New evidence for annihilation of Ninth Legion in Britain?

[Nathan Ross]

There are others who know that the Ninth did not get annihilated in Scotland too... :mrgreen:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2 ... man-legion

And if you read on through the next couple of 'notes and queries' sections:

[url:2eb28ofe]http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/mar/24/notes-queries-who-owns-moon[/url]
[url:2eb28ofe]http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/mar/31/origin-of-the-orange[/url]

you'll find the subject being batted around even further, including the 'romanscotland' view...

It is extraordinary that people can still become so exercised about what could otherwise be a rather scholarly matter of archeological speculation and interpretation. IX Hispana, after all, was only one of several Roman legions to vanish from the records. Leaving aside the three lost under Varus, we have the famous V Alaudae, XXI Rapax and XII Deiotariana, plus no doubt a good many more in later and less well annotated eras. In each case, historians have enjoyed the conjecture of their possible fate - was V Alaudae destroyed in the Batavian revolt, or in Dacia under Fuscus? Does the Adamklissi memorial record the names of the legionaries of the fifth? Was Rapax annihilated by the Sarmatians, or disbanded in disgrace following the revolt of Saturninus? Was Deiotariana lost in Judea, or Armenia? Etc. All intriguing stuff, but we have so very little to go on.

In none of these cases, however, as far as I know, is there the same popular animosity to the academic consensus of opinion as there is in the matter of the ninth. Do Romanian nationalists fervently contest with the Dutch the 'honour' of eliminating the famous Alaudae? Do the Hungarians (or whoever the ancestors of the Sarmatians might be these days!) make a big deal out of their victory over Rapax? And are there stories told in Israel today of the destruction of Deiotariana by the patriots of Bar Kochba? (although perhaps in the latter case, there are already enough historical episodes to commemorate...)

Quite apart from Rosemary Sutcliff's book, which cemented in the popular consciousness (assuming that such a thing exists nowadays) the idea of the loss of the ninth and its eagle in foggy Caledonia, there does seem to be a quite determined desire on the part of certain Britons to insist on the destruction of the legion in their homeland - almost a willful sense of entitlement. When facts challenge this, or at least undermine its probability, there appears a noticeable element of pique.

Does this happen elsewhere, or is it a peculiarity of British (perhaps Anglo-Scots) historical appreciation?

- Nathan