Authors: Stephen Dando-Collins
On the march, complete with its long baggage train containing all its artillery, officers’ furniture and plate and the other personal belongings of the troops, the legion was overtaken by the party of a senator, Gneius Calpurnius Piso. Until recently the propraetor of Syria, Piso was welcomed into the column, and he and his wife Plancina, son Marcus, and their companions and slaves accompanied the legion over the snow-covered Apennines. The men of the legion were unaware that Piso was in disgrace and on his way to Rome to face a trial in the Senate, accused of the murder of Germanicus Caesar.
After mixing freely with the troops on the march—to the surprise and discomfort of Fulvius and his officers—Piso left the legionary column at Narnia and went by boat along the Narn and then the Tiber to Rome, traveling in style while the legion marched on to the capital. The men of the 9th would have camped on the Field of Mars, then continued their march the next day, passing down the Appian Way to Capua, then joining the Popilian Way for the last stage down the west coast of Italy to the port city of Reggio.
There, they boarded transports which shipped them the short distance across the Strait of Messina to the Sicilian port of Messina. They would have marched along the north coast of Sicily to where another convoy waited at Marsala. Making a short crossing of the Mediterranean to North Africa directly opposite, the 9th landed at Utica early in the year 20. Geological changes over the centuries mean that today Utica is 7 miles (11 kilometers) inland; back then the town was the principal port of the North African provinces, located just a few miles along the coast from Carthage.
The city of Carthage had been leveled by Rome after its capture in 146
BC
. Caesar had sent Roman settlers there after his 46
BC
victory at Thapsus, but only in the reign of Augustus was the city really reborn, when he established a military colony on the site. It had quickly grown to become the commercial hub of North Africa, and within another century would boast 250,000 inhabitants. At this point in its history it was a pleasant and bustling metropolis with all the adornments of a civilized Roman city, from public baths to theaters, circus to amphitheater, and, like most military colonies, a grand temple to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The city was neither as large nor as influential as Antioch or Alexandria, second and third cities of the empire, but Roman Carthage’s leading citizens considered themselves to be just as sophisticated.
The men of the 9th Hispana did not see Carthage. Nor were they posted to the headquarters of the 3rd Augusta at Ammaedra. The 9th Hispana was going even further into the North African wilds. Governor Lucius Apronius split up the cohorts of the 9th Hispana and divided them around forts on the far frontier of the province, under their tribune, camp-prefect and centurions, with many of the emplacements having to be constructed from scratch by the legionaries.
There, in their forts in the blinding African sun, the men of the 9th Hispana Legion gazed unhappily out over the desert wastes to the south. This deployment of troops in isolated outposts, where they sat behind their camp walls, was an invitation to Tacfarinas to do what he did best; to range across the countryside making guerrilla raids. It was an invitation he was soon to take up. By the spring of
AD
20, Tacfarinas was intercepting travelers on the roads and plundering and destroying villages.
A cohort of new recruits of the 9th Hispana under an experienced centurion by the name of Decrius set off in pursuit after the raiders struck in their district. But Tacfarinas turned on his pursuers and hemmed in the cohort beside a river in southern Tunisia. Centurion Decrius and his men rapidly built a marching camp beside the river, but the centurion felt that to simply sit behind the walls and allow these natives to besiege his troops was a disgrace to the legion, so he led his nervous youngsters out and lined them up in battle order on the open river plain outside his entrenchments.
Tacfarinas, commanding a much larger force, charged the 480 young legionaries, who buckled under the volleys of Numidian missiles and were forced to give ground. Before long, most of the legionaries, including the cohort’s standard-bearers, turned and ran for the camp. Centurion Decrius, disgusted by his men’s retreat, stood his ground, yelling to the retreating standard-bearers that they should be ashamed for allowing Roman soldiers to show their backs to the enemy. The centurion was struck time and again by javelins and stones. A missile took out one of his eyes, and he was bleeding from other wounds, but still he held firm as Tacfarinas’ men fell on him. He fought them off with his sword, sending Numidians reeling away with savage wounds, but eventually their numbers and his wounds told, and Centurion Decrius fell dead.
