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Legio I Noricorum
Bust of Diocletian. Arkeoloji Müzesi, İstanbul (Turkey). Photo Marco Prins.
Bust of Diocletian (Arkeoloji Müzesi, İstanbul)
 Legio I Noricorum: one of the legions of the later Roman empire. Its name means 'the first legion of the Noricans'.

This legion was created by the emperor Diocletian (284-305) to defend the Danube in the province of Noricum (southwestern Austria and eastern Slovenia). It had to collaborate with a much older legion, II Italica.

That our unit was already there in the last decade of the third century can be shown from a dedication to the god Mithras by an officer of this unit, which was found at Virunum (near modern Klagenfurt in southern Austria). The legion was stationed at Adiuvense (modern Ybbs).

Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine
Detail of the Mithras monument of Klagenfurt.
Detail of the Mithras monument of Klagenfurt (©!!!)
 The legion is still mentioned as serving in Noricum and neighboring Pannonia in the early fifth-century text known as Notitia Dignitatum. It must have disappeared not much later.



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