Solving the Mystery of the Lost Roman Legion | History Hit Series 

Reading "The Eagle of the Ninth" to a 6-year-old. This is how you get kids interested in history! I salute you, Tristan's dad!

I just love the storytelling of these style of documentaries. "we have a mystery, now lets figure it out!", and in the end they are "We still have this mistery, we didnt figure it out, but we had lovely interviews and had our moderator walk through grass and muddy scenery while gesturing wildly."

I love how these speakers have entire textbooks of information committed to memory and can share it in such an exciting and informative manner.

I live in Silchester, I always go on walks around the Roman Wall, it's stunning. What's left is only the foundation of the inner wall and when you realise how thick the walls were and how big the gates were, its astonishing to imagine it in its full glory. Its never lost on me and I recommend anyone to go and see it

The Eagle of the 9th was my introduction to history, too!! A great book that led to a life-long interest in Iron Age to Saxon era history ie Roman Britain, give or take a bit

The beauty of history is that it can change in an instance. New discoveries, new theories, don´t you just love it.

One of the best series of novels written about Rome and Roman Britain were the "Veteran of Rome" series by William Kelso. The fate of the Ninth that makes most sense to me is: weakened by events in Britannia the remnants were shipped off to support the Empire's critical needs. The use of Vexillations, this way, was a common practice. Without a strong patron actively seeing to have it built up to its past glory could have led to it never being reconstituted. Rather than one simple reason for its disappearance, it's most likely a combination of these factors.

i consider Eagle of the Ninth and The Daughter of Time to be the books that gave me my love of history. And the fact I'm York born and bred made Eagle of the Ninth compulsory reading!

The Agricola wrote down his victories and avoided documenting his defeats. It's more than obvious to me the 9th legion was nearly wiped out in the attack on their fort. The Name or Legion number may have been reconstituted later though.

Could it simply be a case the 9th was disbanded and it’s troops use to replenish the other Legions ? That’s happened may times in history with other armies.

Hi there! Greetings from Bucarest ROMANIA 🍀... I am big fan of history, British is one of them...😊

A story that has captivated me since I was about 10 years old (a long time ago) also courtesy of Rosemary Sutcliff. I hope the truth comes to light whilst I'm still around to hear it! The romantic in me hopes that the book got it right!

I loved this on the app but if I’m honest, I like having both episodes together into one full length episode. Tristan is one of my favorite historians along with Matt Hughes

The book “The Eagle of the Ninth” seems to have started a number of people into archeology and the common interest in The Romans in England. I remember reading it in the sixties.

I just love that Europe doesn't destroy all their history and just work around a lot of them.

I live in the netherlands ...in nijmegen and there are diggs and roman finds from time to time. Its a pitty people are not permitted to search with metal detectors anymore without a permit..Because the increase of finding some interesting roman or WW2 stuff for the world to share has decreased significantly.

they went over the Scottish border and discovered whisky. No mystery why they never came back.

OMG. I read that book as a 10 year old, which started my love of history. That was 42 years ago. No one I have met has ever read it! Thank you!

If you enjoyed Sutcliffe's book, check out the film, "The Eagle" Adapted from Sutcliffe's work, it is really quite good!

What a fascinating video. It was very nice to see the evidence being presented by experts and the tentative conclusions based on that evidence properly weighed and considered. Too many popular presentations seem to feel they have to present an unexpected conclusion.

Considering that absolutely nothing is known about the fate of the Legio IX, they've done remarkably well to spin this documentary out for over an hour 🙄

There's archaeological evidence that the IX Legion was first transfered to southern Holland, then onto the Parthian border, where it might have been destroyed in 167AD

Fascinating and well presented, with intriguing mystery 👍👏👌

Great documentary. Will we ever know for sure?

Theodor Mommsen also analysed the collection of roman coins owned by the family von Bar. Their farmers had collected a huge amount of roman coins while plowing in the region east of the city of Osnabrueck in Germany. In 1892 he published his analyse and suggested that the battle of the Teutoburg Forest must have taken place in that area. Now we know Mommsen was right (see the objects in the Museum of Kalkriese). It's therefore possible that Mommsen was also right when he said the 9th Legion had been wiped out during an uprising in York.

