Legio II Traiana Fortis

According to Cassius Dio, it was Trajan who raised both the II Traiana and the XXX Ulpia Victrix,[1] but the details and order are not clear.

Parker has argued that the XXX Ulpia was raised first, at the time there were 29 legions, then after Legio XXI Rapax vanished—either destroyed in battle against barbarian invaders or in a civil disturbance—the II Traiana came into existence.

[3] The earliest dated inscription referring to the legion, which lists the posts Lucius Cossonius Gallus held during his career, again entangles the XXI Rapax in the origins of this legion, for Gallus was first a military tribune with the first unit, then some years later commissioned commander of the II Traiana most likely after he had distinguished himself in Trajan's First Dacian War.

During a period of strife with Parthia in 123, Tiberius Claudius Quartinus led a vexillatio, or detachment, drawn from II Traiana and Legio III Cyrenaica to the banks of the Euphrates River ahead of the emperor Hadrian's entourage.

An inscription dated to the reign of Marcus Aurelius attests that by that time the II Traiana was the only legion stationed in Roman Egypt.

According to Notitia Dignitatum (composed c. 400), in early 5th century II Traiana Fortis was moved to Apollonopolis Magna, in the southern part of Aegyptus, and later served, at least with some vexillationes, under the Comes limitis Aegypti.