a punishment inflicted by the Romans on such soldiers as quitted their posts, or behaved themselves in a cowardly manner in the field. The names of the guilty were put into an urn or helmet, and as many having been drawn out as made the tenth part of the whole number, these were put to the sword and the others saved. This was called decimare, a word of the ancient Roman disciplinarians, who, to punish whole legions when they had failed in their duty, made every tenth soldier draw lots, and put him to death as an example to the others.

As the Romans had their decimatio, they had also the vicissimatio, and even centesimatio, when only the twentieth or hundredth man suffered by lot.