An astounding documentary 👏

I live in Sheffield and there is a hill fort in a area called wincobank which is believed to be a Brigante one. It’s amazing standing up there thinking of the native Britain’s fighting off the 9th. The Peak Districts hill forts would have also been controlled by them as well.

‘To future historians, we have disbanded the 3rd janitorial team for the night shift at Morganne Pierpont Bank. They all went home or found another job. They didn’t disappear. Thank you.’

I could listen to Lucy Creighton for hours.

Isn`t the 9th the legion that was attributed to some building works in Belgium well after the date of their disappearance in history. There is a popular theory that they moved and where not wiped out. Only the evidence of them moving was wiped out ( by time ). Sometimes it is not a mystery at all.

Edit: 55:30. "Exceptionally sanguineous". what a great word!!

Quite interesting theories on the demise of the Ninth Legion. Very good documentary film.

You da best Anna''Keep up the good work you do

Eagle of the 9th did it for me too. But for me it was picking up one of my son's books. Loved The Shining Company too. Good survey of all the evidence on the 9th, several which were new to me. One thing I do know is old Momsen's opinion is always worth listening to.

The Ninth was last recorded in Germania Inferior (Netherlands/Belgium) not Britain. The Eagle of the Ninth was entirely fiction. The last records of the Ninth in Britannia were in 108, over ten years before its "disappearance" around 120AD.

Just rewatched the movie Centurion this week.

Beautifully done! ❤ Tristan.

If anyone wants a good, quasi-somewhat-fictional, read about The Boudican Revolt: Give Simon Scarrow's Eagles of the Empire series a read. Specifically his last 2 books: "Death to the Emperor" & "Rebellion".

Excellent show. And one of the best channels on RU-vid.

Excellent video! I think you are correct personally. I think they were almost destroyed if not wholly destroyed in the north of Britain. When that happened, they were either disbanded or rolled into the 6th.

There are two Gravestones above SASBACH near Breisach in the Blackforest next to the River Rhein.The stones show the buried are from the Legion Britanicus ,which I think had the remanents of the 9th Legion.They are to be found on the hill behind the Guesthause at Sasbach next to the River Rhein. This is a corner of Germany with a lot of history,well worth a visit after research.Famous French General in the 16-17th Centuries.and abattle was nearby. Also next to the Kaiserstuhl is a small town claiming GEORGE and the DRAGON ! There is a lot more.BE BLESSED😃😃

I remember listening to a very good radio broadcast of the Eagle of the Ninth when I was about 10. I didn’t then become a historian but I did join the British Army. Not just because of the book but it was influential.

Excellent film!!!👍

Great episode thanks

Last summer, I saw some ninth legionaries at a gas station in Kalamazoo.

5000 men and no archaeological evidence, not even a shield. Odd no transport logs to other places? Great program!

You know, I sat here for one hour , unknowingly being subject to other's egos.Bring back Rome.

Good enough for them! I say it looks very much like they ended up feeding the forest like several other legions that crossed the roman wall.

I know I left that Legion around here somewhere.

The ninth legion could have easily been merged and whatever writings of it gone lost over time, seems like a needle in a haystack thing. It didn't disappear over night, the paper trail is lost and that's it. I find the whole Claudian Invasion way more intriguing than the endless search around the Mediterranean of a lost legion.. Still a good upload tho! Thanks

They called Obelix Fat! That was the end of the Ninth Legion.

I love The Eagle of the Ninth

Very interesting fakts. Thx

Interesting history...you Brits have some great story tellers

They went over the Wall and got wiped out by the Picts clearly😂

The Maetae did for the 9th on that traditional killing ground, the Carse of Stirling.

They discovered bonny Scottish lasses “coming thru the rye”. Settled down. Together created 2 new Scottish clans, the MacNinths and the McLegions. The rest is history.

Excellent

Just got to love how they call Scotland the North of Britain lol

Excellent.

Is there a way to find out about the battle with the Ordvician and Silures?

It was the same Book by me! Unbelievable but I read it in German and than also the other ones Drachenschiffe am Horizont ,Der Adler der neunten Legion!

