Legio I Italica Roman Standard

Legio I Italica was created by Nero on 22 September AD 66, originally under the name Phalanx Alexandri Magni, for a planned but never realised expedition to Armenia through the Caspian Gates.

Recruited in Italy, from men selected for their above-average height, it remained in the peninsula during the Year of the Four Emperors, initially siding with Vitellius and permanently taking the name Italica.

After the accession of Vespasian it was transferred to Moesia, based at Novae on the Danube, where it remained for centuries as a pillar of the Danube limes and a centre of intense building activity, in particular bridges and infrastructure along the river. It took part in Trajan’s Dacian wars and in the campaigns against the Germanic tribes under Marcus Aurelius. In the Severan age it supported Septimius Severus against Pescennius Niger, also operating at Byzantium and in the East. In the 3rd century it helped build the limes Transalutanus and detachments operated in Dalmatia; inscriptions attest its presence on the Danube as late as the early 5th century, a sign of a long and continuous history in the service of the Empire.