Help Needed: Legio IV Scythica

[L C Cinna]

Salvete!

I'm still working on my paper on the Vitae Septimii Severi in the Historia Augusta. One of the "mistakes" the author makes is that he says that:

"Then he was in charge of the 4th legion, called "the Scythian", which was staying at Massilia."

Now we know the base of the 4th was in Syria and that Severus was commander there. So Ritterling writes that the mention of Massilia must have been a corruption of the text:

"L. Septimius P. f. Quir. Severus: Hist. aug. Sev. 3, 6 legioni IIII Scythicae dein praepositus est circa Massiliam about the year 180 CE. There is doubtlessly a corruption in the indication of the locality; the attempt of Premerstein, Klio XII 171 and Österreichische Jahreshefte XVI 268, 64, to defend the delivery, has failed. The fact that the legion, like pre and afterwards, had its camp in Syria also when Severus was its commander, results from Hist. aug. Sev. 9, 4: Antiochensibus iratior fuit (Severus as emperor) quod et administrantem se in orientem riserant and Herodian. II 10, 8, who lets Severus say in a speech to his Pannonian legions in the year 193 CE: - Greek - tó te èméteron ônoma púthointo (oí Súroi) oùch âgnoston oùd âsèmon par aùtoîs úpárchon, èx ôn ègemoneúsantes ècheîse diochèsamen. - Ti. (Iulius ?) Severus, about the year 132 CE during the Jewish rebellion and as legate representative of the Syrian governor: - Greek - ègemóna legiônos tetártès Schuthichès chaì dioichèsanta tà èn Suría prágmata, ènícha Poublíchios Márchellos dià tèn chinèsin tèn Ioudaîchèn àpobebèchei àpò Surías CIG 4031. 4032 = IGR III 173. 174. "

Mr. Spielvogel writes in his biography that Severus was stationed in Syria at that time but doesn't give any real references for that. The commentary of the HA refers to Ritterling's opinion posted above.

Livius.org: "Between 181 and 183, the commander of IIII Scythica was the future emperor Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211)."
Now the questions I have:

- the HA reports serious Problems in Baetica during the reign of Marcus. Severus was in this area as well at that time. Does anyone have any information on how long this conflict with the Mauri in Baetica lasted? According to Spielvogel the legion in Spain VII Gemina needed quite some time to suppress the incursions.

Now imho the whole situation at that time seems to be a complete mess: the HA reports problems in Spain (in the 160ies?), we hear of problems in Britain (will check the source I guess it was Aurelius Victor), the war against the Marcomanni, the plague carried all over the empire by the troop movements and an uprising in Syria under Cassius all within approx. 10 years.

That's why I'd like to gather as much additional info as possible as I'm curious how Ritterling can be so sure that legio IV was not in the west at this time, not the whole legion but imho some bigger vexillations might have been possible. Many troops were shipped from the East to the west to fill the gaps.

If we remember the problems in Spain and Britain mentioned before it seems the Western legions were already quite busy. I'm a bit surprised that it took so long for the Spanish and African legion to protect the Spanish Provinces, maybe they were understrenght because they had sent vexillations elsewhere? maybe to Britain like VII Gemina had done before during the reign of Hadrianus and Antoninus?

I know this is all guessing and speculations but I want to know a reason why Ritterling can be so sure that the whole Scythica remained in Syria?

Other things which made me a bit skeptical:

Dio:LXXII:23.1: “he [Cassius] laid claim to the throne, on the ground that he had already been elected by the soldiers who were then in Pannonia.“

25.2:"as for those Arabian and Parthian wars, it was not Cassius but you, that brought them to an end."


Marcus is addressing his soldiers here and imho the 2 quotes indicate that soldiers of the Syrian legions were present when he spoke and when Cassius rebelled (see underlined part). Around the same time Aurelius Victor mentions that some barbarians settled in upper Italy rebelled but he doesn't mention who was sent to put down this rebellion.

So here is my guess:

It might be possible that vexillations of IV Scythica were serving in the west with Marcus, were sent to deal with the rebellion or other duties in upper Italy or Narbonensis and were near Massilia in 179 for refilling or other duties before being sent back to the east. Septimius Severus who was assigned the command of the legion in Syria for the year 180 might really have been sent to pick up the vexilations of his future legion in late 179 and lead them back to Syria as he had to go there to take over command anyways.

Sorry for this lenghty and confusing post Please if you have any ideas or information regarding those events or the vexillations used during Marcus reign join the discussion and help me out of this confusion

[D B Campbell]

Ritterling writes that the mention of Massilia must have been a corruption of the text.

In his translation of the vita Severi in his [amazon]Lives of the Later Caesars[/amazon], Tony Birley also accepts that it is a textual error.

Then he was placed in command of the legion IV Scythica, near Massias. 12

Note 12. The MSS. have Massiliam = Marseille, but the legion was based in Syria, and R. Thomsen's emendation Massiam (a place in Syria) is to be preferred.

Note that Mason Hammond (Harvard Stud. Class. Philol. 51, 1940, p. 150) preferred the emendation "circa Syriam", which he defends in a lengthy note.

Mr. Spielvogel writes in his biography that Severus was stationed in Syria at that time but doesn't give any real references for that.

Presumably SHA, Sept. 9.4, Herodian 2.10.8 and Dio 79.8.5-6, all indicating a familiarity with Syria/Antioch.

[L C Cinna]

Thank you!

SHA, Sept. 9.4, Herodian 2.10.8 and Dio 79.8.5-6,

yes I read those after I had posted. I do agree that he was in Syria at that time. And the town of Massia you mentioned really makes me think. So it might really be a mistake.

On the other hand, those quotes from the HA and Dio which both deal with a period shortly before Severus went to Syria made me wonder.

The thing is that in this sentence the HA doesn't only mention that he took over command of the legion in Massilia (Massia) which could be a mistake but if you consider the time the HA mentions this would also be before he left for Syria.

It must be some time in 179/180, so that's before he was in Syria and he was back on his way from Spain. In this case Massilia would make sense as he probably would have passed it on his return to Italy.

The quote from Dio:

LXXII:23.1: “he [Cassius] laid claim to the throne, on the ground that he had already been elected by the soldiers who were then in Pannonia.“

made me wonder because at this time, when Cassius is reported to say something like that, he was in Syria. So if he refers to the soldiers which were THEN in Pannonia, he seems to refer to soldiers of the eastern legions which were in Pannonia at that time. So he might tell the remains of the Syrian legions still in Syria that he was already accepted by their colleagues (vexillations) serving in the west.

Same goes for the other quote:

25.2:"as for those Arabian and Parthian wars, it was not Cassius but you, that brought them to an end."

Here Marcus talks to his soldiers. He wouldn't say something like that to the western legions, which only sent vexillations to the east and don't have anything to do with the uprising of Cassius. It wouldn't make too much sense if he wouldn't be talking to parts of the eastern troops which acclaimed Cassius and about whom Cassius was talking before.

And why would the whole legion sit in the east, after the Parthians just received a pretty hard blow and wouldn't be able to attack at all, while the west is in such trouble? The parthian front was probably the calmest of them all after the victory of Verus. If we look at the situation, Marcus couldn't take any more troops from Britain, Africa or Spain. So the only ones left would be the ones from the east.

And if you ask me, at least after the rebellion of Cassius, I would have ordered part of the rebellious eastern troops to the west, just to have them close by and mixed with the loyal troops.

So all of this together with the HA mentioning that Severus took command of "the legion" in the west before he went to the east makes some kind of sense imho. The legion and its base were still in the east but maybe he was assigned to take command of some vexillations in the west to lead them back. Would make sense imho