decemviri

dĕcem-vĭri (in MSS. and old edd. often Xviri), um or ōrum (gen.-virum, Cic. Agr. 2, 15, 39; 2, 21, 56; id. Rep. 2, 36, 61; Varr. L. L. 9, § 85 Müll.; Liv. 27, 8; 40, 12: -virorum only in Liv., where it is very freq.), m. [vir], a college or commission of ten men, the decemviri or decemvirs, Roman magistrates of various kinds.

• I The most famous were called decemviri legibus scribundis, the composers of the Twelve Tables, who ruled alone, and absolutely, in the years of Rome 303 to 305 (legally only 303 and 304; hence "neque decemviralis potestas ultra biennium," Tac. A. 1, 1), Cic. Rep. 2, 36 sq.; Liv. 3, 32 sq.; Gell. 20, 1, 3.—In sing., Cic. Rep. 2, 36 fin.; Liv. 3, 33 fin.; 40; 46; 48 al. The fragments which remain of these laws form one of the most important monuments of the early Latin language; and have been critically edited by R. Schoell, Leips., 1866; cf. Momms. Rom. Hist. book 2, ch. 2; Lange, Röm. Alter. 1, 535 sqq.; Wordsworth, Fragm. p. 503 sq.—
• II Decemviri stlitibus (litibus) judicandis, a standing tribunal for deciding causes involving liberty or citizenship, and which represented the praetor, Cic. Or. 46, 156; Suet. Aug. 36; Dig. 1, 2, 2, § 29; Corp. Inscr. Lat. 8, 38 (A. U. C. 615); cf. Cic. Caec. 33, 97. —In the sing., Inscr. Orell. no. 133 and 554. —
• III Decemviri agris dividundis, a commission for distributing the public land to the people, Cic. Agr. 1, 6 sq.; 2, 7 sq.; Liv. 31, 4 and 42; cf.: X. VIR. A. D. A. (i. e. decemviri agris dandis assignandis), Inscr. Orell. 544.—
• IV Decemviri sacris faciundis, a college of priests who preserved the Sibylline books, had charge of the Apollinaria, etc.; its number in the time of the emperors was increased to sixty, Liv. 10, 8; 25, 12 al.—In sing., Inscr. Orell. 554.

dĕcemvĭrī, ōrum et um, m. , décemvirs [commission de dix magistrats nommée lʼan 304 de Rome pour rédiger un code de lois, auteurs de la loi des Douze Tables] : Cic. Rep. 2, 61 || decemviri stlitibus judicandis, magistrats qui connaissaient des questions de liberté et de droit de cité [decemviri seul : Cic. Cæc. 97 ; Domo 78 ] : Cic. Or. 156 ; Suet. Aug. 36 || toute commission de dix personnes nommée légalement : agris dividundis Cic. Agr. 1, 17 ; Liv. 31, 4, 1, décemvirs chargés dʼun partage des terres ; sacris faciundis Liv. 25, 12, 11, décemvirs [collège de prêtres] chargés de garder les livres sibyllins, de les consulter et dʼaccomplir les sacrifices voulus.

decemviri , orum. m.
十侍郎之部。

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decemviri (xvirī) ūm or (in L.) ōrum, m

• II. Plur, a commission of ten men, college of ten magistrates, decemviri, decemvirs.—
• • • 11. The composers of the Twelve Tables (chosen B.C. 451): ut xviri maximā potestate sine provocatione crearentur.—
    • 22. A tribunal for deciding causes involving liberty or citizenship, called decem viri stlitibus iudicandis.—
    • 33. A commission for distributing public lands: legibus agrariis curatores constituti sunt ... xviri: decemviros agro Samniti creare, L.—
    • 44. A college of priests in charge of the Sibylline books: decemviri sacrorum, L.: sacris faciundis, L.—
• IIII. Sing: decemvir or xvir, a member of a decemviral college: ut is xvir sit: Iulius decemvir, L.

DECEMVIRI

DECE´MVIRIthe Ten Men, the name of various magistrates and functionaries at Rome.

