cognomen was originally a middle name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary ....
, before moving to Oescus
Oescus

Oescus, or Palatiolon Palatiolum, was an ancient town in Moesia, northwest of the modern Bulgarian city of Pleven, near the village of Gigen. It is a Dacian-Moesian toponym....
(Moesia
Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the areas of modern Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania along the south bank of the Danube River....
).

First century: The Great Jewish Revolt

In 62, some vexillatio
Vexillatio

A vexillatio was a detachment of a Roman legion formed as a temporary task force created by the Military history of ancient Rome of the Principate....
nes of the Fifth fought under Lucius Caesennius Paetus
Lucius Caesennius Paetus

Lucius Junius Caesennius Paetus was a Roman aristocrat, member of the Junius , who lived in the second half of the 1st century during the Roman Empire....
in Armenia
History of Armenia

The history of Armenia begins with Neolithic cultures of the South Caucasus, such as the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, followed by the Bronze Age Kura-Araxes culture and Trialeti culture cultures....
against the Parthian Empire
Parthian Empire

The Arsacid Empire , was a significant political and cultural power in the ancient Near East, and a counterweight to the Roman Empire in the region....
. After the defeat of the Battle of Rhandeia, the whole V Macedonica, together with III Gallica
Legio III Gallica

Legio tertia Gallica was a Roman legion levied by Julius Caesar around 49 BC, for his Roman Republican civil wars against the conservative republicans led by Pompey....
, VI Ferrata
Legio VI Ferrata

Legio VI Ferrata , was a Roman Legion formed in 65 BC, and in existence up to at least 215 AD. It served under Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars , and in the various Roman civil wars of the Roman Republic in the years before and after Caesar's assassination ....
, and X Fretensis
Legio X Fretensis

Legio decima Fretensis of the sea strait") was a Roman legion levied by Augustus in 41/40 BC to fight during the period of Roman Civil War that started the dissolution of the Roman Republic....
under the command of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo was a Ancient Rome general....
, was sent to the east to fight in the victorious war against the Parthians.

The Fifth was probably still in the East when the Great Jewish Revolt
First Jewish-Roman War

The first Jewish-Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three Jewish-Roman wars by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire ....
in Iudaea Province
Iudaea Province

Iudaea was a Roman province that extended over the former region of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel. It was named after the tetrarchy of Judea of which it was an expansion, the latter name deriving from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BCE....
began in 66. Nero
Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
gave the V Macedonica, the X Fretensis and the XV Apollinaris
Legio XV Apollinaris

Legio decima quinta Apollinaris was a Roman legion. It was recruited by Augustus in 41/40 BC. The emblem of this legion was probably a picture of Apollo, or of one of his holy animals....
to Titus Flavius Vespasianus
Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
to counter the revolt. In 67, in Galilee
Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the ridges of Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa t...
, the city of Sepphoris surrendered peacefully to the Roman army, and later the V Macedonica conquered Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim

Mount Gerizim is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the West Bank city of Nablus , and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the northern side being formed by Mount Ebal....
, the chief sanctuary of the Samaritan
Samaritan

The Samaritans , known in the Talmud as Cuthim , are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Ancestrally, they claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the beginning of the Common Era....
s. In the Year of the Four Emperors
Year of the Four Emperors

The Year of the Four Emperors was a year in the history of the Roman Empire, AD 69, in which four emperors ruled in a remarkable succession. These four emperors were Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian....
, 68, the legion stayed inactive in Emmaus, where several tombstones of soldiers of the V Macedonica remain. After the proclamation of Vespasian as Emperor and the end of the war under his son Titus
Titus

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Titus , was a Roman Emperor who briefly reigned from 79 until his death in 81. Titus was the second emperor of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Titus's father Vespasian , Titus himself and his younger brother Domitian ....
, the V Macedonica left Iudaea and returned to Oescus (71). In 96, the later emperor Hadrian
Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
served the legion as tribunus militum.

Second century: In Dacia, protecting Danube frontier

In 101, the legion moved to Dacia
Dacia

In ancient geography, Dacia was the land of the Dacians. It was named by the ancient Greeks "Getae". Dacia was a large district of East-Central Europe, bounded on the north by the Carpathian Mountains, on the south by the Danube, on the west by the Tisia or Tisza, on the east by the Tyras or Dniester, now in eastern Moldova....
, to fight in Trajan
Trajan

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperors who reigned from 98 until his death in 117. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a nonpatrician family in the Hispania Baetica province , Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian, serving as a general in the Roman army along the Limes G...
's campaign against the local populations. After the war ended in 106, the legion remained in Troesmis
Troesmis

Troesmis was an ancient town in Scythia Minor. It was situated in what is now Romania.Constantine's Notitia Dignitatum show that during 337-361 here was the headquarter of legio II Herculia....
(modern Iglita), near the delta of the Danube
Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
since 107.

When Emperor Lucius Verus
Lucius Verus

Lucius Aurelius Verus , born as Lucius Ceionius Commodus, known simply as Lucius Verus, was Roman Emperors with Marcus Aurelius , from 161 until his death....
started his campaign against the Parthians (161–166), the legion moved to the east, but was later returned in Dacia Porolissensis, with a basecamp in Potaissa.

