The decemviri or decemvirs (Latin for "ten men") refer to official ten-man commissions established by the Roman Republic.
The most important were those of the two decemvirates, formally the decemvirate with consular power for writing laws (Latin: decemviri consulari imperio legibus scribundis) who reformed and codified Roman law during the Conflict of the Orders between ancient Rome's patrician aristocracy and plebeian commoners.
It was agreed to appoint decemviri with consular powers which would not be subject to appeal and to suspend both the consulship and the plebeian tribunate.
Both consuls, Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis Sabinus and Titus Genucius Augurinus, resigned as well as the other magistrates and the plebeian tribunes.
Publius Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, one of the consuls of the previous year, was also appointed because he had put the proposal to the senate despite the opposition of his colleague.
[4] The most influential member was Appius Claudius who, according to Livy, "was the guiding hand in the whole magistracy ... thanks to the favour of the plebs".
[5] Each day a different decemvir presided over the magistracy and this man had the twelve lictors (the bodyguards of the consuls) with fasces (bound bundles of rods, sometimes with axes, which were the symbol of supreme authority).
In the end they allowed its proclamation of the levy in silence because they feared a popular uprising would bolster the plebeian tribunes, their political adversaries.
[8] Livy alleged that Appius Claudius was sexually interested in Verginia, the daughter of a plebeian, Lucius Verginius, who was a centurion absent from Rome with the army.
Having failed to woo her with money and promises, Appius Claudius decided to seize this opportunity to get one of his men to claim her as his slave.
When the claimant made his way to take her, Verginius shouted that he had betrothed Verginia to Icilius, not to Appius Claudius, and that he did not bring her up for dishonor.
Appius Claudius claimed that he knew that there had been seditious meetings and told Verginius to be quiet and the lictors to seize the slave (Verginia).
Two patricians, Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus pushed the lictors back, announcing that "if Appius proceeded legally, they would protect Icilius from the prosecution of a mere citizen; if he sought to make use of violence, there too they would be a match for him".
However, the senators were concerned that the arrival of Verginius at the military camp would cause unrest and sent messengers to tell the commanders to keep the troops from mutiny.
The civilians who had come with Verginius to the military camp claimed that the decemviri had been overthrown and that Appius Claudius had gone into exile and incited the soldiers to rise up.
When they joined the other army, the twenty "military tribunes" appointed two men, Marcus Oppius and Sextus Manilius, to take command.
The plebeian council carried a motion of immunity and passed a bill for the election of consuls subject to appeal.
Additionally, they specified that the heads of those who violated these ceremonies were to be forfeited to Jupiter and their property sold at the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera.
They also introduced the practice of delivering the decrees of the senate to the aediles at the temple of Ceres, "[u]p to that time they were wont to be suppressed or falsified, at the pleasure of the consuls".
"Before they left the city, the consuls had the decemviral laws, which are known as the Twelve Tables, engraved on bronze, and set them up in a public area.
[15] The reason the first decemvirate had a dual role, as a new magistracy which replaced the consuls and took on governance with extraordinary powers, and as a commission for compiling law, is not explained by the sources.
A theory has tried to explain this contradiction by positing that the first decemvirate differed from the second one by being a commission to compile laws, while the latter was a permanent governing body.
Athens was forced to abolish her democracy following her defeat by Sparta and it was replaced by a commission tasked with drafting the laws of a new constitution.
[23] Forsythe also says that the idea of the decemviri being overthrown "might have been suggested to later Roman historians by the names of the consuls for 449 BC, Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus".
They were similar to the names of the consuls for 509 BC, the year of the establishment of the Roman republic (Publius Valerius Publicola and Marcus Horatius Pulvillus).
He also notes that the tradition of two decemvirates and the division of the tables into groups of ten and two were already around in the mid-second century BC.
If it had gone to Athens, by that time the Law of Solon would have been replaced by the radical reforms of Pericles in the first half of the 5th century BC.
[26][29][30][31] The decemviri stlitibus judicandis ("the ten men who judge lawsuits") was a civil court of ancient origin (traditionally attributed to King Servius Tullius) mainly concerned with questions bearing on the status of individuals.
[32] Suetonius and Dio Cassius record that during the Principate, Caesar Augustus transferred to the decemviri the presidency in the courts of the Centumviri ("Hundred Men").
They were first appointed in 367 BC in lieu of the patrician duumviri ("Two Men") who had had responsibility for the care and consultation of the Sibylline books and the celebration of the games of Apollo.