The fate of the 9th Spanish Legion of the Imperial Roman Army is a mystery that fascinates historians.

The Legion was originally created in the first century

B.C. after the Marion Military Reforms of the Roman Republic's army.

It would be deployed and redeployed throughout the Republic's imperial reach before being

posted as a key legion in the Roman invasion of Britain under the Emperor Claudius

from the year 43.

The 9th Legion appears to have remained in Britain for the remainder of the first century,

witnessing the failed uprising of the Isini people under their Queen Budica.

It would continue to campaign in Britain as the Romans attempted to push further northwards on the island, but after being present

while the Romans campaigned in the lands of the modern country of Scotland, the ninth legion

seems to disappear from history. In this episode we tell the story of the

ninth Legion and investigate this mysterious disappearance to see if we can work out what's happened. The History of the World Podcast, written and World, Episode 45 A. The Roman 9th Legion 9th Legion So, Firstly, let's set the scene. It is the end of the second century B.C. in the Roman Republic.

The Roman Republic existed before the Roman Empire, but the Republic had become an empire in its own right

due to the fact that it now ruled over many different peoples in many different lands.

Successes over the Carthaginians and the Greeks had enabled the

Republic to now control an area beyond the Italian Peninsula which included large amounts of territory on the Iberian

Peninsula and the Balkan Peninsula as well as significant land holdings in Western

Anatolia and a region of North Africa centered on the conquered city of Carthage,

modern Tunis.

With the expansion of the state, more peasants were heading for the wealth of the cities.

And this meant that less agricultural yield was being produced and of course those who were not members of the higher classes were the ones to suffer as a consequence.

So there became a very definite divide between the upper class known as the patricians and the rest of the citizens known as the plebeians.

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