The Roman army fostered violence as a culture

The Roman army was known to typically be on the assaulting front by fostering violence as a culture, as opposed to teaching defensive methods. This opened the door for the institutionalization of violence, which was further encouraged by the deadly gladiator contests. Soldiers were further urged to participate in heinous plans and atrocities.

More freedom was given to troops by Roman political authorities than by any other civilization. Soldiers were permitted to rape women and commit massacres abroad. When the warrior tribe was facing a shortage of women, the Roman leader Romulus organized a religious festival and invited the neighboring Sabine tribe to attack and kill the Sabine men at the festival and capture the women afterward. In the bloody war that resulted, the Sabine women called for a cessation of hostilities, allies of the tribes, and permission for the Romans to proliferate. Many rapes followed, such as the rape of Lucretia and then of Virginia.

However, customs like fusarium exposed Roman troops to this violence as well. Cohorts that committed acts of subversion or cowardice were subjected to harsh punishment in the fusarium. In it, every tenth soldier from a cohort was picked at random and given the command to be killed by being stoned or clubbed by his fellow troops.