‖ decemvir
(dɪˈsɛmvə(r))
[L., sing. of decemvirī, originally decem virī ‘the ten men’.]
Rom. Antiq. (pl.) A body of ten men acting as a commission, council, college, or ruling authority; esp. the two bodies of magistrates appointed in 451 and 450 b.c. to draw up a code of laws (the laws of the Twelve Tables) who were, during the time, entrusted with the supreme government of Rome.
| [1579 North Plutarch (1612) 864 Cicero..did one day sharply reproue and inueigh against this law of the Decemuiri.] 1600 Holland Livy iii. xxxii. 109 Agreed it was that there should be created Decemvirs above all appeale. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xliv, The Decemvirs, who sullied by their actions the honour of inscribing, on brass, or wood, or ivory, the Twelve Tables of the Roman Laws. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. 253 A commission invested with such extraordinary powers as those committed to the decemvirs. 1868 Smith Sm. Dict. Rom. Antiq. 127/2 Decemviri Litibus Judicandis..Augustus transferred to these decemvirs the presidency in the courts of the centumviri. |
b. transf. A council or ruling body of ten, as the Council of Ten of the Venetian Republic.
| 1615 R. Cocks Diary 2 Aug., I had much adowe with Zanzabars desemvery. 1821 Byron Two Foscari i. 188. I look Forward to be one day of the decemvirs. 1832 tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. ix. 202 The decemvirs dared unblushingly propose to their colleagues, etc. |
c. sing. A member of such a body.
| 1703 Rowe Fair Penit. iv. i. (Jod.), He slew his only daughter To save her from the fierce Decemvir's lust. 1744 tr. Livy I. 272 (Jod.) C. Julius, a decemvir, appointed him a day for taking his trial. 1849 Grote Greece ii. lxxii. (1862) VI. 351 Like the Decemvir Appius Claudius at Rome. |
Hence deˈcemvirship, the office of decemvir.
| 1600 Holland Livy 115 (R.) The decemvirship, and the conditions of his colleagues together, had so greatly changed. |