The frightened young legionaries of his cohort barricaded themselves inside their camp, with the Numidian horde outside the walls baying for their blood. Before long, Tacfarinas led his men away; they had neither the skills nor the inclination to conduct a siege. Once the coast was clear, the men of the 9th Hispana cohort sent a
messenger to their tribune Gaius Fulvius with the news of the attack and to explain the circumstances of the death of their centurion. Tribune Fulvius sent a full report to the governor at Carthage.
Apronius was furious. The governor, by law the only magistrate in the province with the power over life and death, “flogged to death every tenth man drawn by lot from the disgraced cohort.” [Ibid.,
III
, 21] This was the first recorded instance of decimation in the Roman army since the Civil War. And, ironically, it had been the 9th Legion which was decimated on that last occasion too, by Julius Caesar, in 49
BC
. The punishment was duly carried out. Each of the men of the cohort drew a lot. Men who drew the marked tokens were taken from the ranks, stripped, and tied to whipping posts. Some fifty condemned men were then whipped to death.
Tacitus would declare that the decimation had the desired effect on the morale and courage of the rest of the men of 9th Hispana Legion, for shortly after the punishment was meted out Tacfarinas attacked a fort at Thala, to the west, above Lambaessa. This was garrisoned by a veteran cohort of the 9th Hispana, made up entirely of mature, experienced soldiers. And they fought like demons, driving off the vastly superior force. [Ibid.]
During this latest hectic battle, when a legionary of the 9th Hispana by the name of Rufus Helvius saved the life of a fellow soldier, his name was passed on to the governor with a recommendation that he receive an award for his bravery. Governor Apronius duly awarded Helvius the golden torque and silver spear, highly esteemed bravery awards. But the deed had deserved more, and, after Tiberius heard of the decorations conferred by Apronius on Helvius, he added the Civic Crown, Rome’s highest gallantry award, at same time writing to tell Apronius, “without anger,” that as proconsul he himself could have bestowed this great honor. [Ibid.]
With the Roman military still confined to their outposts by the unadventurous governor, Tacfarinas continued his raiding. He had learned his lesson after being repulsed at Thala. Now, if a legionary cohort gave chase, Tacfarinas sped away without giving battle. Then, when the exhausted legionaries turned around and marched back to their camps, the Numidians hung on their tail and stung their rearguard. This was all most humiliating for the Roman troops, with two legions now being made to look foolish by the rebels. Tacfarinas, said Velleius Paterculus, one of Tiberius’ officers, meanwhile “caused great consternation and grew more formidable every day.” [Velle.,
II, CXXIX
, 3]
Filled with confidence by the success of his tactics and the failure of the fort-bound Romans to trouble him, Tacfarinas, weighed down with booty, advanced toward the Mediterranean coast and set up a fortified camp where his men could enjoy a little rest and recreation. When the governor learned of this, he put together a mobile expeditionary force under the command of his son Caesianus Apronius, then a young prefect with an auxiliary command in the province. This appointment was not unusual. Just as Junius Blaesus, the governor of the 9th Hispana’s last province, had his son on his staff, and the disgraced propraetor Piso of Syria, the 9th’s companion on the march to Rome the previous winter, had his son Marcus on his staff in the East, governors frequently took along their sons to share their provincial postings when the youths were tribunes and prefects learning their military craft.
With a force of auxiliary cavalry and light infantry, plus 1,000 or so of the younger, fitter legionaries of the 9th Hispana’s cohorts, Caesianus Apronius the prefect quickly advanced on Tacfarinas’ camp. Young Apronius forced the Numidians to abandon their position, and drove them south, into the desert. For this apparent success, Tiberius awarded the governor Triumphal Decorations. But again, the celebrations were premature.
Most provinces garrisoned by the legions were imperial provinces, with their governors appointed by the emperor. At this time, the governors of the province of Africa were appointed on the vote of the Senate. In fact, Africa was one of the few senatorial provinces where the governor controlled legionary forces. Their commands only covered auxiliary troops as a rule. Being a senatorial province, Africa’s governors could only hold their appointment for one year. Together with the governorships of Asia and Syria, Africa was the most highly paid of all the gubernatorial offices, and was always considered a prestigious step for ambitious Romans. Several later emperors would serve there in the early stages of their careers.
