One of Rome's legions is missing! The disappearance of the Ninth Legion is a mystery that has piqued the interest of historians and archaeologists since the eighteenth century. They knew that it had formed part of the Roman garrison of Britain from the time of the emperor Claudius, but there was no record of its involvement in the great frontier works of the second century. It seemed simply to have disappeared. What had happened to it? Now, archaeologist Duncan B. Campbell follows the trail of research down through the decades in a meticulously documented account. Registering each new item of evidence as it came to light and explaining its significance, he pieces together the unfolding solution to the age-old mystery.
"In this book, Duncan B Campbell, a leading expert on the Roman army, traverses the Roman Empire searching for the 'lost' Ninth legion: after Lincoln, York and Carlisle, to Nijmegen in Holland, Aachen in Germany, the Bay of Naples, Rome itself and other parts of Italy, Petra in Jordan, Timgad in Algeria, and elsewhere. After a valuable introduction on the sources, especially the inscriptions, the author brings to life a large and varied cast of antiquarians and scholars, while former officers of the legion - Burbuleius Ligarianus, Novius Crispinus, Aemilius Karus, Sextius Florentinus, and new discovery Quintus Numisius Junior - are all carefully discussed here. I greatly enjoyed reading this book." -- Professor A.R. Birley F.S.A., Honorary Professor of Classics & Ancient History, Durham University. Author of Hadrian: The Restless Emperor and The Roman Government of Britain.
"Duncan B Campbell is both the Sherlock Holmes and the Doctor Watson of the study of the Roman army: always solving new mysteries, but also, in charming prose, recounting the investigation of fascinating old ones, and offering a cast of eccentric Italian humanists, mad British clergymen, perverse German scholars, and sun-addled French army officers, all contributors (knowing or unknowing) to cracking the most famous puzzle in Roman military history, the disappearance of the Ninth Legion. To read Duncan B Campbell is to experience the ecstasy of discovery." -- Professor J. E. Lendon, Professor of History, The University of Virginia. Author of Soldiers and Ghosts. A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity and Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins.
"When, relying on likelihoods, the great Mommsen supported the idea of a terrible catastrophe under Hadrian, with a Brigantian attack on York 'undoubtedly soon after AD 108' (Hadrian, 117-138!), few thought it worth questioning. But then, they weren't fortunate enough to have Campbell's work, The Fate of the Ninth, to hand, which presents all the evidence (mainly epigraphic, and with the minimum of speculation), explains it, and presents us with the most likely conclusion about what became of the Ninth.
But if you think that this book is the last word on the fate of the Ninth, think again. And this is Campbell's main point. The book is most importantly a history of epigraphical and prosopographical scholarship and their use to nail down historical events.
What Campbell has produced here is a model monograph, with the evidence, the best conclusions it allows, illustrations, time line, footnotes and indices. And it is beautifully written." -- Adrian Spooner, Classics For All web site.
