Legio XX Valeria Victrix Roman Standard

The legio XX Valeria Victrix was one of the longest-lived and most celebrated units of the Roman imperial army, probably raised by Augustus after Actium, between 31 and 25 BC, perhaps by reorganising an earlier Antonian XX.

Its first theatre of operations was Hispania Tarraconensis, where it fought in the hard Cantabrian wars, contributing to the final subjugation of the tribes of northern Iberia and to the founding of veteran colonies such as Emerita Augusta. It was subsequently deployed to Illyricum and along the Danube, engaged against the Marcomanni and in the Dalmatian-Pannonian revolts, occasions on which it may have earned the honorific nickname “Valeria Victrix”, “valiant and victorious”.

In AD 43 the XX was one of the four legions chosen by Claudius for the invasion of Britain, settling first in the area of Camulodunum and then moving to various camps in Wales and to Viroconium. It took part in the suppression of Boudica’s great revolt in 60/61, an episode that consolidated its reputation as an aggressive and reliable unit. In 69 it supported Vitellius in the civil war, sending vexillationes to Italy, before returning permanently to Britain. Under the Flavians and Agricola it played a leading role in the campaigns towards Caledonia and in the building of the camp at Inchtuthil. From the end of the 1st century its base became Castra Deva (Deva Victrix, today’s Chester), where it remained for over two centuries, defending the province until the early 4th century.