Hey thanks for this I’m a bit older watched a lot of Lee Marvin movies over the years had no idea he was a World War II Marine

During WW1 and WW2 we sometimes dissolved badly depleted divisions to provide reinforcements to other more healthy divisions as it makes sound military sense to do so. This activity was not confined to large units like divisions but all the way down the military scale and it was quite common for a soldier to have his battalion dissolved and to be transferred to another regiment altogether in which that soldier still identified as belonging to his mother unit even while wearing the trappings of his new one. Such is the power of that elusive 'esprit de corps' and I'm fairly sure that an old legionnaire of the Ninth Hispanola had plenty of that and would have liked to have that inscribed on his tomb despite spending a lot of time in other legions. It's for this reason I believe the 9th was dissolved to bring up to strength other legions with a levy of experienced veterans, nothing to do with disgrace, just sound military logic.

My theory is they were mostly wiped out in Scotland and the story of Agricola rescuing them is a a cover story. The Romans may have transported the bodies back south to hide the defeat. So soon after Boudica news of losing another legion would have been politically untenable. Roman officers were very political creatures.

Julius Cesar's 9th Legion knew he was an epileptic. & never thought any less of him as a leader.

Interesting theory that Hadrian's Wall might have been built to keep the people just south of it venturing north.

It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about Roman Empire 9th legon and their's building of York City in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 0 71 AD ..by Roman Empire government .....122 AD 9th legon vanished ?

35:51. Hadrian's wall seems redundant next to that cliff.

Respect ✊🏻

I was born in York and lived amongst all the Roman history. The Ninth marched out of York and their ghosts still march around the town. They have been seen in the basement of the Treasurers House in York. I have the Tile Stamp tattooed on my arm. Forever proud to be born in York. My daughter had 7 wisdom teeth, the DNA marker of the Vikings. I have named my film making studio Ninth Legion Films.

They got to the north west of England, decided that it was the most fabulous place they had ever seen, a real heaven on earth, beautiful women, fantastic food and the Lake District just up the road. I think that they assimilated into my wonderful Lancashire.

A gnarly old Scot told me; the legion sent a runner back to Braco (Ardoch) from their last known camp at Lixtoll, Perths. & were never heard of again - A clue in the name?

If a legion was destroyed the name was retired e.g. the legions of Varus.

It’s one of those things we will likely never know, personally I think it was disbanded to fill out other depleted legions

Great job, guys. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Did the British have their own written language at this time?

The 9th legion was simply disbanded. The Legion was well renowned for its heroic acts against the Celtic Queen’s revolt. The legion must’ve suffered heavy casualties in some unknown battle and the remaining soldiers were reorganized to different legions. There was rumor that the legion was destroyed in the Eastern front against the Parthian’s and to avoid shame the Government decided to quietly disband the legion for good.

Why is the legion sometimes referred to as IX and alternately as VIIII?

Wasn't the movie The Eagle about the IX Legion being gone as well, besides trying to find the Eagle?

Best video ever

I heard a tale about a Roman legion sent to explore the border between Egypt and Lybia. This legion is supposed to have disappeared from history. Would you do a feature on this incident? Thank you.

27:50 - The guys probably were resting after dinner, armor off, some dozing off. Scrambling for their weapons as a horde of screaming Scotsman storm into the camp. I'll bet head (literally) rolled over this mess.

Known as the VIIII apparently, that’s what was found on a carved stoned in Northumbria. The last time they were mentioned

This legion was known to be in the province of Germania Inferior during the first half of the second century A.D. It likely was transferred later on to the province of Cappadocia and was the legion lost in 161 A.D. under Sedatius Severianus at Elegia; destroyed by the Parthians under the command of Chosroes.

Wasn't this doc about the Ninth Legion released a month or so ago? It seems that History Hit needs to rerelease its catalog of docs every 18 months or so? Based upon the frequency of repeated Mary Beard Roman docs on YT.

Go and look at the Burial stones between Neath ( Nidum ) and Bontfaen ( Bonium) there have been 14000 Burial stones counted with Roman Markings .

