Legio II Italica Roman Standard

Legio II Italica was a Danube legion created under Marcus Aurelius to face the military crisis of the 2nd century.

Founded in 165–166, together with III Italica, it served to strengthen the Germanic front while Lucius Verus was engaged in the East against the Parthians. Its emblem was the she-wolf with the twins Romulus and Remus, underlining its direct link with Rome and the two founding emperors. The legion was initially stationed in the Alpine area, in the Praetentura Italiae et Alpium, to protect the northern approaches to the peninsula.

During the Marcomannic wars it was deployed to repel the great invasion of 170 and was then transferred to Noricum along the Danube, with bases at Albing and then, under Commodus, at Lauriacum (present-day Enns), which became its permanent headquarters. In 193 II Italica supported Septimius Severus in the struggle for power, earning the honorific title of fidelis for its loyalty. Still active in the 3rd century, it took part in campaigns in Dacia and against the Goths, remaining a pillar of the Danube defences until the late imperial age.