DD+War+&+Weaponry+Roman+Army+Discipline


 * The Romans and Their Discipline**

The Romans didn't win their battles because they were braver then anyone else. They won because of their discipline and tactics. The Roman commanders had to make sure that every solider would follow any order. To ensure that everyone did, the Romans had harsh punishment. Punishment was a major way of keeping the soldiers in order. It ranged from starvation to even death on the spot. One of the most harsh punishments was decimation, means to kill one out of every ten soldiers. The greatest example of decimation was when a general named Crassus had 500 solider decimated out of 5000 because they lost a battle with Spartacus and his gladiators. They also had you beaten to death by 8 people you share a tent with, if you tried to desert the army. In 270 BC 300 soldiers thought they would rebel against Rome (they failed badly) their punishment was to be whipped half to death and finished off by a cut to the head. Crucifixionwas also a major punishment as they did it to anyone that did anything bad. Crucifixion is where you nail a persons hand and feet to two wooden boards that were made into a cross.

Some of the smaller crimes could be very small but you would still be punished. Some of the small crimes were like falling asleep on duty and putting your people in minor danger. You could even be punished for being lazy. The punishment for falling asleep on duty was that you got rotten food a few days. The punishment for putting someone in danger was death by stoning ( that means they throw rocks at you till you die). They even had you punished for being lazy, it was that you had to sleeping outside the camp grounds for one night. Those are some of the small crimes and their punishments. When the Romans punished people, over time, they created some very efficient tools. Some of the tools included a multi-headed whip and different types of whip heads. this tools saved people a lot of time, like if they had to whip someone so many times it would help if you could whip them 12 times with only stroke.

They seem to have had a lot of ways of punishing their soldiers but we don't do it today, so how do we discipline our soldiers and is it as effective?

There is no standard punishment for desertion but the longer you were away the tougher the punishment, it could range from just a small warning to death. In America if you try to desert the army for less then 30 days you would probably be warned. If you try to desert for more than 1 year you would probably be hanged. Some other countries shoot you on the spot but in other countries you could be whipped any amount of times and then discharged. In a small amount of places you will be warned once and if it happens again you will be discharged.

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