My guess at the best explanation based on the evidence or lack of it at the moment supports the theory of a gradual wearing down of the Legion over a period of years until it became so weakened operationaly that Its remaining units were broken up when the 6th arrived and just dissolved amongst other Legions This would explain perfectly why there are no 9th stamps on any parts of the Hadrians wall for example coupled with the strange complete dissapearance of the 9th suddenly The reality would be the 9th WAS in fact still "present" physically in some form BUT no longer under the banner of the 9th, its remaining members having been dispersed between the other Legions building the wall thus those same hands that a decade before stamped similar bricks Legio IX Hispania now stamped them with the name of there new parent legion ? I imagine it rushing around like a firefighter or whack a mole in the North under constant pressure at a time when Britain was not a priority so thus It didn't receive the replacements and supplies It needed to replenish its ranks and the decision on a cost benefit basis was made in the end to just replace It with the 6th There would probably have been poor morale and a feeling of abandonment by the Empire by this time also and It cant be discounted that this led may have led to some murmerings and cases of insurrection or , desertion even amongst the members, something that may have made reconstituition a worse idea than to split up the remaining units into completely new parent Legions To me the idea of it being wiped out in the North in one major conflagation seems less likely owing to the fact that this more dramatic end would be more likely to have been recorded somewhere whereras a drip like erosion of Its resources at the very far edge of the Empire then disbandment could more easily pass into history unoticed Its just NOT such an exciting story Is it? Sometimes you have to do your best to infer events from the ABSENCE of evidence that you would exoect to be there as well as compared to the presence of eveidence as a historian What Is MISSING can sometimes tell us as much as what is present ! Anyway for the time being thats my 2 bobs worth! Loving this anyway, great series and of course I remember like many on here reading The Eagle oi the 9th as a 8-9 yr old and being totally captivated 😍

I was there 2,000 years ago as part of the IX Legio; we fought the Caledonian, but it was useless. We asked for reinforcement, but Cap. said no, many of our legionnaires were killed, and the few that survived decided to desert to the mountains. Not to mention, the Brigantes were hunting our heads; as you all know, those barbarians were head hunters, and so we had to run and hide. Later, we intermarried with local Britannia women, had a family, and became farmers. We blended with the local populations. When legions came looking for us, we hid and remained hidden. We enjoyed our peaceful farming working life, as did our wives and kids.

Boy you feel for those 2000 Roman soldiers facing off against Boudicas 100,000! Rough odds!

@33:07 - Isn't that bad Roman? The VIIII? Shouldn't that be IX? Just wondering.

Maybe they were disbanded and the Romans sent them to other legions and other countries..

Have you looked down the back of the Sofa ? ……. Thats where i found my remote .

See Chester fascinates me... built big enough to hold four legions, but never used by four legions. If I had to rebuild a unit, that's where I would send them. Not to a fort by itself.

Many similarities with my Homeland ancient DACIA! Fact is only 1/3 of King Decebalus territory was indeed under Imperial Roma ruled.. the 2/3 rd remained as free dacians such as Carpi& Costoboci tribes who were INVOLVED in numerous clashes with roman legions stationed in Dacia "Felix" .. for instance Legion XIII Gemina from Apulum ( Alba Iulia today) ...

Random question but.. How us Iceni pronounced? I thought that it was always a hard c in Latin. Kaesar not Seesar, so should it be Eyekeenigh? Eyekeeknee?

12:00 because, after all, Rome is well known for using restraint when setting an example. 😅

Good

Totally skipped Queen Cartmunda of the Brigantia had a treaty with rome and handed Cariticus over to them.

When i was a child we used to find Roman Roof Tiles and bricks in local fields now built on.We are believed to have a Roman paved road that goes nowhere.Yet if you stand on the end of it by Brunnels railway you can see the Roman Legion taxation fort on the Fosse.Some say there is a Roman Legion fort in a dip of the ridge where the road is between the taxation fort.All earmarked for building development.Not far from the Taxation fort are supposed to be some form of ground workings with visible building outlines on goggle maps. In one hedge line there was a World War 2 antiaircraft gun inplacement we called the sand pit.Still there if you know where to look by a bus stop.One of the guys that maned it was a Sheffield Wedensday Footballer thats apparently how he met his wife. Are well 70 and still reading. Sadly the money,s not aviable to find more about such sites.

Both Nations( Romanian& British) have common historical heritage! Especially latin one. Mind you, both nations have a long history before roman imperial conquest. In fact former Kingdom of Dacia ( Decebalus Rex) was the last major conquest of Roman Emperator Trajan in 106 ad...