Article on the L. IX Hispana (Factual????)

[Nathan Ross]

Whatever, whereas our tombstone apparently ("apparently", because it has been lost and is known only from a sketch) commemorates a D. Aelius Asclepiades. So there may be no Hadrianic connection at all. :?

Hmm! My listing of that inscription doesn't mention a praenomen - any chance the D was a misreading of a P? Also, was Aelia Seleria his daughter, or maybe his wife? Supposedly found in Puteoli, so suggests a fleet link - but the guy was 42 and only served 8 years. What was he doing until age 34? Is Keppie's suggestion that a former fleet soldier may not mention his naval service, preferring only to list his more prestigious time in the legion?

Edit* - come to think of it, wasn't the Misenum fleet used in Trajan's Parthian war (or against the Jewish rebels at around the same time), and later in some connection with the Bar Kochba revolt? Could be a way for 34-yr old sailor Asclepiades from Cilicia to find himself drafted into IX Hispana, perhaps, if they were in the east at the time?...

- Nathan