Killing officers

[Tarbicus]

For example, a band of cutthroats might actually have as one of their mutual understandings that an unsuccessful leader would be deposed.

Pirates - a democratic group who elected their captain, and he could only have full and unquestioned command when they went into action. Or so I believe. No wonder the establishment hated them so much considering the era.

It could be that in a revolt we contravene an order that could have cost us our safety or lives.

Perhaps this was the case, but in an opposite sense, when Primius Pilus Cnaeus Petreius gutted the officer who refused to give the order to attack at Vercellae, and then led the legion to victory for which he was rewarded greatly. Must have been something in the genes as his son, Marcus, became a legate and secured victory against Catiline. However, he chose the losing side in the Civil Wars and died after Thapsus, by entering into a suicide pact with King Juba of Numidia, both men fighting a more honourable duel to the death rather than be executed by Caesar's men.