1. DECEMVIRI CONSULARI IMPERIO LEGIBUS SCRIBENDISwere ten persons who were appointed to draw up a code of laws, and to whom the whole government of the state was entrusted. As early as B.C. 462, a law was proposed by C. Terentilius Arsa, that five commissioners should be appointed for drawing up a body of laws; but this was violently opposed by the patricians (Liv. 3.9); and it was not till after a struggle of nine years that the patricians consented to send three persons to Greece, to collect such information respecting the laws and constitutions of the Greek states as might be useful to the Romans (Liv. 3.31). They were absent a year; and on their return, after considerable dispute between the patricians and plebeians, ten commissioners were appointed with the title of decemviri legibus scribendis, to whom the revision of the laws was committed. No other magistrates were appointed for the year: even the tribuneship was abandoned. It is clear that the legislative commissioners were to have supreme power; and the view of Mommsen (Hist. 1.290) is very probable, that the purpose of the whole scheme was to substitute henceforward for tribunician intercession a limitation of the consular powers by written law. There is reason to doubt Livy's statement that plebeians were admitted to be ineligible: but in fact all of the ten were patricians.

The decemviri entered upon their office at the beginning of B.C. 451. They consisted of App. Claudius and T. Genucius Augurinus, the consuls elect, as Niebuhr conjectures, of the praefectus urbi, and of the two quaestores parricidii, and of five others chosen by the centuries. They discharged the duties of their office with diligence, and dispensed justice with impartiality. Each administered the government day by day in succession as during an interregnum; and the fasces were only carried before the one who presided for the day. (Liv. 3.33.) They drew up a body of laws, distributed into ten sections; which, after being approved of by the senate and the comitia centuriata, were engraven on tables of metal, and set up in the forum on the rostra in front of the senate-house.

On the expiration of their year of office, all parties were so well satisfied with the manner in which they had discharged their duties, that it was resolved to continue the same form of government for another year; more especially as some of the decemvirs said that their work was not finished. Ten new decemvirs were accordingly elected, of whom Appius Claudius alone belonged to the former body (Liv. 3.35; Dionys. 10.53); and of his nine new colleagues, at least three, and probably five, were plebeians. (Mommsen, Forsch. 1.95: Dionys. 10.58regards only three as plebeians; Livy (Liv. 4.3, 17, carelessly speaks of all as patricians.) These magistrates framed several new laws, which were approved of by the centuries, and engraven on two additional tables. But, according to the traditional account, they used their power in a most tyrannical manner. Each was attended by twelve lictors, who carried not the rods only, but the axe, the emblem of sovereignty. They committed all kinds of outrages upon the persons and property of the plebeians and their families. When their year of office expired, they refused to resign or appoint successors. This conduct was not strictly illegal, but unquestionably it was against the spirit of the constitution, which prescribed an annual tenure of office; and they were regarded not as private citizens usurping powers, but as magistrates misusing their authority (Mommsen, Staatsr. ii.2 696). It is a probable conjecture that the unconstitutional action was connived at, as an indirect means of suppressing the tribuneship; but there is much also to be said for Mommsen's view, that Appius was endeavouring by the help of a portion of the plebs to secure despotic power. At length, the unjust decision of App. Claudius, in the case of Virginia, which led her father to kill her with his own hands to save her from prostitution, occasioned an insurrection of the people. The decemvirs were in consequence obliged to resign their office, B.C. 449; after which the usual magistracies were reestablished. (Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. pp. 309-356; Arnold, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. pp. 250-313; Becker, Römisch. Alterthüm. vol. ii. part ii. pp. 126-136; Mommsen, Hist. 1.289 ff.; Herzog, Röm. Staatsverf. 1.177 ff.; Schwegler, Röm. Gesch. 3.1 ff.)

The ten tables of the former, and the two tables of the latter decemvirs, together form the laws of the Twelve Tables, of which an account is given in a separate article. [LEX DUODECIM TAB. ]

