Legio VI Victrix


Legio sexta victrix was a legion of the Imperial Roman army founded in 41 BC by the general Octavian. It was the twin legion of VI Ferrata and perhaps held veterans of that legion, and some soldiers kept to the traditions of the Caesarian legion.

In Republican Service

The legion saw its first action in Perusia in 41 BC. It also served against the Sextus Pompeius, who occupied Sicily and made threats to discontinue sending grain to Rome. In 31 BC the legion fought in the Battle of Actium against Mark Antony.

In Imperial Service

VI ''Victrix'' in Spain

The legion took part in the final stage of the Roman conquest of Hispania, participating in Augustus' major war against the Cantabrians, from 29 BC to 19 BC, that brought all of the Iberian Peninsula under Roman rule.
The legion stayed in Spain for nearly a century and received the surname Hispaniensis, founding the city of Legio. Soldiers of this unit and X Gemina numbered among the first settlers of Caesaraugusta, what became modern-day Zaragoza. The cognomen Victrix dates back to the reign of Nero. But Nero was unpopular in the area, and when the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba, said he wished to overthrow Nero, the legion supported him and he was proclaimed Emperor in the VI Victrix legionary camp. Galba created VII Gemina and marched on Rome, where Nero killed himself.

VI ''Victrix'' in Germany

For a brief period, the legion was stationed along the Rhine river in the province of Germania Inferior.

VI ''Victrix'' in Britain

In 119, Hadrian relocated the legion to northern Britannia, to assist those legions already present in quelling the resistance there. Victrix was key in securing victory, and would eventually replace the diminished IX Hispana at Eboracum. In 122 the legion started work on Hadrian's Wall which would sustain the peace for two decades.
Twenty years later, they helped construct the Antonine Wall and its forts such as Castlecary but it was largely abandoned by 164.
In 175, the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, defeated the Iazyges tribe of Sarmatians. He took them into Roman service and settled 5,500 of them in Britain; it has been claimed without evidence and contrary to legionary recruitment practices that some were assigned to Legio VI Victrix based in York. The only detachment attested in Britain is a unit at Ribchester, south of Lancaster. Less certain is evidence from Bainesse, near Catterick, where lost tiles apparently stamped BSAR may be evidence for the presence of a Sarmatian unit there.
Legio VI was awarded the honorary title "Britannica" by Commodus in AD 184 following his own adoption of the title.
In 185, the British legions mutinied and put forward Priscus a commander of their own to replace the unpopular Emperor Commodus, but the former declined. The mutiny was suppressed by Pertinax, who would later become emperor himself after Commodus was murdered.
The large fort at Carpow was occupied from about 184 by Legio VI who completed the fort with the principia and praetorium which they roofed with tiles bearing their new cognomen.
The Legate of the legion in the late second century, Claudius Hieronymianus, dedicated a temple to Serapis in Eboracum in advance of the arrival of Septimius Severus in AD208.
An altar to Hercules was dedicated by Gaius Vitellius Atticianus, Centurion of the Legio VI Victrix, at Whitley Castle.

Attested members

Epigraphic Inscriptions

The legion is mentioned in Robert Heinlein's novel Have Space Suit – Will Travel and in the book From Scythia to Camelot by C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor.

Reenactment

A modern reenactment group based in Los Angeles reenacts this legion.
Another one exists based in Denmark and Sweden found under the name Legionord
Legio VI Victrix, Eboracum reenacts this legion in York.
The Antonine Guard, a living history society based in Scotland, recreates a unit of Legio VI during the Antonine occupation of Caledonia in the 2nd century AD.