Later Roman Military Punishments

[Renatus]

Modestinus (c.AD250) seems pretty clear on the immunities of soldiers:

Concerning Punishments, Book IV. (1) Military punishments are of the following kinds: namely, castigation, fines, the imposition of additional duties, transfer to another branch of the service, degradation from rank, and dishonorable discharge; for soldiers are neither condemned to labor in the mines nor subjected to torture.

And yet, a few sections later, Modestinus has this:

(16) He, however, who leaves the ranks, shall, according to circumstances, be beaten with rods, or compelled to change his branch of the service.

I would consider being beaten with rods to be a form of torture! 'Leaving the ranks' might be another way of describing desertion, and it's telling how many of these laws are specifically directed against deserters. But in this case the soldier remains a soldier but is still tortured...

I disagree. 'Tortured' is something quite different (the word in the Latin is torquentur, 'they are tortured (?racked)'). In fact, 'beaten with rods' may be something of an understatement. The Latin is fustibus caeditur, 'he is beaten (down) with cudgels'. This sounds very like fustuarium. Nevertheless, soldiers were subject to corporal punishment. Further down in the same Title, we have '14. Paulus, On Military Punishments (1)' in which a soldier who sells his leg or shoulder armour is flogged (castigari verberibus).

Paulus, Sentences, Book V.(1) A soldier who is a disturber of the peace is punished with death.

What does that mean? 'Disturbing the peace' seems like a civil offence, and could involve any number of things...

Nowadays, you can be arrested for breach of the peace if you get drunk on a Saturday night but Paulus obviously has something much more serious in mind. I suspect that it would be closer to rioting. The Latin has turbator pacis, 'a disturber of the peace', which may signify the ringleader in a disturbance.