2. DECEMVIRI LITIBUSor STLITIBUS JUDICANDIS were magistrates forming a court of justice, which took cognizance of civil cases. Pomponius (de Orig. Jur.Dig. 1, tit. 2, s. 2.29) says that they were instituted in the year B.C. 292, the time when the triumviri capitales were first appointed. This statement Mommsen (Staatsr. ii.2 592) decidedly rejects. Livy (Liv. 3.55) mentions iudices decemviri as a plebeian magistracy very soon after the legislation of the Twelve Tables; and while Niebuhr (Hist, of Rome, vol. 2. p. 324, &c.) refers these decemvirs to the decemviral magistrates, who had shortly before been abolished, and thus abides by the account of Pomponius, Göttling (Gesch. der Röm. Staatsv. p. 241, &c.) believes that the decemvirs of Livy are the decemviri litibus judicandis, and this view is accepted by Mommsen. He shows however that the office cannot have been limited to plebeians, for we find it held by Cn. Scipio, the praetor of B.C. 140, by C. Julius Caesar, the father of the dictator, and by another patrician. This office does not appear to have been regarded as a magistracy before the middle of the seventh century of the city. After this time the decemvirs appear to have been elected in the comitia tributa. Their function was to decide in private suits (Cic. de Leg. 3.3, 6), and especially in causae liberales, suits affecting personal freedom, a fact which makes it probable that they were instituted after the downfall of the decemvirs. In the time of Cicero the office still existed, and the proceedings in it took place in the ancient form of the sacramentum. (Cic. pro Caecin. 38, 97; pro Dom. 29, 78.) Augustus transferred to these decemvirs the presidency in the courts of the centumviri. (Suet. Aug. 36; Dio Cass..)

3. DECEMVIRI SACRIS FACIUNDIS,sometimes called simply DECEMVIRI SACRORUM, were the members of an ecclesiastical collegium, and were elected for life. Their chief duty was to take care of the Sibylline books, and to inspect them on all important occasions, by command of the senate. (Liv. 7.27, 21.62-Z2, 31.12-Z2.) Virgil (Aen. 6.73) alludes to them in his address to the Sibyl--Lectos sacrabo viros.

Under the kings the care of the Sibylline books was committed to two men (duumviri) of high rank (Dionys. 4.62), one of whom, called Atilius or Tullius, was punished by Tarquinius, for being unfaithful to his trust, by being sewn up in a sack and cast into the sea. (Dionys. l. c.; Val. Max..) On the expulsion of the kings, the care of these books was entrusted to the noblest of the patricians, who were exempted from all military and civil duties. Their number was increased in the year 367 B.C. to ten, of whom five were chosen from the patricians and five from the plebeians. (Liv. 6.37, 42.) Subsequently their number was still further increased to fifteen (quindecemviri); but at what time is uncertain. As, however, there were decemviri in B.C. 114 (Val. Max., 12), in B.C. 98 (Obsequens, 47), and in B.C. 82, when the Capitol was burnt (Dionys. l. c.), and we read of quindecemviri in the time of Cicero (ad Fam. 8.4), it appears probable that their number was increased from ten to fifteen by Sulla, especially as we know that he increased the numbers of several of the other ecclesiastical corporations. Julius Caesar added one more to their number (Dio Cass.); but this precedent was not followed, as the collegium appears to have consisted afterwards of only fifteen.

It was also the duty of the decemviri and quinqueviri to celebrate the games of Apollo (Liv. 10.8), and the secular games (Tac. Ann. 11.11; Hor. Carm. Saec. 70). They were, in fact, considered priests of Apollo, whence each of them had in his house a bronze tripod dedicated to that deity. (Serv. ad Verg. A. 3.332)

So long as there were ten members of the college there were two magistri, one a patrician, one a plebeian; when the number was increased to fifteen, the magistri were five in number. (Mommsen, Res Gestae divi Aug. p. 64: cf. Tac. Ann. 6.12; Marquardt, Röm. Alt. 6.364 ff.)

4. DECEMVIRI AGRIS DIVIDUNDISwere sometimes appointed for distributing the public land among the citizens. (Liv. 31.4; 42.4-Z2.)

5. DECEMVIRIwere occasionally appointed in the earlier days of the republic as commissioners to settle terms of peace. (Mommsen, Röm. St. ii.2 624, 665, 672.)

