LEGIO FULMINATA

LEGIO FULMINATA. — This was the twelfth Roman legion, which, after taking part in the siege of Jerusalem under Vespasian, was stationed at Melitene in Armenia. Marcus Aurelius summoned it to take part in the war against the Germans and the Sarmatians. During that campaign, specifically in the summer of A.D. 174, the l. f. was the protagonist of an extraordinary event. The Roman army had been reduced to a desperate situation by the continual drought when, suddenly, a providential downpour made it possible to alter the course of the battle. The episode, certainly authentic, is related by writers who were nearly contemporary and independent of one another, both Christian and pagan, and was also reproduced on the third band of the column erected in 180 in honour of Marcus Aurelius. On the Christian side, it was written about by Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, a few years after the event (Eusebius, Hist.

eccl., V, 5), and Tertullian (Apol., 5; Ad Scapulam, 4). Their account is substantially identical: they attribute the event to the prayers of the Christians serving in the l. f. Apollinaris further adds the detail, certainly inaccurate, that as a result of that event the l. received the name f.; it is clear, however, that this appellation had already been in use for a long time. Tertullian, on the other hand, reports that not only did the Emperor write to the Senate recounting what had happened, but that he also openly attributed the credit to the Christians, against whose accusers he threatened the death penalty. The detail concerning Marcus Aurelius’s letter is also attested by Cassius Dio, who reports the episode (Hist. Rom., LXXI, 8), but Dio relates that the rain was obtained through the incantations of a certain Egyptian magician, Arnuphis, who was with the Emperor, and through prayers addressed to Hermes. Finally, the scene depicted on the column, certainly inspired by the philosophical ideas of Marcus Aurelius, is presented in an almost neutral form, since it represents the rain as personified: on the one hand it refreshes the Roman army, while on the other it strikes down and overwhelms that of the barbarians. That there were Christians in the l. f. is highly probable, since Christianity had already long been widespread in Cappadocia, where it was stationed; according to s. Gregorio Nisseno, the 40 martyrs of Sebastia who perished under Licinius belonged to II.