The Lost Ninth Legion
A Roman legion of thousands of soldiers drops out of Britain's records, and no one knows exactly what became of it.
What was reported
The Ninth Legion, Legio IX Hispana, took part in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD and was later based at Eboracum, now York. Its last dated record in Britain is an inscription from around 108 AD. By the middle of the 2nd century, it no longer appears in lists of legions.
The idea that it marched into Scotland and vanished in the mists became famous through Rosemary Sutcliff's novel The Eagle of the Ninth (1954).
Explanations offered
Historians now mostly think the legion left Britain: stamped tiles and inscriptions suggest units of the Ninth were at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, after 108 AD. It may then have been destroyed in a later war, perhaps in the east, or disbanded. How and where it ended is still unknown.
- When
- Last recorded in Britain around 108 AD
- Where
- York, England
- Witnesses
- Roman inscriptions
- Status
- Never solved
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