Modern Drunkard Article on the Fifth Legion

[Nathan Ross]

Was Legio V Alaudae really from Transalpine Gaul? That would make it quite unorthodox legion indeed.

I think it might rather have been recruited from Cisalpine Gaul, but maybe from people whose Roman citizenship was in dispute (as it was that time).

They were actually from Transalpina - see Suetonius Caesar.24. They'd originally been raised as individual cohorts of non-citizen troops, but Caesar awarded them citizenship en masse and brought them into the regular army, probably shortly before Alesia. So they were unorthodox indeed!

Here's the article on the legion, from Ritterling:

[url:1oor3b8n]http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/content/view/82/113/[/url]

- Nathan