A lead sling bullet has been discovered. It is thought to bear Julius Caesar’s name “CAES” along with “IPSCA,” a nearby town that supported Caesar and supplied him with both weapons and men during Caesar’s Civil War against the Optimates (49-45 BCE). 
 

The bullet was found near modern day Montilla in Andalusia, Spain. This finding supports the belief that the climactic Battle of Munda (17 March 45 BCE) was fought nearby. At the battle Caesar decisively defeated a larger force led by former Caesar general and ally Titus Labienus and Gnaeus Pompeius (eldest son of Pompey).

Location of Montilla, possibly the site of the Battle of Munda, where the bullet was discovered.

https://youtu.be/_Z2cJlbkDmE?si=jwTuzSiDD2UisWyG

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69175

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/01/julius-caesar-inscribed-sling-bullet-found-in-montilla/150138

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Munda

Four Roman swords and a pilum head were discovered in an Israeli cave in an area of isolated cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea. They are thought to be from the second century AD. A coin from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132-135 AD  was found near the cave entrance.

Quote

"The hiding of the swords and the pilum in deep cracks in the isolated cave north of ‘En Gedi hints that the weapons were taken as booty from Roman soldiers or from the battlefield, and purposely hidden by the Judean rebels for reuse," Eitan Klein, one of the directors of the Judean Desert Survey Project, said in a statement.

Four Roman swords and pilum head

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/roman-swords-discovered-dead-sea-cave-1900-years-jewish-rebellion-rcna103580

https://apnews.com/article/israel-archaeology-antiquities-roman-27eed13d005c84d8f799cb1fe6bdf36a

(Thank you, Dr Tom, for sending the link.)

We have had several previous posts on the Teutoburg disaster. Here is an excellent article by Professor Jo Ball that reassesses Publius Quinctilius Varus who commanded the doomed Romans in AD 9. He was possibly not the incompetent general as previously believed.

Dr Ball contends that Varus, in fact, “was an experienced commander and governor who had served irregular wars and managed complex diplomatic situations, responding effectively to rebellions when called upon.”
 

https://antigonejournal.com/2023/11/varus-teutoburg-disaster/

The Gonio Fortress (also known as Asparos) was a magnificent structure on the Black Sea coast in Georgia. There is numismatic evidence that Legio X Fretensis stopped at the fort on their way to campaign with Trajan during his Parthian wars (see post below). There has been more recent discoveries in the area: a gem stone depicting Minerva and a stone slab with Latin inscriptions (see article below):

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/11/new-discoveries-at-gonio-roman-fortress/149100

Here is an older post of the drone view of the Gonio fortress from several years ago:

Quote

Archaeologists have discovered “massive” ancient Roman forts that redraw the borders of the ancient empire using images from a declassified satellite spying program of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Quote

“We show that the forts form a roughly east-west line following the margins of the inland desert, connecting Mosul on the Tigris River in the east with Aleppo in western Syria,” the archeologists write in the paper.

https://arkeonews.net/declassified-cia-satellite-spy-program-reveals-lost-ancient-roman-forts/

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/wall-or-a-road-a-remote-sensingbased-investigation-of-fortifications-on-romes-eastern-frontier/8FE59FB0D5476EA329614EEC6DC414FD

More than 400 fragments of iron was discovered in 2018 at Kalkriese, Germany, site of the Varus defeat at the Teutoburg Forrest Battle site. It has been recently reassembled and the result was a nearly complete set of lorica segmentata. It is made of 30 plates.

It has been suggested that it was so well preserved as it was part of a triumph ritual.

It is now on display for the first time in a new exhibit at Kalkriese Museum “Cold Case: Death of a Legionary.”

https://www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de/museum-park/ausstellungen/cold-case-tod-eines-legionaers.html

Here is a reenactor of the 1st century AD armor:

Here is a wonderful video by Invicta about the logistics of the Roman army on the move:

Here is a great scene from the HBO series “Rome.”

Here is a nice article on the sixteen (or seventeen) stone forts on Hadrian’s Wall:

Quote

Construction began along the route of the Stanegate Road in AD 122 and was completed in just seven years. 16 Stone Forts were built every five Roman miles (a Roman mile is a thousand paces), and in-between were 80 milecastles, numerous turrets, 6 supply forts, and an earthwork erected south of the wall known as the Vallum.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/01/vallum-aulium-hadrians-wall/136689

Quote

One of the most debated mysteries from the Roman period involves the disappearance of the Legio IX Hispana, a legion of the Imperial Roman Army that supposedly vanished sometime after AD 120.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/10/legio-ix-hispana-the-lost-roman-legion/135890

Quote

The fate of the legion has been the subject of considerable research and speculation. One theory proposes that the legion was wiped out campaigning in northern Britain after AD 108 by the northern tribes, which was popularised in a novel called “The Eagle of the Ninth”.

This theory is now contested by modern scholars after the discovery of successive inscriptions of IX Hispana discovered at the Roman fortress of Noviomagus Batavorum in Nijmegen (Netherlands), suggesting elements of the 9th were stationed there from AD 120, although some scholars argue that this was simply a detachment of the 9th and not the whole legion.

According to the 19th-century German classicist Theodor Mommsen, the 9th was wiped out during Brigante raids against Eboracum, with Mommsen stating “under Hadrian there was a terrible catastrophe here, apparently an attack on the fortress of Eboracum and the annihilation of the legion stationed there, the very same Ninth that had fought so unluckily in the Boudican revolt.”

guy also known as gaius

Goldsworthy makes the point that there is more of a continuity between the Parthians and Sassanians than modern historians usually state.
 

