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Decimationba

Sabinus being beaten to death

Decimation (from the Latin word Deci, meaning ten), was the ancient Roman punishment in which a legion or cohort had one in every ten men beaten to death by their fellow legionaries.

History[]

The practice of Decimation is recorded to have been used as early as 471 BC, but the practice was stopped and replaced by other forms of punishment. The practice was resumed by Marcus Licinius Crassus during the Third Servile War. Historically, around 10,000 men returned to Crassus' camp. Crassus chose and decimated an entire cohort of 500 men. Split into fifty groups of ten, each would draw from lots, with the tenth man out being beaten to death by the other nine. 50 men were killed through this Decimation. The survivors were then put into the followers camp outside the main encampment. They were not only given less food, consisting of barley instead of wheat, but were left defenceless from possible rebel raids. During later battles, these men would be placed on the front lines of the army, forced to face Spartacus and his rebels first.

This act was meant to both shame the legions that retreated from the enemy (in this case, an army of rebel slaves), as well as show the rest of his legions what awaited them if they also retreated. While not boosting morale, Crassus' troops were motivated by this possible punishment.

Most likely, the survivors of Mummius' retreating Legions were placed on the front lines during Crassus' later battles against Spartacus.

On scene[]

In the episode Decimation, Marcus Crassus punishes his son and the rest of his surviving

Tiberius paints lots S3E04

Tiberius painting the lots

men of the Battle outside Sinuessa using this method. His son, Tiberius, was even ordered to prepare the stones that where going to be used as lots prepared himself. Five men, including Sabinus were killed.

Trivia[]

  • In the show, the fifty men Decimated are divided into groups of five, whereas historically they would've been divided into groups of ten.
  • Historically, the tenth man killed was decided through either drawing lots, or through drawing from a bag of white painted stones, with the man executed drawing the unpainted stone. In the show however, the man executed draws the painted stone instead.
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