Legio XII Fulminata Roman Standard

The Legio XII Fulminata was one of the longest-lived and most combative legions of the Roman army, the “bearer of the thunderbolt” as its emblematic name proclaims.

It was recruited by Gaius Julius Caesar in 58 BC., probably in the cities of Cisalpine Gaul, among them Mediolanum, for the campaign against the Helvetii and the subsequent Gallic wars. It fought throughout Caesar’s Celtic-Germanic campaigns, taking part in battles such as that against the Nervii and sustaining sieges of towns such as Alesia.

After the civil war and the battle of Pharsalus, in which it fought at Caesar’s side against Pompey, it was briefly disbanded in 45 BC and reorganised under Augustus, with the official name Fulminata and the thunderbolt as its symbol. In the First Jewish War it contributed to the siege and capture of Jerusalem in AD 70, winning great honour and recognition. Destroyed by the Parthian king Orodes near the river Cinicomadi in AD 6, it was nevertheless quickly re-founded and assigned to the eastern limes: its main base was Melitene (Malatya), where it guarded the crossing of the Euphrates until the early 5th century. There, amid Parthians, Alans and Caucasian troubles, the XII Fulminata remained a military bulwark of the Empire on its eastern frontier.