By the spring of
AD
21 the year-long tour of duty of Lucius Apronius came to an end, and he and his son returned to Rome. But news of an outbreak of further trouble led by Tacfarinas in Africa caused the Senate to ask the emperor to appoint the next governor personally. Apronius’ replacement was a familiar face to old hands of the 9th Hispana Legion—Junius Blaesus, who had governed Pannonia, the 9th Hispana’s home province, at the time of the
AD
14 mutinies. Blaesus was considered “an experienced soldier of vigorous constitution who would be equal to the war.” [Tac.,
A
,
III
, 32] He was also the uncle of Sejanus, Tiberius’ powerful prefect of the Praetorian Guard.
Not long after Blaesus arrived at Carthage, Tacfarinas cheekily sent envoys to the emperor at Rome, demanding a settlement involving land and money for his men and himself in return for peace. If his demands were not met, his envoys told Tiberius, then Tacfarinas would wage interminable war on the Roman forces so that the provinces of North Africa would never know peace. “Never, it was said, was the emperor so exasperated by an insult to himself and the Roman people as by a deserter and brigand assuming the character of a belligerent.” Even Spartacus, Tiberius said, when ravaging Italy with his slave army ninety-five years before, had never been offered an amnesty by Rome, so a bandit such as Tacfarinas stood no chance of having his demands met. Tiberius instructed Blaesus to offer full pardons to followers of Tacfarinas who laid down their arms, but he was to pursue Tacfarinas himself with all the resources at his disposal. [Ibid., 73]
A number of Numidians did take advantage of the amnesty. But deep in the North African interior, sheltered by the Garamantes tribe, Tacfarinas was able to recruit new followers with promises of booty. Throughout the summer of
AD
21, Tacfarinas emerged from hiding and employed his tested guerrilla tactics to great success, preying in particular on the peaceful Leptitani tribe. Dividing his forces into a number of detachments, he would strike at several places at once, then dash away. He would elude pursuit, and then ambush Roman troops sent out after him. The hit-and-run tactics suited the temperament and skills of his nomadic followers, and left the Romans in their static formations at a disadvantage.
Blaesus, a no-nonsense man, decided that enough was enough. With just one year in which to show what he could do, he mounted a major operation to track down and eliminate Tacfarinas. Three columns were put together, comprising the 3rd Augusta Legion, 9th Hispana Legion and auxiliary units. Up to this point, both the 3rd Augusta and 9th Hispana had been commanded by their senior tribunes, but for this latest campaign Cornelius Lentulus Scipio, an able legate of senatorial rank, was sent to Africa to take over the command of the 9th Hispana Legion. He would subsequently become one of the emperor Claudius’ most trusted military advisers. Under the newly arrived general, the 9th Hispana formed one of Blaesus’ three divisions. Another force, made up of the auxiliaries, was headed by Governor Blaesus’ son, a prefect. Blaesus himself would command the third column, comprising the 3rd Augusta Legion.
Each column had a specific task. Lentulus Scipio and the 9th Hispana took the left flank, pushing southeast to end enemy attacks on the Leptitani tribe, which remained loyal to Rome. The 9th Hispana was then to sweep around and cut off Tacfarinas’ retreat into friendly Garamantian territory. Prefect Blaesus led the column which took the right flank of the offensive, driving west to protect villages around Cirta (modern Constantine), capital of Numidia, and preventing Tacfarinas’ escape to the west. At the same time, Governor Blaesus would be slicing down through the middle of the province with the 3rd Augusta.
With machine-like efficiency, all three forces achieved their objectives then linked up deep inside southern Tunisia. There, Blaesus set up a series of forts, walls and trench lines at prime locations. From these he sent out small detachments under first-rank centurions on search-and-destroy missions. From now on, no matter which direction Tacfarinas’ men turned, they found Roman troops in front of them, on their flanks, suddenly appearing behind them. It was an uncomfortable time for the rebels.
No doubt Tacfarinas told his followers to hold on until the Romans withdrew for the winter, as they always did. But as the autumn arrived, Blaesus defied tradition. His troops stayed in the field, and from his forts he sent out lightly equipped flying columns with local guides who knew the desert. Tacfarinas’ rebels were forced to scatter across the sandy wastes. As for Tacfarinas himself, he was chased through the wilderness from one group of miserable huts to another. The Roman detachments came back with a number of prisoners, including the brother of Tacfarinas. But Tacfarinas himself again eluded capture.