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== In ancient Rome == Decimation was the most extreme punishment of the Roman army, where a tenth of a unit that had proven its cravenness was killed. The Romans believed that it had ancient roots in the early republic β the fifth and fourth centuries β and the theoretically unlimited powers of the Roman magistrate ''militae'' ("on campaign").<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2022|p=105}}. ''Militae'' is here [[Locative case|locative]].</ref> The procedure for decimation, as described by Polybius, involved a soldiers' assembly before the tribunes. Then, of the units adjudged cowardly, lots were taken such that a tenth of the men were condemned. Their comrades then killed them with clubs before the survivors were then further punished with barley rations and required to [[bivouac shelter|bivouac]] outside the fortified camp.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=106, citing {{harvnb|Polybius|loc=6.38.1β4}} }}{{sfn|Watson|1969|p=119}} The practice was rare: of all instances, there are only eleven. Five of them date to the late republic from its revival in 72 BC with a further four during the [[Second Triumvirate|triumviral]] and civil wars prior to [[War of Actium|Actium]].{{sfn|Pearson|2019|p=684}} === Questionable historicity === There is a single instance recorded in Livy that predates the middle republic, that of [[Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis Sabinus]] in 471 BC, but anachronistic elements of the narrative there suggest ahistoricity.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|2015|p=143}}, citing {{harvnb|Livy|loc=2.58β59}} among others, though the specific Appius Claudius named appears inconsistent with that named in {{harvnb|Broughton|1951|p=30}}. Similar judgement of ahistoricity at {{harvnb|Pearson|2019|pp=666β67}}.</ref> The middle republican writer [[Polybius]], however, in a detailed narrative, suggests that by the middle republic it was established, if not in practice at least otherwise, as a rhetorical construct.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2022|pp=108β9}}, as rhetorical construct contra {{harvnb|Goldberg|2015|pp=143β4}}; Goldberg believes that Polybius' familiarity suggests actual practice.</ref> Two other instances are reported in [[Frontinus]] but are undated. Associated with the careers of [[Fabius Rullianus]] and an unknown Aquilius, these events (if historical) could not have taken place after 259 BC.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|pp=107β8}} Literary evidence relating to punishment for military offences in the middle republic generally indulges in rhetorical exaggerations. If any instances of ''decimatio'' occurred between {{circa|315 BC}} and the historical instance under Crassus in 72, they were likely small enough not to be recorded. Indeed, the Polybian narrative suggests counts of victims fewer than twenty.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|pp=108β9}} If expanded by a factor of ten, the units involved were small and did not exceed {{circa|200}} men.<!-- WP:CALC --> The presence of other non-lethal punishments meted for cowardice and lapses of military discipline β eg demotion, exile of Sicily, subsistence on barley rations, pay deductions, etc β that are well documented in the sources of the period also suggest that ''decimatio'' was essentially a rhetorical myth.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|pp=109β10, 115 ("a mirage of aristocratic supremacy")}} By the early second century BC, the extension of ''[[provocatio]]'' rights to the military also made it illegal for magistrates to kill or scourge their citizen soldiers, with similar rights also extended late in the second century to allied soldiers under Roman command.{{sfnm|Taylor|2022|1p=113|Faszcza|2018|2p=87, noting passage of the laws extending ''provocatio'' rights to citizens on campaign, the ''leges Porciae'', between 199 and 193 BC|Goldberg|2015|3p=154}} Cases of soldiers collectively resisting mass punishments and the necessity of their active participation also suggest that decimation was not at all commonly practicable.{{sfnm|Taylor|2022|1pp=115β16|Pearson|2019|2p=667, 675 ("decimation seems to be a punishment that would only work to enforce cohesion in a legion which was already cohesive")}} Moreover, actual practice of decimation would have alienated Roman citizen voters from the presiding general, who was accountable before both the law courts and the voters.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|pp=113β14, noting cases where unpopular commanders were defeated at the polls and the possibility of damage to a family's political prospects}}<ref>Noting an instance of ''provocatio'' rights exercised on campaign in 89 BC, {{harvnb|Faszcza|2018|p=87}}, citing {{harvnb|Dio|loc=fr. 30β35, 100.1β3}}.</ref> === Revival during the first century === [[File:Bust of a Roman, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.jpg|thumb|Bust traditionally identified as depicting Marcus Licinius Crassus]] The first historical instance of decimation was in 72 BC under the command of [[Marcus Licinius Crassus]] during the [[Third Servile War]]. A unit of 500 men who fled from battle was decimated, with some fifty men executed. The narrative in Appian that Crassus decimated either two legions or his entire army (producing fatalities of around 1,000 and 4,000 respectively) are rejected as exaggerations.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2022|p=117}}; {{harvnb|Pearson|2019|p=684}}; {{harvnb|Faszcza|2018|p=86 n. 5}}; {{harvnb|Goldberg|2015|p=144 n. 14}}, noting "Appian's version is a slight corruption of the one given by Plutarch; his second is an incredible exaggeration" and citing {{cite book |last=Brunt |first=P A |year=1971 |title=Italian manpower |page=450 |ref=none |mode=cs2}}.