Julius Caesar's Famed 10th Legion - Rome Embroidered T-Shirt
The 10th was the most favored, celebrated, and decorated of all of Julius Caesar’s Legions. When Gaius Julius Caesar arrived in Hispania Ulterior (Farther Spain) as the region’s Governor in 61 B.C., he soon realized the need to subdue the areas to his west and northwest (present day Portugal), and to this end he recruited a third Legion to add to the two he already had under his command. This Legion, the 10th, made up entirely of Spaniards – who were well known to be amongst the toughest men in the known world, if not the toughest - was the first Legion Julius Caesar had ever personally recruited and formed. As raw recruits, the 10th proved itself to be both strong and very loyal to Caesar that summer. In 58 B.C., upon commencing what would become the Gallic Campaign, the 10th was one of four Legions that Caesar brought with him from Spain, and the unit was immediately instrumental at the Battles of Arar and Bibracte as Caesar subdued the Helvetii and stopped their mass migration into western Gaul. The Gallic Tribes then petitioned Caesar for his aid against Ariovistus, King of the German Suebi tribe. Not knowing what to make of Caesar and his Legions, King Ariovistus suggested a peace conference but, knowing that Caesar’s cavalry was mainly composed of Aedian (a Gallic tribe) auxiliaries whose loyalty to Caesar was questionable, insisted that each side should only be accompanied by mounted troops. But foreseeing Ariovistus’ reasoning, Caesar ordered a group of the Aedians to dismount and had legionaries from the 10th ride in their place. This incident earned the Legion its nickname Equestris (mounted), began its reputation as Caesar’s personal bodyguard, and instilled in its men a great sense of pride and camaraderie with their General. Soon afterwards, the 10th was responsible for saving three of Caesar’s other Legions from destruction against the Nervians in 57. The 10th would continue to serve under Caesar with impeccable distinction and bravery throughout the Gallic Campaign, both invasions of Brittania, and his Civil War with Gnaeus Pompeiius Magnus (Pompey). The unit would always occupy the dangerous and strategically important right flank in battle. At the Civil War’s decisive Battle at Pharsalus, Pompey gave his cavalry explicit orders to cut off the 10th – by then universally known as “Caesar’s Legion” – from the rest of Caesar’s army and destroy it. The 10th routed Pompey’s cavalry and held the right flank as they always did as their General routed the rest of Pompey’s army. By the end of summer 45, the men of the 10th had been serving for nearly seventeen years. Caesar – under whom they’d marched for their entire existence – then discharged them and gave them the substantial bonuses he’d promised them. But as recruiting went on all over Italia for the Caesar’s planned Parthian Campaign – one which would’ve been far larger and more complex than any in Rome’s history – and the Ides of March approached in 44 B.C., nearly every veteran of the 10th reenlisted for another 16 years under their beloved General.
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