The Eagle (2011)

[Pleater]

Oh - the Eagle of the Ninth - there is a book of that name but I am not sure if it is the same story.

The fate of the Ninth legion is something of a mystery - though an Eagle standard with the wings broken off was discovered buried some years ago. (Just checked - the eagle found at Silchester was not a standard - possibly from a statue of Jupiter)

I believe that the Ninth Legion had been serving in Africa before being sent North, so there would have been men with dark and very dark skin serving in it.

Perhaps the weather defeated them - I know some people of African ancestry have very poor tolerance of cold weather.

I knew a young man in my student days who used to have me cut his hair as it was a mixure of straight and crimped and he said no barber could cut it properly. He had a slight but distinct Negroid look, dark red hair, and long limbs - his skin was the typical very pale blue of the Scots - both his parents were Scottish and lived way off the beaten track.

At that time several people I knew who had read Eagle of the Ninth put forward the theory that not all the legion had died North of the wall.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: