my old Latin teacher told me decimating was an extreme sanction of the Roman army. if a legion had not performed well enough in battle - a tenth of their number were slaughtered.

he probably wouldn't have minded decimating our class, as there were several of us incapable of remembering all the lists of words in Kennedys Shorter Latin Primer - which came in a handy size for biffing kids over the head with.

i presume joe gledhill had some classical reference to back up his gory tale - he usually had.