Legio IV Italica

The Legio IV Italica ("Italian Fourth Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army raised in AD 231 by emperor Alexander Severus. The legion remained in existence as late as AD 400.

History
The legion was raised during the reign of Alexander Severus in 231, with Italian and Pannonian soldiers, and perhaps took soon part in the expedition against the Sassanids in 231–231.

Its first commander was an Equestrian praefectus legionis Maximinus Thrax, the former common soldier and future emperor; reflecting the growing trend of appointed equestrian legati in place of senatorial ones.

The legion participated in all of Maximinus' campaigns in the Danubian area in 235–238. Under Gordian III, it returned to the eastern frontier in 242–244 to fight the Sassanids under the prefect Serapamo, with its base set perhaps in the province of Mesopotamia. Nischer speculates it may have later been based in the Gaul under Diocletian.

The Notitia dignitatum attests the unit as a pseudo-comitatenses legion under the magister militum per Orientem. It perhaps survived until the reformation of Justinian in 545.