Quote Originally Posted by Uticensis View Post
The devotio thing is pretty interesting- never heard of that before. What intrigues me about it is that it reminds me of a source I recently read (Leo the Deacon) about a Medieval Roman army (i.e. Byzantine) which was fighting off the Rus (Early Russians/Vikings) One of the emperor's bodyguards saw the Russian leader and charged alone straight into the Russian "phalanx." Not surprisingly he was killed (though he took a bunch of guys out with him), but it inspired the Romans who went on to win the battle. I wonder if this was a survival of sorts of that tradition (or maybe its just a case of a soldier who was slightly nuts).
Well you see it in movies where the NCO will run into battle and the rest of the guys have to go with him. Now whether or not it occurs in real life or is told in story, its something fundamental to the way male group dynamics works where humans and even intelligent animals in patriarchical positions will lead by example where there is an implied expectation than that individual's model of behavior is how you should behave. Though I don't doubt there are a multitude of other possible answers such as peer pressure and a value-cost trade off or something.