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Decimation (Latin: decimatio; decem = "ten") was a form of military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth."^[1]

A cohort selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group cast lots (Sortition), and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing. The remaining soldiers were given rations of barley instead of wheat and forced to sleep outside of the Roman encampment.

Because the punishment fell by lot, all soldiers in the selected cohort were eligible for execution, regardless of rank or distinction.

Decimation was assumed to inspire fear and resolve on the remaining troops. In practise, however, decimation led into complete disintegration of the esprit de corps of the unit as soldiers, seeing their comrades being slaughtered, not by the enemy but their own, lost completely their resolve and trust to the commanders. The Byzantine emperor Maurikios (582-602) strongly warns against arbitrary punishments in the Strategikon, implying they do more harm than good for the morale.

The earliest documented decimation occurred in 471 B.C. during the Roman Republic's early wars against the Volsci and is recorded by Livy.^[2] The practice was revived by Crassus in 71 B.C. in the Third Servile War against Spartacus. Julius Caesar is often reported as having used the practice on the 9th Legion during the war against Pompey, but this has been disproved.^[3]

Decimation was still in practice during the Roman Empire, Suetonius records that it was used for the last time by Augustus in 17 B.C.,^[4] while Tacitus records that Lucius Apronius used decimation to punish a cohort of the III Augusta after their defeat by Tacfarinas in 20 B.C.^[5]

In current English use, the word decimation is commonly used to refer to an extreme reduction in the number of a population or force, usually greater than the one tenth specified above.

The following are modern examples of the practice of decimation.

In his book Stalingrad, Antony Beevor recounts how a Soviet corps commander of a division that had retreated practiced decimation on them by walking down the line of soldiers at attention, and shooting every tenth soldier in the face until his pistol ran out of ammunition.^[6]

Decimation can be also used to punish the enemy. In the Finnish Civil War 1918, the White troops, after the battle of Varkaus, ordered all the captured Reds to a single row on the ice of Huruslahti, selected first all leaders and then every fifth prisoner, and executed them on the spot. This incident is known as the Huruslahden arpajaiset (Lottery of Huruslahti). The Reds had attempted a stratagem by using white flag as a trap; it had failed, and the Whites punished the Reds for breaching the rules of conflict.^{[citation needed]}

• Lachesis (['lækəsɪs], Greek Λάχεσις — "allotter" or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life with her rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').
• Decimatio, article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
• Did Julius Caesar Decimate a Legion?