It's a trope I've heard that Roman army engineers would be made to stand underneath their bridges. The purpose being, to ensure that the engineers performed their due diligence in their construction and design work and make sure they would not collapse. In the business world, we call this "aligning incentives" ;).
Is there any evidence that this was actually a thing that happened, either as a matter of policy or on individual occasions? Where there perhaps any other non-Roman armies that employed this technique? It strikes me as the sort of thing that Xerxes may also have done, or been accused of doing.
No one in the previous thread already linked had heard of this. I (who only have an MA in Classics) have certainly never heard of it.
Where have you heard this?
This wouldn't have made sense to me, as Romes armies built the bridges. Roman soldiers were builders and engineers as well.
Romes extensive road network is a testement to this.