Decimation: The original collective punishment

This is pedantic, but perhaps worth oberving. The term “decimate” is often used to designate wholesale destruction, like Gaza, but it really means 10%, like a decimal. December was originally the tenth month, October was the eighth month (the year started in March). It sounds like utter destruction: decimated. But the term originates from the Roman army; when soldiers committed a grave offense like mutiny or desertion, they would be split into groups of ten, draw lots, and one out of ten would be executed. Harsh, but apparently it worked. So when Tucker Carlson says, as he often does, that Western civilization doesn’t believe in collective punishment, but Eastern civilization does (I am not aware of his source for this assertion), he’s forgetting the Roman army. Those were the days before Christianity was widespread, however, so he probably means Western civiliation in a Christian context.

It’s interesting to note that the fall of the Roman Empire began soon after the formal adoption of Christianity. I’m not saying the Jews were responsible, but they had the motive.