Legio XVI Flavia Firma Roman Standard

The Legio XVI Flavia Firma (“steadfast Flavian legion”) was a Roman legion created by the emperor Vespasian in AD 70, incorporating units of the disgraced XVI Gallica, which had surrendered during the Batavian revolt. The cognomen “Firma” meant “steadfast, one that does not flee”, an honorific title granted to restore the honour lost by the earlier soldiers. Its emblem was a winged Pegasus, although some studies also point to the lion.

After the civil war of the four emperors and the First Jewish War, the XVI Flavia Firma was assigned to the province of Cappadocia from AD 71, based at Satala to protect the Euphrates frontier. It remained there until the end of Trajan’s principate, taking part in his campaigns against the Parthians (AD 114-117).

Under Hadrian the legion was transferred to Samosata in Syria, where it remained permanently in the centuries that followed. During the reign of Lucius Verus it took part in the reconquest of Mesopotamia from the Parthians (AD 161-166). In the 3rd century it probably fought against the Sassanids during the campaign of Alexander Severus. In the 4th century it was still encamped at Sura, in Syria, tasked with guarding the eastern limes on the Euphrates.