Penalties and rewards in Roman army

Discipline in the Roman army was for centuries a model for European rulers. In order to maintain well-trained and obedient soldiers, an extremely strict military law had to be introduced, to which both ordinary and high rankings were to be subject to. This procedure was primarily to make the legionaries completely devoted to the commander. The soldier was to be more afraid of what could happen to him in the Roman camp for not completing the task than of dying on the battlefield. At the same time, a reward system was introduced to motivate soldiers to even better combat and sacrifice.

There was a strict internal order in the army, sometimes leading to pedantry. Various books, lists of awards, services, outsourcing and leaves were carefully kept in the branches. There were detailed regulations for the guard service. Both minor and serious offences were punished immediately.

A Roman soldier, starting his service, took a military oath, initially of allegiance to the Senate and the Roman People, and during the empire to his general and ruler. It was the so-called sacramentum. According to this oath, the legionary agreed to all suffering, punishments, and even death – related to the defence of these values. When joining the legions, Roman citizens did it voluntarily, and therefore they were not forced soldiers to join the army, but people who were fully responsible for their decisions. After all, it was a professional army. They lived on it.

Discipline in the army was extremely strict. The general even had the right to immediately sentence to death any soldier under his command for even the slightest offence.
Polybius divides military penalties issued by a commander into two categories: crime and disobedience.

Offence

• fustuarium or bastinado – according to the court-martial, a soldier was stoned to death or killed with a club for desertion or neglect of duty to the death against soldiers whose lives were threatened as a result of a guilty crime. The soldier who escaped and escaped punishment was not prosecuted but was sentenced to eternal exile from Rome.
• pecunaria multa – pay deduction.
• beating a soldier in front of a Century, Cohort, or Legion.
• taking the military oath, sacramentum.
• throwing a convict in a sack with snakes into a river or lake for treason or theft.

Disobedience

The legionary in the Roman army was subjected to extremely strict discipline. Each attempt to defect or even a small mistake was severely punished.

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• decimatio (decimation, decimation) – a form of extremely severe punishment applied to a cowardly or rebellious group of soldiers. The cohort, doomed to be decimated, was divided into groups of ten soldiers. Each one drew lots and the one who failed was killed by his nine companions by stoning or killing them with clubs. The survivors received barley instead of flour and were punished with additional quarters outside the fortified camp until they cleared their sins in the fight. Due to the serious deterioration of the personality, the use of decimation was gradually abandoned.
• castigatio – beating by a centurion and his subordinates or by animadversio fustium.
• reducing food rations, or giving the soldier barley instead of regular grain.
• beating the guilty (with flagrum) which was much more painful than hitting with a regular club. The Flagrum was a type of whip with a handle (usually wooden), which consisted of three rather long straps, ended with metal hooks that torn off body particles with each strike and carried them with each other. The tips of the whips twisted and injured the front of the body as well, though it was used to flog a condemned man’s back and buttocks.
• gradus deiectio – grade decrease.
• missio ignominiosa – shameful expulsion.
• loss of benefit of long and good service.
• militiae mutatio – handing over shameful duties to the guilty.
• quick execution.
• munerum indictio – to impose additional obligations.

If, when checking the guard, the guard was not found at the post or found sleeping, the next day he was brought before a court martial. In the case of a conviction, a military tribune touched the guilty with a reed, and then the soldiers, mostly his colleagues, beat him with sticks or threw stones at him.

The commanders had very high disciplinary powers. The consul could punish even death by disciplinary means and had the right of decimation, that is, to punish every tenth soldier of each unit with death.
The tribune, on the other hand, had the right to impose a financial penalty and apply the most severe corporal punishment, from flogging to stoning, including, in fact, he passed death sentences.

The centurion, however, played the greatest role in maintaining strict discipline. As the immediate superior of the rank and file, he exercised constant supervision over them and reacted immediately to any misdemeanours of his subordinates.

The Roman legions were the guarantor of the Roman Empire’s stability.

The punishment system in the Roman army is presented by Polybius:

While the soldiers are subject to the tribun