The Thunderbolt Legion

[TMA_1]

one of the best performing legions during the julio-claudian line of emperors was the thunderbolt legion. They were some of the most loyal and capable of solders in rome. As a matter of fact, they were always placed in the front lines with great legions like the 10th and others. they were slaughtered though. you know why? because they were christians.

Nero found out about this legion's religious beliefs and because of his bitterness towards christianity and how he used them by pinning the blame on them for the great fire of rome, he made the entire legion renounce Jesus. All of the people of the legion told nero that they would serve and die for him. That their lord taught complete obediance to their king. still though that they served a higher power and would spiritally always look at him as the king of kings.

The emperor then decided to line up the entire legion and kill every tenth solder counted.

they still would not submit to the emperor.

so finally, with the emperor's orders, another legion was called and they slaughteered the entire thunderbolt legion in one of the games nero gave. They did not fight it at all because they knew they would be in heaven with God.

I just thought it was an interesting story.

[Caid Ivik]

Well known Thunderbolt Legion was a model for german SS. It was stationed in Palestine in Jesus' times, also one of its soldiers called Longinus (who impaled Jesus on spear to ensure crucification was succesful) was Himmler's biggest idol.

[Anathema]

Interesting story. Was the entire legion christian?

[Caid Ivik]

Of course not, state's religion was the cult of Jupiter and his pantheon. But possibly some converted, especially after Jesus' death.

[TMA_1]

ivik you have that totally wrong, most solders actually followed a persian cult that was totally based on war. I will look for it's name. You could worship any way you wanted to, As long as you accepted that the roman god's existed, and that the emperor was a god, then like I said, you could worship any way you want to. The reason being is, the romans had a growing pantheon of Gods, as a matter of fact they worshiped the jewish god when they took control of israel. Every god or goddess found in a territory was worshipped out of fear and superstition that the god, if real, would exact vengance on rome for not being worshipped.

The entire legion stated themselves as christian. Of course you cant count to the last person. but all of them died for their faith, so they must have all been at least sincere about their beliefs.

[Caid Ivik]

Roman Emperors were no gods. Until Diocletianus, no one of them proclaimed himself to be it. Anyway, why should Augustus send to Palestine elite legion, which people are able to accept Jah as the One and only? Or maybe you mean another thunderbolt legion (possibly it was a type, not name of the unit).

[TMA_1]

whoa whoa, this was way after augustus caesar...lol if you want to you can read this story in Foxe's book of martyrs.

[Caid Ivik]

Roman army wasn't reorganized very often. Generals were very influent, at least those succesful, and wouldn't agree on large-scale moves of units between their legions.

[TMA_1]

err?

[Caid Ivik]

I mean there is no problem for legion to exist more than 50 years. Nero was in 60's I think.

[TMA_1]

from the info given it is not the legion you are talking about. If you have Foxe's book of martyrs, it will explain, I will pull out my copy and explain a bit more about it.

[Navaros]

one of the best performing legions during the julio-claudian line of emperors was the thunderbolt legion. They were some of the most loyal and capable of solders in rome.

so finally, with the emperor's orders, another legion was called and they slaughteered the entire thunderbolt legion in one of the games nero gave.

I am presuming that the Legion who killed them had the same amount of men as the Thunderbolt Legion - since "Legion" is a term used to describe the number of men in a group. If the Thunderbolt Legion was "slaughtered" by another Legion with a 1:1 ratio, then the Thunderbolt Legion certainly could not have been capable: in fact they would be an *incompetent* legion.

[TMA_1]

lol if you can read navaros, you would see that they were slaughtered for execution. they were taken in very large groups with no clothes on. thehy were then dispatched however the other legion saw fit.

[exatreide]

The emperor then decided to line up the entire legion and kill every tenth solder counted.

This Was Roman Tradition. They just didnt do this to them. It was standerd punishment for any unit that was considerd a coward. If no one stood out and procalimed who was the first to run. They did this. This is not a speical punishment.

[Inoculator9]

As Caid said, they were something of a model for the SS. Although, the actuall thunderbolt symbol used by the SS was from a way different area, that I can't quite put my finger on...

[Hawat]

I read about a roman legion called "Thundering Legion" (i translated directly from german, so im not quite sure if we are reffering to the same legion) in the "Voice of the martyrs", a legion deployed in Sebaste. They were killed because the were disobedient against their commander, who forced them to deny their beliefs. This whole story was in 320 AC, so Nero was not involved.

to Inoculator9: the ss symbol is from nordic origin, from one of the various runic alphabets.

[Inoculator9]

Thx, thats right.

[Caid Ivik]

So, SS soldiers were called "Sturmmanner", what can be like Storm-men, liberally translatable like lightnings...

[TMA_1]

it is from a completely different background idea though. Hawat is right, hitler was a dabbler in all sorts of religions and cults. The one he especially loved was norse mythology. the Sig, which is what those bolts are called, are taken directly from norse mythology. they represent power and strength. that is why you probably have heard the word "sig" in their soluting at times.

[Caid Ivik]

You mean nazi battlecry "Sieg Heil"? It means "Hail the Victory", nothing with nordic runes. But for the point he was a pagan believing in nordic cults and succesorship of ancient Rome, it is fully true.

[The_Sadukar]

I would like to say that what Hitler belived had nothing to do the true nordic religion, he used the pre christian GERMAN religion to base his own ideology on, although the pre-chistian german religion and the nores are close they are not excatly the same.

[TMA_1]

germanic and scaninavian religions are almost exactly the same. the ancient ones had the basic Gods and goddess' and mythological creatures, as well as the same spiritual plan. the germanic tribes worshiped in the nordic religion.

[Egeides]

TMA, with this thread, may I ask if you also had a thesis to demonstrate? Or was it only about sharing historical information of interest?

If there's a thesis, I'm curious to hear it explicitely :)

[TMA_1]

only sharing historical info to see if people had any other good stories.lol

I just remembered the major diety in the roman army during the time of christianity up till constantine. It was called the Cult of Mithras. This religion was very popular with solders because the god mithras was forgiving, but also extremely powerful. The religion stems from various russian and germanic tribes as far back as 3000 bc and eventually came down to the middle east when the great invasions from the north took place. it then settled into persia and helped one of the priests find a new religion called zeroastrianism. it then became very popular in the hellanistic cultures and even in rome. it was a huge competitor even with christianity.

[Caid Ivik]

I would like to say that what Hitler belived had nothing to do the true nordic religion, he used the pre christian GERMAN religion to base his own ideology on, although the pre-chistian german religion and the nores are close they are not excatly the same.

His believe was based on mythological societies he was linked to (Thule, Longinus' Lance Order etc.), which talked about all germanic cults (no matter if it was sachsen, gotish or viking form) as well.