Legio XXI Rapax Roman Standard

The Legio XXI Rapax, the “Rapacious”, was established by Augustus around 31 BC, probably by reorganising existing units and supplementing them with recruits from northern Italy. Its emblem was the Capricorn, typical of the Augustan legions.

Sent to Hispania Tarraconensis, it took part in the hard campaigns against the Cantabri, and was then used by Drusus in the subjugation of the Raeti (16–15 BC). After the annexation of Raetia the legion was permanently stationed along the Danube, at Castra Regina, controlling a sensitive sector of the Alpine limes.

After the disaster of the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9) the XXI Rapax was transferred to the lower Rhine, to Vetera, alongside the V Alaudae, taking part in the suppression of Germanic unrest and the great Pannonian revolt. In 69 it backed Vitellius during the “Year of the Four Emperors” and fought at Bedriacum, before being used by Vespasian against the Batavian revolt. It was later deployed between Mogontiacum and Vindonissa, caught up in the tensions on the upper Rhine. Compromised in the revolt of Lucius Antonius Saturninus (AD 89), it was moved to Pannonia and finally annihilated in the campaigns against the Sarmatians and Dacians under Domitian, around AD 92.