The northern frontier was a hot border of the Empire; when emperor Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important stoicism philosophy....
had to fight against the Marcomanni
Marcomanni

The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri , Suebi or Suevi....
, the Sarmatians
Sarmatians

The Sarmatians, Sarmat? or Sauromat? were a people of Ancient Iranian peoples origin. Mentioned by Classics authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C....
, and the Quadi
Quadi

The Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little definitive information is known. The history of non-literate peoples is written by their opponents, and we can only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through Roman eyes....
, the V Macedonica was involved in these fights.

At the beginning of the reign of Commodus
Commodus

Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus , was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192 . The name given here was his official name at his accession to sole rule; see 'Commodus#Changes of name' for earlier and later forms....
, the V Macedonica and the XIII Gemina
Legio XIII Gemina

Legio decima tertia Gemina , is one of the more historically remarkable Roman legions. It was one of Julius Caesar's key units in Gaul, and in the Roman Republican civil wars, and was the legion with which he famously crossing the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC....
defeated once again the Sarmatians, under the later usurpers
Roman usurper

Usurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpers were a common feature of the late Roman Empire, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule....
Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger

Gaius Pescennius Niger was a Roman usurper from 193 to 194. Niger was born of an old Italian equestrian family.File:Denarius-Pescennius Niger-RIC 0015var.jpg...
and Clodius Albinus
Clodius Albinus

Decimus Clodius Septimius Al?binus was a Roman usurper proclaimed Roman Emperor by the legions in Roman Britain and Hispania upon the murder of Pertinax....
. The Fifth later supported Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus

Lucius Septimius Severus was a Roman Empire general, and Roman Emperor from April 14 193 to 211. He was born in what is now the Libyan part of Rome's historic Africa Province, making him the first emperor to be born in the Roman province of Africa Province....
, in his fight for the purple.

In 185 or 187, the legion was awarded of the title Pia Constans ("Faithful and reliable") or Pia Fidelis ("Faithful and loyal"), after defeating a mercenary army in Dacia.

Later centuries: Honors and evolution

While staying in Potaissa for most of the 3rd century, V Macedonica fought several times, earning honors. Valerian
Valerian (emperor)

Publius Licinius Valerianus , commonly known in English language as Valerian or Valerian I, was the Roman Emperor from 253 to 260....
gave the Fifth the name III Pia III Fidelis; his son, Gallienus
Gallienus

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus ruled the Roman Empire as co-emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and then as the sole Roman Emperor from 260 to 268....
gave the legion the title VII Pia VII Fidelis, with the 4th, 5th and 6th titles awarded probably when the legion was used as a mobile cavalry unit against usurpers Ingenuus
Ingenuus

Ingenuus was a Roman military commander who held a senior military command in Pannonia. He had been charged with the military education of caesar Valerian II, the young son of Emperor Gallienus, but after the boy's death in 258, his position became perilous....
and Regalianus
Regalianus

P. C Regalianus was a Roman usurper against Gallienus.The main source of information is the unreliable Historia Augusta. Other sources are Eutropius, who calls him Trebellianus, and Aurelius Victor and the Epitome, which call him Regillianus....
(260, Moesia). A vexillatio fought against Victorinus
Victorinus

Marcus Piavonius Victorinus was emperor of the secessionist Gallic Empire from 268 to 270 or 271, following the brief reign of Marcus Aurelius Marius....
(Gaul, 269–271).

The legion returned to Oescus
Oescus

Oescus, or Palatiolon Palatiolum, was an ancient town in Moesia, northwest of the modern Bulgarian city of Pleven, near the village of Gigen. It is a Dacian-Moesian toponym....
in 274, after Aurelian
Aurelian

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus , known in English as Aurelian, Roman Emperor , was the second of several highly successful "soldier-emperors" who helped the Roman Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the beginning of the fourth....
had retired from Dacia. It guarded the province in later centuries, becoming a comitatensis unit under the Magister Militum per Orientis
Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
. It probably became part of the Byzantine army
Byzantine army

The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine Empire armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct descendant of the Roman army and older Hellenistic armies armies, the Byzantine army maintained a similar level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization....
.

The cavalry unit created by Gallienus was definitively detached by Diocletian
Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
, and become part of his comitatus
Comitatenses

Comitatenses is the Latin plural of comitatensis, originally the adjective derived from comitatus , itself rooting in Comes .However, historically it became the accepted name for those Roman Army which were not merely garrisoned at a limes ? the limitanei or ripenses, i.e....
. This unit was sent to Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
, where it successfully fought against the Sassanid Empire
Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
in 296, and then to Memphis
Memphis, Egypt

Memphis was the ancient capital of the first Nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
, where it had to stay until its entering in the Byzantine army.

See also

List of Roman legions
List of Roman legions

This is a list of Roman legions, including key facts about each legion,primarily focusing on Principate legions, for which there exists substantial literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence....