03-21-2011, 10:47 AM
Quote:How does a brutal ambush differ from a nice ambush?
Only in the degree of hyperbole employed in its reporting ;-)
There are two intriguing things that emerge from the welter of evidence for the supposed fate of the Ninth Legion, both of them related to military equipment (and thus, by definition, far more interesting than putative massacres :-) ).
First the much-discussed tile stamps can be turned on their figurative heads - the Ninth could have started stamping when on the continent and then brought the die(s) back to Britain and continued at Scalesceugh. Stamped tile at Nijmegen implies construction work there by the legion (or a part of it) so they need to be fitted into the scheme of things for the site, which is not easy before of departure of X Gemina. Participation in any number of foreign wars is a possibility (it doesn't need to be one for which we happen to have a career inscription), including Trajan's Dacian Wars, and the return to Britain of a detachment with one or more 'VIIII' dies and the subsequent deployment of a works detail to Scalesceugh might explain why mostly 'IX' stamps come from York (Wright's types 1 and 2 dies - from ?Aldborough and York - are possibly 'VIIII' stamps, but their identification as Ninth stamps is at best tenuous). Whatever, it is likely (but no more) that the Nijmegen and Scalesceugh stamps were close in date. Interestingly, a move from Nijmegen to Britain after the Dacian shindig would then provide a mechanism for the early appearance of the Newstead type of armour (eeek - and possibly also armguards!) at Carlisle, which could have housed said detachment - the latest piece of kit brought back from one of the biggest legionary get-togethers since the civil war in 69 (so plenty of opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas).
Second, there is that pendant from Ewijk. It is, so far as I am aware, the only horse pendant with a legionary ownership inscription marked punctim. Whilst it was a common practice for an owner to mark his equipment in this fashion with his century/turma and name, sticking the unit on is very rare (the helmet from Burlafingen with the legionary inscription is one example). It is possible that the owner's name was on the accompanying phalera - we know pendants and phalerae were paired at the time of manufacture from the marks on the suspension hinges of the Xanten and Doorwerth fittings - but it is still an oddity. Of course, there is absolutely no necessity for the Ewijk pendant and the Nijmegen tile stamps to be contemporary.
Mike Bishop
