Legio IV Macedonica Roman Standard

Legio IV Macedonica was created by Gaius Julius Caesar in 48 BC, enlisting Italic legionaries for the civil war against Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. It fought straight away at Dyrrhachium and above all at Pharsalus, where Caesar defeated Pompey, and from then on it was linked to his name. When the conflict ended, the legion was stationed in Macedonia, from which it derived the cognomen Macedonica.

Octavian, the future Augustus, used the legion first against Caesar’s assassins at Philippi (42 BC), then against Mark Antony at Actium (31 BC), making it one of his most trusted units. He later transferred it to Hispania Tarraconensis for the Cantabrian Wars, to garrison the new Roman dominion in the West. In the early imperial age IV Macedonica was then deployed on the Rhine, in the Germanic area, taking part in the defence of the limes and intervening in the turmoil of the 1st century AD.

During the “Year of the Four Emperors” (AD 69) the legion backed Vitellius against Otho and Vespasian, a choice that sealed its political end. In AD 70 Vespasian disbanded it, using its veterans to found the Legio IV Flavia Felix, a new unit loyal to the Flavian dynasty.