Lord Keviv

Which were the last Roman(West) Legions to survive and where were their last postings?

andrewrz

There might be a last official post, instruction or something along these lines.
However I think the truth is by the time Rome was driven back into Italy the legion ceased to existed as we envision them. Really what happens is the Romans looked to the barbarians to defend from barbarians. eventually they all became the same people more or less. A few people probably died when the barbarian king took control but is was more or less a non-event.
So you might imagine an army mostly barbarian with maybe 10 out of 100 roman equipped.
For whatever reason they trade in for barbarian equipment and the legon is over. Of corse the organization that really made the legion great would be long gone by this point anyway.

sylla1

Here is a recent good discussion on essentially the same issue but for the whole Roman Emmire (West & East) including some contributions of yours truly http://www.historum.com/ancient-hist...ml#post1236081

The Notitia Dignitatum ("relation of dignitaries"), in particular its Pars Occidentalis written circa 425 AD mentioned some 29 units under the name Legio (from a total of more than four hundred military units) but most if not all of them were typical "late legions" with approx. 500-1000 men.
AFAIK with a possible single exception none of them was ever attested again.

The exception was mentioned by the poet Claudianus circa 402 as having being moved from Britannia by the famous Flavius Stilicho to face the Visigothic threat in the continent.
Circumstantial evidence suggests that the unit in question was Legio VI Victrix, traditionally based in Eboracum, Britannia Inferior.

After the conquest of the city of Rome by Odovacer in 476 AD, the last Magister Militum per Gallias Aegidius and his son Syagrius commanded the last independent Roman pocket of the Western Empire in what is today northern France for an additional decade:


It is possible (just that) that some legion(s) or their remnants would have been still present there.

Lord Keviv

Thanks.Is there any book/fiction that refers to life of a legionary during the days of the last legions?

Nego

There are several versions of lists stating the deployment areas of the legions during different years, but the versions seem to be heavily contradicting. For example, the 'lost legion' rumoured to have been wiped out in Caledonia has been reported to have been moved to fight in the eastern provinces around the same time.

Suppose the barbarian foederati were eventually given free reins to control the structure of the military and the legions were not kept up, instead bringing in barbarian cavalry units etc.