|
Decimation was a form of extreme discipline in the Roman Army, where ten men in a legion drew straws and the man with the shortest was then killed by the other nine men. It was adopted sometime during the Punic Wars as a punishment for cowardly legions and remained a form of effective punishment until the fall of Rome. It was commonly used as a punishment for legions that had attempted mutiny, and was a particularly feared punishment, however it could only be enforced if there were sufficient troops of authority to force the soldiers to kill one out of every ten of their own number (obviously a rare situation) and thereby was rare in itself.
In current usage, decimation refers to an extreme reduction in the number of a population or force, usually far greater than the one tenth specified above. It perhaps more accurately describes an occurance in which closer to one tenth of the original amount remains, rather than was lost.
|
