Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis Roman Standard

Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis was created by the emperor Vespasian in AD 70, enlisting sailors of the Ravenna fleet who had supported him in the civil war against Vitellius, hence the epithet “pia fidelis”.

Its first deployment was the suppression of the Batavian revolt in Germania Inferior, where it fought under Quintus Petillius Cerialis. When the campaign ended, the legion was transferred to Britannia to subdue the Brigantes led by Venutius, stationed between Deva (Chester) and Lindum (Lincoln) and taking part in the subjugation of the tribes of Wales and Scotland.

Recalled to the continent, it took part in Domitian’s Dacian wars, in which the young tribune Publius Aelius Hadrianus also served. It was later permanently deployed in Pannonia, based at Aquincum (present-day Budapest), from where it was employed in the campaigns against the Dacians and Sarmatians and later in the Parthian wars under Lucius Verus. The legion is attested along the middle Danube and on the Rhine until the early 4th century, a sign of a long history of frontier service. Its emblems were Pegasus and Capricorn, symbols of speed and astral protection.