[W.S] [A.S.W]

Decemvĭri

(1) Ten commissioners appointed (B.C. 451) to frame a code of laws for the Roman State at a time when the feuds between the patricians and plebeians were continuing with unabated animosity. Occasionally one of the consuls favoured the plebeians, and proposed some mitigation of the hardships under which they were labouring, or some increase of their privileges, but generally with little success. The Agrarian Law, brought forward by Spurius Cassius, continued to be the main demand of the commons and their supporters, but its passage was, on every occasion, either directly or indirectly prevented. At last the commons became convinced that they need hope for no complete redress of grievances until they should have previously secured the establishment of some constitutional principle, from which equal justice would, of necessity and from its very nature, emanate. Accordingly, Terentillus HarsaGaius , one of the tribunes, proposed a law (B.C. 462) for a reform of the existing state of things. Its purport was that ten commissioners should be chosen, five by the patricians and five by the plebeians, to draw up a constitution, which should define all points of constitutional, civil, and criminal law; and should thus determine, on just and fixed principles, all the political, social, and civil relations of all orders of the Roman people. After much opposition on the part of the patricians, the law was passed, and three commissioners were at length sent to Greece, to collect from the Grecian States such notices of their laws and constitutions as might be serviceable to the Romans. After the absence of a year they returned; and the plebeians, finding it in vain to insist upon five of their own body forming part of the reviewers of the laws, yielded the point, and ten of the most distinguished of the patrician and senatorial body were chosen to form an entirely new and complete code of laws by which the State should be governed. They were named Decemviri, “the ten men” (Decemviri Legibus Scribendis), and during their office they were to supersede every other magistrate. Each in his turn was to administer the government for a day, or, according to others, for several days, till they should complete their legislative labours. After the careful deliberation of a few months, the result was laid before the people in the form of ten tables, fully written out, and exhibited in a conspicuous place where all might read them. Various amendments were proposed, and the ten tables again laid before the Senate, the curiae, and the centuries, and, having received the sanction of both orders of the State, were recognized as the very fountain of the laws, public and private. The Decemvirs had conducted matters so much to the satisfaction of the community that when, at the expiration of their year, they requested a renewal of their office, on the ground that they had still two more tables to form in order to complete their task, an election of new Decemvirs was ordered. (See Twelve Tables.) The patrician Appius Claudius, who took the leading part in the whole affair, was nominated to preside over this election. He acted in concert with the plebeians, by receiving votes for plebeian candidates, and for himself likewise, though it had been declared contrary to law that any functionary should be re-elected immediately after holding office. By dint of intrigue, however, Appius was reelected, and along with him nine others, half of whom were patricians, half plebeians.

The new commission soon showed itself very different from the first. Each of the Decemvirs had twelve lictors, whereas the previous commission had the lictors only by turns, and a single accensus or officer preceded each of the rest. The lictors, too, now bore amid the fasces the formidable axe, the emblem of judgment on life and death, which the consuls, since the time of Valerius Publicola, had been obliged to lay aside during their continuance in the city. The Decemvirs seemed resolved to change the government of Rome into a complete oligarchy, consisting of ten, whose power should be absolute in everything. They assumed the right of superseding all other magistracies; and, at the conclusion of their second year, they showed no intention of resigning their offices or of appointing their successors. Matters had nearly reached a crisis when a war arose, the Sabines and the Aequi having united their forces and being desirous of availing themselves of the distracted state of Rome. The Decemvirs assembled the Senate, obtained its authority to raise an army, at the head of which they placed three of their number, and sent it against the Sabines. Another was raised and sent against the Aequi, while Appius Claudius remained at Rome to provide for the safety of the city and for the maintenance of the power of the Decemvirs. Both armies were defeated, and retired nearer to the city, dissatisfied rather than discomfited. Then occurred the affair of Virginia, and the decemviral power was at an end. See Claudius

(4); Virginia; Liv.iii. 32 foll.; and Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. pp. 345-371 (Eng. trans.).

(2) There were also military decemviri; and, on various emergencies, decemviri were created to manage and regulate certain affairs, after the same manner as boards of commissioners are now appointed. Thus there were decemviri for conducting colonies; decemviri who officiated as judges in litigated matters under the praetor; decemviri for dividing the lands among the veteran soldiers; decemviri to prepare and preside at feasts in honour of the gods; decemviri to take care of the sacrifices (Decemviri Sacris Faciundis) and to guard the Sibylline Books. With regard to the last of these, however, it must be observed that the number, after having been originally two, and then increased to ten, was subsequently still further increased to fifteen and sixteen.