Despite the numerous and often bloody conflicts, Goldsworthy explores the often beneficial trade between the cultures and the possibility that mutual respect (as well as internal struggles and constraints of geography) prevented their trying to totally vanquish the other. Usually, the conflict between the Romans and Persia was a struggle for influence rather than direct control. Armenia was often the source of this struggle.

Recommend highly.

Archaeologists have found several fragments of wine amphorae as well as two field ovens in Paderborn, Germany. These were thought to be evidence of a Roman marching camp. Charcoal from the ovens have been carbon dated to AD 12, possibly from the Augustan Germanic campaign under Tiberius with Germanicus.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/06/evidence-of-roman-marching-camp-found-in-paderborn/147847

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_campaigns_in_Germania_(12_BC_–_AD_16)

It’s interesting to know that the rather old technology of carbon dating was able to shed new light and date the military camp.

Here’s a good video on “Avenging Varus” that discusses the campaign in Germania (AD 10-14) under Tiberius and later Germanicus to revenge the disaster in Teutoburg Forest.

(Location of Paderborn, Germany)

Deep in the desolate Jordanian desert at Qsar Bshir is this wonderfully preserved, little-known Roman fort.

Quote

The inscription over the main entrance tells us that the installation, Castra Praetorium Mobene by name, was built during the reign of the emperor Diocletian and his colleagues between 293 and 305, under the governor of the province of Arabia. As well as providing unequivocal evidence for when the fort was founded, this helps us to date the whole framework of defence in this section of the eastern frontier. In particular, it reveals that the security arrangements were overhauled after the empire had weathered 50 years of turmoil, which included invasion, civil war, and violent political instability. Eventually, in 284, a soldier by the name of Diocles seized the empire, changed his name to Diocletian, and began a renewal that ushered in a new phase in the long history of the Roman Empire. Today we call this era ‘the late Roman Empire’.

https://www.world-archaeology.com/features/qasr-bshir/

In addition I finally watched the entire Once Upon a Time In China series for the first time in completeness rather than just stopping at the 3rd movie the last few times I seen the film over the past decades. The 4th movie had Jet Li on the mission to capture the pirates and he doesn't simply use the police but gets an entire militia and round up 50 volunteers so they can capture one of the heads through abn unexpected ship counterattack. He then uses the captured pirate leader to gather intel and attack the pirate base with an elite cadre of volunteers and then continues holding the elader hostage awaiting for the rest of the pirate fleet to attack the enarest town in retaliation for ransacking their unprotected base and in expectation they will try to free their leader by attacking the local prison. He has the complete militia force of over 200 to fortify the town and a big battle takes plae as over 400 pirates besiege the town.......

So this makes me wonder........ Were pirates so huge a deal that not only do local militaries like Jet Li's character in Once Upon A Time in China have to mobilize a military force to defend against them but even a brilliant military mind like JUlius Caesar have to be sent in sometimes to battle them?

Oh I almost forgot, Ben HUr even has a battle between Greek pirates and the Roman Navy that ended with not just the ROman deeat but the Admiral's ship being destroyed and it kicks off the whole reason why Massala was even able to become a charioteer. Because he saved the admiral from drowning, the Roman militaryman takes him in as an adopted son and gives him funding to become one of the best chariot rider throughout the whole empire.

Is this actual realistic? That actual professional navy could lose to a bunch of ragtailed pirates in an engagement?

For a long time I couldn't believe Caesar actually had been sent to fight pirates until I learned recently the event was real. And ditto with the idea of a Roman fleet facing defeat from pirates.......

Just how far fetched is Once Upon A Time in China sending Jet Li to mobilize a militia to defend a community from pirates? Was piracy really the big a danger?

There is numismatic evidence of Legio X Fretensis at the Roman fort of Apsaros in Adjara, Georgia on the Black Sea.

Quote

According to contemporary historical text, the X Fretensis was garrisoned in Judaea (20 BC), Syria (AD 6-66), Jerusalem (AD 73 to late 3rd century AD), and Aila (late 3rd century AD). However, excavations at the Roman fort of Apsaros in Adjara, Georgia, have uncovered evidence of the X Fretensis through the discovery of hundreds of bronze coins.

Quote

 

The coins likely originate from the treasury of Judea and were transported by the X Fretensis on their way to campaign against the Parthians during the reign of Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century AD.

Most of the coins come from Syrian Antioch and Judea, for which many have been stamped in a practice known as countermarking.

“Local coins were not minted at Apsaros, so the legionnaires used their own coins when purchasing wine or bread. They were small denominations used every day to buy food or services,” said: Dr Jaworski.

 

(Location of find at Roman fortress in Georgia near Black Sea)

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/05/study-finds-evidence-of-legio-x-fretensis-in-georgia/147438

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricimer

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspar#:~:text=As the general of a,the end%2C had him killed.

The Roman presence in Arabia is poorly documented and understood. (Below is a previous thread on the Roman presence there.)

Using Google Earth, researches have found evidence of three previously-undocumented Roman fortified camps in northern Arabia:

Quote

 

Dr Michael Fradley, who led the research, said: "We are almost certain they were built by the Roman army."

In the report, published in the journal Antiquity, he explained his conclusion was based on the "typical playing card shape of the enclosures with opposing entrances along each side".

The research team believes they may have been part of a previously undiscovered Roman military campaign "linked to the Roman takeover of the Nabataean Kingdom in 106 AD, a civilisation centred on the world-famous city of Petra, located in Jordan".

The team hypothesizes that, given the distance of 37 to 44 km between each camp, it was too far for infantry to travel in a single day and that the forts were instead constructed by a cavalry unit that could traverse such desolate terrain in that time, perhaps on camels.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-65391574

https://arkeonews.net/archaeologists-identify-three-new-roman-camps-in-arabia/