</ref> The historian Michael Taylor identifies three major factors for this revival. First, the war being fought was against a slave revolt and therefore constituted a genuine emergency for the Roman state, especially after the defeat of that year's consuls' armies.<ref>Similarly to Taylor, {{harvnb|Faszcza|2018|p=86}}.</ref> Second, the ascendency of the Sullan regime in the aftermath of the [[Sulla's civil war|recent civil war]] and its [[Sulla's proscription|proscriptions]] may have set a precedent for ignoring citizen ''provocatio'' rights against arbitrary punishment. Third, there was at the time an elite antiquarian intellectual movement which may have suggested to Crassus the hitherto unprecedented option to reviving a punishment last used, if at all, centuries previously.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|pp=117β18}} Indeed, by the first century BC, the Romans had no knowledge of the practice's origins.{{sfn|Pearson|2019|p=667, noting Cicero and Livy's attribution to "unspecified forefathers" and citing: Cicero, ''Pro Cluentio'', 46.128; {{harvnb|Livy|loc=5.6.14β17}}}} The exigencies of the moment may have been sufficient to insulate Crassus from any social or political punishment for his unprecedented actions, which may have also set the precedent for ignoring ''provocatio'' rights on campaign, even if contrary to law.{{sfn|Faszcza|2018|pp=91β92, 94β95}} After Crassus' use in 72 BC, the next possible instances were under [[Julius Caesar]] in 49 BC and [[Mark Antony]] in 44. However, both were applied only to small groups (in the former killing a tenth of the 120 ringleaders of a mutiny) or with a smaller proportion (in the latter Cicero describes only a targeted killing of supposedly disloyal centurions).{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=118, citing Cicero, ''Phillipicae'', 3.4, 5.22.}} Further instances appear during the civil war where Caesar's soldiers demand decimation to forego demobilisation in the aftermath of mutiny or defeat. In these instances, decimation was brought up essentially to demonstrate absolute loyalty to Caesar, who in all cases refused.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2022|p=116}}; {{harvnb|Faszcza|2018|p=96}}. See also {{cite book |last=Goldsworthy |first=Adrian |title=Caesar: life of a colossus |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |year=2006 |page=407}}</ref> The latter instance, if Appian is to believed, also failed to restore discipline, instead increasing anger against Antony's command.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=118, citing Appian, ''Bellum civile'', 3.43}} A further instance in 39 BC under [[Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus]], proconsular governor of Spain, is documented in Dio: however, the more contemporary source Velleius Paterculus reports only the execution of the fleeing unit's commander.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=118, citing: {{harvnb|Dio|loc=48.42.2}}; Velleius Paterculus, 2.78.3}} The next firmly documented instance was in 36 BC when Mark Antony decimated two cohorts after defeats against the Parthians, producing some 80 fatalities. Plutarch's biography attests that after a [[Antony's Parthian War|defeat in Media]]: {{quote| Antony was enraged, and visited those who had played the coward with what is called decimation. That is, he divided the whole number of them into tens, and put to death that one from each ten upon whom the lot fell. For the rest he ordered rations of barley instead of wheat.{{sfn|Plutarch, ''Antony''|loc=39.7}} }} A second instance follows in 34 BC under [[Octavian]] for a unit which fled during his campaign in [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]].{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=118, citing: {{harvnb|Plutarch, ''Antony''|loc=44.3}}; {{harvnb|Dio|loc=48.38.3}}; and dismissing {{harvnb|Suetonius, ''Augustus''|loc=24.2}}, which states that Octavian used the punishment regularly}} After this instance in 34, over fifty years elapse before the next under Lucius Apronius {{circa|AD 18β20}} for defeats in Numidia and then another fifty years elapse to [[Galba]]'s usage during the [[Year of the Four Emperors]] against a unit of soldiers who refused to be demoted to naval service.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=119, citing {{harvnb|Tactius, ''Annales''|loc=3.21}}; {{harvnb|Suetonius, ''Galba''|loc=12.4}} }} === Late antiquity === G. R. Watson notes that "its appeal was to those obsessed with ''nimio amore antiqui moris''" β that is, an excessive love for ancient customs β and notes, "decimation itself, however, was ultimately doomed, for though the army might be prepared to assist in the execution of innocent slaves, professional soldiers could hardly be expected to cooperate in the indiscriminate execution of their own comrades".{{sfn|Watson|1969|p=120}} After the [[Principate]], the punishment also falls into obscurity until late antiquity,{{sfn|Pearson|2019|p=666}} when it may have been used by the emperor [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] during his Persian campaign.{{sfn|Taylor|2022|p=119, citing Ammianus, 24.3.2, which notes only three deaths}} The emperor [[Macrinus]] instituted a less harsh ''centesimatio'', the execution of every 100th man.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephenson |first=Paul |title=Constantine: Roman emperor, Christian victor |date=2010 |isbn=978-1-59020-324-8 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=489014421 |page=68 }}</ref> {{cn span |text=The [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman]] [[Maurice (emperor)|Emperor Maurice]] forbade in his [[Strategikon of Maurice|''Strategikon'']] the ''decimatio'' and other brutal punishments. According to him, punishments where the rank and file saw their comrades dying by the hands of their own brothers-in-arms could lead to a collapse of morale. Moreover, it could seriously deplete the manpower of the fighting unit. |date=March 2025}}
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