Legio V ''Iovia'' was a

Roman legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of t ...

levied by Diocletian in the end of the 3rd century, and was still in service at the beginning of the 5th century. The

cognomen A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became her ...

of the legion refers to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...

, to whom Diocletian (also known as ''Iovianus'', "the man like Jupiter") was devoted and identified. The V ''Iovia'' was stationed, together to her sister legion VI ''Herculia'', in Pannonia Secunda, a new

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

created with the segmentation of the old

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...

province. The legion received the ordinal "Fifth" because in Pannonia there were already four legions. The purpose of the legion, having her permanent camp in '' Bononia'' and an advanced ''

castellum A ''castellum'' in Latin is usually: * a small Roman fortlet or tower,C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War; 2,30 a diminutive of (' military camp'), often used as a watchtower or signal station like on Hadrian's Wall. It should be distinguished from ...

'' in ''Onagrinum'', was to protect the imperial residence of Diocletian in ''

Sirmium Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous provice of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrians an ...

'' ( Illyricum). The ''

Notitia Dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...

'' locates the legion still in Illyricum at the beginning of the 5th century. It is possible that some men from this legion and from the VI ''Herculia'' formed the Jovians and Herculians, the new imperial bodyguard of Diocletian. If this identification is correct, V ''Iovia'' men had the appellative ''martiobarbuli'', since they were expert in throwing

plumbata ''Plumbatae'' or ''martiobarbuli'' were lead-weighted darts carried by infantrymen in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. History The first examples seem to have been carried by the Ancient Greeks from about 500 BC onwards, but the best-known us ...

, small darts carried by five in the inside of their shields.

Vegetius Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius (), was a writer of the Later Roman Empire (late 4th century). Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: ''Epitoma rei militaris'' (also ...

, '' De Re Militari'', book i.

Notes

References

* Ritterling, Emil, "Legio – Legio V Iovia", ''Realencyclopädie of Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft'', vol 12, 1925. Throug

livius.org account
{{Roman Legion} Roman legions, 05 Iovia Military units and formations established in the 3rd century History of Vidin

See also

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References