05-05-2006, 07:53 PM
Quote:Ok, if this can be trusted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine#Hist ... _Relevance
Then there were gallatians along the Rhine.
Suddenly things are making sense!
It's a big if! - and I think in this case the writer of the page might have confused the Legion XXI Rapax based on the Rhine in the later first century with Legion XXII Deiotariana, originally raised by the king of Galatia in the late republican period and absorbed into the Augustan army. Deiotariana was, I believe, based for most of its existence in Egypt, whereas Rapax had no eastern connections.
One other possibility, aside from auxiliaries or 'eastern' legionaries, might be the movement of legion vexillations to eastern campaigns. I'm not sure if any of the Rhine legions were used in this way, but Legion XV Apollinaris was moved from Carnuntum on the Danube in the 60s AD to Syria and then Judea, returning in the following decade - Carnuntum being the site of the earliest known military mithraeum, it is believed that the soldiers of Apollinaris may have brought certain 'eastern' practices back home with them. If this kind of cultural cross-pollination spread more widely, then perhaps Palmyrene artistic influences might have been felt on the Rhine. (Or perhaps it was just fashionable orientalism? :lol: )
- Nathan
Nathan Ross
