XXII Deiotariana
Heavy Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Founded in 48 BC by the Allied client King of Galatia, Deiotarus based on the Roman model.
Description
One of the original 28 Augustan Legions
The legion was levied by Deiotarus, king of the Celtic tribe of the Tolistobogii, who lived in Galatia, modern Turkey. Deiotarus became an ally of the Roman Republic general Pompey in 63 BC, who named him king of all the Celtic tribes of Turkey, which were collectively known as Galatians (hence the name Galatia for the region). Deiotarus levied an army and trained it with Roman help; the army, in 48 BC, was composed of 12,000 infantrymen and 2,000 horsemen. Cicero writes that the army was divided into thirty cohortes, which were roughly equivalent to three Roman legions of the time. This army supported the Romans in their wars against king Mithridates VI of Pontus, and contributed to Roman victory in the Third Mithridatic War.
After a heavy defeat against king Pharnaces II of Pontus near Nicopolis, the survivor soldiers of Deiotarius' army formed a single legion, which marched besides Julius Caesar during his victorious campaign against Pontus, and fought with him in the battle of Zela (47 BC).
When the Roman Empire integrated the Galatian kingdom, this legion, which had been trained by the Romans and had fought under Roman commanders, became part of the Roman army; since Caesar Augustus had already 21 legions, the legion received the number XXII. Augustus sent the Twenty-second to camp in Nicopolis (next Alexandria, in Aegyptus) together with III Cyrenaica. These two legions had the role of garrisoning the Egyptian province from threats both within and without, given the multi-ethnical nature of Alexandria.
Under Trajan, XXII was officially known as 'Deiotariana', even if this was its unofficial name since Claudian times. The last record of XXII Deiotariana is from 119. In 145, when a list of all existing legions was made, XXII Deiotariana was not listed. It is likely that XXII Deiotariana was destroyed during the Jewish rebellion of Simon bar Kochba (132-136).