Arikah Map

List of Roman legions

List of Roman legions:rmn-military-header.png

This article is part of the series on:

Military of ancient Rome (Portal)
800 BC - AD 476

Structural history
Roman army (unit types,
legions, generals)
Roman navy (fleets, admirals)
Campaign history
Lists of Wars and Battles
Decorations and Punishments
Technological history
Military engineering (castra,
siege engines)
Personal equipment
Political history
Strategy and tactics
Infantry tactics
Frontiers and fortifications

This is a list of Roman legions. These are mainly legions of the Roman Empire; earlier legions were not permanent named organizations.

Comments added include life span of the legion, cause of disappearance (if relevant), the original commander (the man who levied the legion), and emblem.


Contents

Republican and Imperatorial legions

The Republican legions were formed by Roman citizens and raised whenever it was necessary. Usually they were levied by the Roman Senate, and were later disbanded. Legions that won a significant victory often acclaimed their commander as imperator.

In the last years of the Republic, several Roman generals started to levy legions with their own money; these legions were loyal to their commanders, rather than to the Senate, so their presence increased the power of these generals. Maintaining these legions was, however, expensive, so they were usually levied for particular campaigns (such as those of Pompey against the pirates, those of Julius Caesar against Gauls, those of Mark Antony and Crassus against the Parthian Empire, and so on), and disbanded as soon these campaigns ended.

The legions included in the following list had a long enough history to be somehow remarkable. Most of them were levied by Julius Caesar and later included into Octavian's army, some of them levied by Mark Antony.

Imperial period legions

Early Empire legions

List of Roman legions:Position of Roman legions in 80.
Enlarge
Position of Roman legions in 80.

Legio I

Legio II

Legio III

Legio IIII

Legio V

Legio VI

Legio VII

Legio VIII

Legio VIIII

Legio X

Legio XI

Legio XII

Legio XIII

Legio XIIII

Legio XV

Legio XVI

Legio XVII

Legio XVIII

Legio XIX

Legio XX

Legio XXI

Legio XXII

Legio XXX

Late Empire legions

List of Roman legions:Shield pattern of the palatina legion of the Ioviani seniores, according to Notitia Dignitatum.
Enlarge
Shield pattern of the palatina legion of the Ioviani seniores, according to Notitia Dignitatum.

Diocletian reorganized the Roman army, in order to better handle the menace of the barbarians from north Europe as well as that of the Persians from the East. The army was formed by border and field units.

The border (limitanei) units were to occupy the limes, the structured border fortifications, and were formed by professional soldiers with an inferior training.

The field units were to stay well behind the border, and to move quickly where they were needed, with both offensive and defensive roles. Field units were formed by elite soldiers with high-level training and weapons. They were further divided into:

  1. Scholae units – the personal guard of the Emperor, created to substitute the Praetorian Guard disbanded by Constantine I;
  2. Palatinae units – "palace" units were the highest ranked units;
  3. Comitatenses units – "line" or "regular" units, some of them were new legions, other were Early Empire legions;
  4. Pseudocomitatenses units – they were limitanei units diverted into the field army and often kept there; some Early Empire legions became pseudocomitatenses units.

Some of these units kept a numbering scheme. Primary source is the Notitia Dignitatum


References

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Categories


Roman legions

Find

Find

Find