Discipline in the Ranks

The military discipline of the legions was quite harsh. Regulations were strictly enforced, and a broad array of minor and major punishments could be inflicted upon a legionary who broke them. Many legionaries became devotees in the cult of the minor goddess Disciplina, whose virtues of frugality, severity and loyalty were central to their code of conduct and way of life.

Minor punishments:

• Castigatio or animadversio fustium - being hit by the Centurion with his vitis (vine stick).

• Reduction of rations or to be forced to eat barley instead of the usual grain ration.

• Pecuniaria mulcta - a reduction in pay, or fines or deductions from the pay allowance.

• Flogging in front of the century, cohort or legion.

• Whipping with scourge (Latin: flagrum; diminutive: flagellum, flagella), a much more brutal punishment than flogging. A scourge was a short whip typically consisting of several thongs fastened to a handle. A well-known configuration is the “cat o' nine tails”. The "short whip" was used by slave volunteers, volones, who constituted most of the army in the later years of the Roman Empire.

• Gradus deiectio - Reduction in rank.

• Missio ignominiosa - Dishonourable discharge.

• Loss of time in service advantages.

• Militiae mutation - Relegation to inferior service or duties.

• Munerum indictio - Additional duties.

Major punishments:

• Fustuarium - a sentence for desertion or dereliction of duty. The legionary would be stoned or beaten to death by cudgels, in front of the assembled troops, by his fellow soldiers or those whose lives had been put in danger. Soldiers under sentence of fustuarium who escaped were not pursued but lived under sentence of banishment from Rome. If a group of legionaries were to be subjected to this punishment, the Tribune would make an alteration to spare most of the accused. The Tribune would first select a handful of the guilty men, and those selected would be condemned to the original penalty under the fustuarium [1]. The remainder of the accused would then be driven out of the camp and forced to live in an undefended location for a chosen period; they were also limited to eating only barley.

• Decimatio - a sentence of fustuarium carried out against an entire unit that had mutinied, deserted, or shown dereliction of duty. One out of every ten men, chosen by lots, would be beaten to death, usually by the other nine with their bare hands [2], who would be forced to live outside the camp and in some instances obliged to renew the military oath, the sacramentum.

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Endnotes:

1. Edwards, H. J. "The Histories of Polybius: Fragments of Book VI, 37", The University of Chicago, retrieved February 20th, 2021. ▲

2. Edwards, H. J. "The Histories of Polybius: Fragments of Book VI, 38", The University of Chicago, retrieved February 20th, 2021. ▲