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Decimatio: Myth, Discipline, and Death in the Roman Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2022

Michael J. Taylor Open the ORCID record for Michael J. Taylor [Opens in a new window]
Michael J. Taylor*
Affiliation:
University at Albany, SUNY
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The military punishment of decimatio, the cudgelling by lot of one in ten men in a disgraced unit, often described as a cornerstone of Roman military discipline, was never practised during the third and second centuries BC. The punishment was possibly used as an extraordinary measure a couple of times in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. It soon fell into total desuetude but was cultivated as a rhetorical construct that proclaimed theoretical powers commanders no longer dared effect. It was only revived, or rather reinvented, during the Late Republic, a violent moment that saw the confluence of antiquarian enthusiasm with military dynasts whose unrestrained powers allowed them to manifest what had previously been an aristocratic talking point.

Keywords

decimationdisciplinepunishmentdefeatRoman armyRepublican period
Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 56 , 2022 , pp. 105 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies

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