One of the biggest mysteries of Roman Britain is the disappearance of the Ninth Legion. As 5,000 of Rome’s finest […] ...

In 1954, the children’s novel ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ popularised the legend of the disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Caledonia. Recent research has shown the Ninth was not ...

The Roman army was huge. It was divided up into groups called ‘legions’. Each legion had between 4,000 and 6,000 soldiers. A legion was further divided into groups of 80 men called ...

It was, quite simply, an act of war. Huddled against the biting cold, many of the soldiers of the 13th Legion of the army of the Roman Republic had served under Caesar for much of the previous decade.

The toughest postings for soldiers were those at the frontiers of the Roman Empire, where legionnaires never had enough supplies, faced hostile local tribes and had to endure tedious routines.

In Britain, at the northernmost edge of the empire, Rome’s normal strategies for command and control of its provinces failed horribly. For the first time in memory, the Roman army was in retreat ...