12. Centurion
The Film: If you’re a fan of the culture and history of early Britain, you will definitely enjoy this film. The battles are very realistic and it wouldn’t be much of an overstatement if one claimed that this may be the closest to how a hand-to-hand fight was in ancient times. The characters are simply drawn and develop through their actions rather than words, especially in the case of Olga Kurylenko’s Etain. There are good and bad on both sides of the conflict, which is true to every war in human history. Ultimately, it offers a quite believable scenario to explain the mysterious historical disappearance of the 9th Legion in Hibernia.
The Historical Events: What may be one of the most notable riddles in history is the disappearance of the Ninth Legion, lost in the fogs of Britain. The Ninth Legion started its journey to the north to quell a rebellion, pitting well-trained and well-equipped soldiers against British irregulars. The view that these persecuted warriors managed to wipe out the legion in a successful ambush survives in the collective unconscious of both the English and the Scots as a battle similar to the one between David and Goliath.
Of the five thousand legionnaires, not a trace of one has ever been found, nor has any spear or shield, or anything else turned up to indicate that there had been a battle. So, what happened to the Ninth Legion? This is a question that keeps tantalizing historians for almost 2,000 years. It is a mystery that has baffled and inspired writers and yet nobody has ever come up with a comprehensive answer to the simple question: “What happened to Legio IX Hispana, the greatest of all Roman Legions?”