710
Living language (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by yesman@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

It was originally killing 1 in every 10 by lot. In other words, not in battle, but as a collective punishment of a unit 1 in 10 soldiers would be randomly selected and killed.

1 in 10 soldiers dying in a battle doesn't sound all that bad. But, 1 in 10 soldiers being selected to be killed as a form of punishment for the unit sounds a lot worse.

[-] MalReynolds@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago

IIRC the other nine had to kill them, by beating with sticks? which makes it so much worse. Rarely used in extremis I believe.

this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
710 points (89.3% liked)

memes

19811 readers
1792 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/Ads/AI SlopNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.

A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS