Prompt Cast
The Brutal Punishment of Decimation in Ancient Rome
TLDR Decimation was a brutal punishment in ancient Rome where soldiers who broke ranks would be divided into groups of ten and one soldier from each group would be killed. This punishment was implemented by Marcus Licinius Crassus during the slave revolt led by Spartacus and continued to occur in various forms throughout history.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Decimation was a brutal form of punishment in ancient Rome that involved killing one in every ten soldiers as a collective punishment.
01:23
Decimation was a punishment in ancient Rome where soldiers who broke ranks would be divided into groups of ten and one soldier from each group would be killed.
02:40
Decimation was a punishment in ancient Rome where soldiers who broke ranks would be divided into groups of ten and one soldier from each group would be killed, with the first recorded example occurring in 471 BC.
03:54
Decimation was implemented by Marcus Licinius Crassus during the slave revolt led by Spartacus, and it is estimated that he killed between 1,000 and 10,000 soldiers through this punishment.
05:02
Decimations decreased under the Roman Empire, but one infamous case occurred in 286 with the Theban legion, where every tenth man was killed for refusing to fight other Christians.
06:13
Decimation continued beyond the Roman Empire, with cases occurring in the 20th century during World War I and World War II, as well as during the Russian Civil War.
07:26
Decimation originally referred to the punishment of soldiers having to beat their best friends to death, and it continued to occur in various forms throughout history.
