DECEM-VIRI,
Ten Magistrates cho∣sen at Rome, to govern the Commonwealth in∣stead of Consuls, with an absolute Power. They were created upon this occasion.
The Tribunes of the People having obser∣ved for a very long time, that the Magistrates did always favour the Nobility to the preju∣dice of the People, demanded an equality of Laws for both. Tarentius or Tarentillius Arza, A. 289. ab urb. cond. shew'd himself very zealous in this Affair, and proposed the famous Law, called after his Name Tarentilla, which was the occasion of so many Troubles and Divisions in Rome. This Law ordered among other things, that five Magistrates should be created, as Livy says; or ten, as Dionysius Halicarnasseus tells us, to moderate and keep the Consulary Authority in favour with the People. The Senate oppos'd this Law; yet it was received afterwards. Three Deputies were immediate∣ly sent into Greece to fetch the Laws of Solon, and to inform themselves of the customs of the Commonwealth of Athens, and other the best forms of Government of Greece; for hi∣therto the Romans govern'd themselves by their own Customs. These Deputies acquitted themselves of their Trust with great fidelity and exactness. At their return the Senate created ten Magistrates to govern the Repub∣lick, and to examine the Laws of Solon, which being approved of by the Senate, and agreed by the People, were ingraven upon twelve Tables of Brass, and called them therefore the Laws of the twelve Tables, or the Decem∣viral Laws.
The first difficulty they met with in the Election of the Decemviri, was whether they should be all taken out of the Patrician Body, or some of them out of the Body of the Peo∣ple; the Patricians carried it this time; and at their Election they were empower'd to quit their Office whenever they should think fit.
They began to perform the functions of their Office A. cccii ab urbe condita, and did govern with such moderation and equity, that the Romans thought they lived still in the gold∣en Age of their Fathers; but the following Year the Decemviri, inticed by the sweetness of an absolute Power, made an ill use of their Authority; so that Appius Claudius one of them, having murthered Lucius Siccius Dentatus a valiant Roman Soldier, and ravish'd Virginia, a Maid of an extraordinary Beauty, the De∣cemviri were banished, and their State forfeit∣ed. They were called the ten Tarquins, be∣cause of their Tyrannical Government. And the People were so exasperated against them, that they demanded them that they might burn them alive. Then the Consulary Govern∣ment was resumed, and the Decem-viratus last∣ed but two Years.