Editing Decimation (punishment) (section)

=== 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&nbsp;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=117–18}} Indeed, by the first century&nbsp;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=5.6.14–17}}}} 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=91–92, 94–95}}

After Crassus' use in 72&nbsp;BC, the next possible instances were under [[Julius Caesar]] in 49&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;18–20}} 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}} }}