The references I've seen have indicated a drawing of lots, though I wouldn't be surprised if officers may not have bothered with such a formality. In practice I'm sure there may have been some displays of favoritism.
As there aren't a great deal of records dealing with the subject, its alot of conjecture, but the numbers make me wonder. I would suspect that the division of men would've been based on the pre-existing contubernium. In theory, this was a unit of 10 men, but in practice was made up of 8 men. Rather than dividing into new groups of '10' wouldn't it make more sense for each contubernium to draw lots. If that were the case, decimation actually would've meant the death of 1 out of every 8 men. Of course, this totally assumes full compliment of men which was rarely the case, especially if the army had done something to deserve decimation. I suppose there wouldn't be any choice but to 'count' using another method.
Probably, there’s much more of a psychological effect if you are kind your own roomates, and even though deci means ten, cent means 100 yet there were only 80 men in a century. Also, you’d be losing ten mean of the century - 1 in every 8, so hence the deci part.
Decimation
in Romana Humanitas
Posted
Probably, there’s much more of a psychological effect if you are kind your own roomates, and even though deci means ten, cent means 100 yet there were only 80 men in a century. Also, you’d be losing ten mean of the century - 1 in every 8, so hence the deci part.