Fustuarium

The fustuarium (from Latin fustis = beating, stick) denotes a type of execution common in the army of the Roman Empire , with which soldiers were punished who had been convicted of theft , gross neglect of duty such as offense on guard in the field camp or, more rarely, pederasty . The centurion touched the condemned man with his vitis , and similar to running the gauntlet, soldiers of his own unit usually beat their comrades to death with clubs or stoned them to deathhim. In rare cases the soldier was allowed to flee the camp while being punished.

Units found guilty of rebellion or cowardice awaited the so-called decimation , in which every tenth soldier in the unit was killed by a sword blow , but mostly was beaten to death .

literature

• Erich Sander : The Roman military criminal law. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 103 (1960) ( PDF; 6.6 MB )

Web links

• Christoph Riedo-Emmenegger: Prophetic-messianic provocateurs of the Pax Romana: excursions . In: Theological Faculty of Friborg Switzerland. (2003) (PDF; 1.6 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Sander, The Roman Military Criminal Law, pp. 292–293.
2. ↑ Marcus Junkelmann : The Legions of Augustus. 6th edition, Philipp von Zabern, 1994, p. 128.
3. ↑ Christoph Riedo-Emmenegger: Prophetic-messianic provocateurs of the Pax Romana: Excursions. IMPERIAL ROMAN ARMY: FACTORS OF LOYALTY PROMOTION, C.9 Penalties, p. 61