Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

386 DECEMVIRI. I)ECEMVIRI.
According to Aristotle (apud Haspocrat. s. v. engraven on tables of metal, and set up in the
B~ci.dwsv), Anytus was the first person at Athens comitium.
who bribed the judges; and we learn from On the expiration of their year of office, all
Plutarch (Coriol. c. 14) that he did so, when he parties were so well satisfied with the manner in
was charged of having been guilty of treachery at which they had discharged their duties, that it was
Pylos, at the end of the Peloponnesian war. Other resolved to continue the same form of government
writers say that Melitus was the first person who for another year; more especially as some of the
bribed the judges. (Petit. Leg. Att. p. 427, and decemvirs said that their work was not finished.
Duker's note.) Ten new decemvirs were accordingly elected, of
Actions for bribery were under the jurisdiction whom Appius Claudius alone belonged to the former
of the thesmothetae. (Dem. c. Step/h. I.c.) The body (Liv. iii. 35; Dionys. x. 53); and of his
punishment on conviction of the defendant was nine new colleagues, Niebuhr thinks that five were
death, or payment of ten times the value of the plebeians. These magistrates framed several new
gift received, to which the court might add an ad- laws, which were approved of by the centuries,
ditional punishment (7rpoo~i/V7/ya). Thus Demos- and engraven on two additional tables. They
thenes was sentenced to a fine of 50 talents by an acted, however, in a most tyrannical manner. Each
action for bribery, and also thrown into prison. was attended by twelve lictors, who carried not
(Bdckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens, p. 384, 2d ed.; the rods only, but the axe, the emblem of soveMeier, Att. Process, p. 352.) reignty. They made common cause with the patriDECASTY'LOS. [TEMPLUM.] cian party, and committed all kinds of outrages
DECATE (8EeiK't7). [DECUMABE. upon the persons and property of the plebeians and
DECEIMPEDA, a pole ten feet long, used by their families. When their year of office expired
the agrimensores in measuring land. (Cic. Pro kAli. they refused to resign or to appoint successors.
27; Hor. Carnm. ii. 15. 14; Cic. lPlilipp. xiv. 4.) Niebuhr, however, considers it certain that they
Thus we find that the agrimensores were sometimes were appointed for a longer period than a year;
called decemnpedatores (Cic. Plilipp. xiii. 18). The since otherwise they would not have been required
decempeda was in fact the standard land-measure. to resign their office, but interreges would at the
[AcTus; AGRIMENSORES.] expiration of the year have stepped into their place.
DECEM PRIMI. [SENATUS.] This, however, does not seem conclusive; since the
DECE'MVIRI, the Ten Men, the nasme of decemvirs were at the time in possession of the
various magistrates and functionaries at Rome. whole power of the state, and would have pre1. DECEsnVIRI LEGIBUS SCRIBENDIS, were ten vented any attempt of the kind. At length, the
persons, who were appointed to draw up a code ofl unjust decision of App. Claudius, in the case of
laws, and to whom the whole government of the Virginia, which led her father to kill her with his
state was entrusted. As early as B. c. 462, a own hands to save her from prostitution, occasioned
law was proposed by C. Terentilius Arsa, that an insurrection of the people. The decemvirs
commissioners should be appointed for drawing up were in consequence obliged to resign their office,
a body of laws; but this was violently opposed by B. c. 449; after which the usual magistracies were
the patricians (Liv. iii. 9); and it was not till re-established. (Niebuhr, Iist. of Rome, vol. ii.
after a struggle of nine years that the patricians pp. 309-356; Arnold, Hist. of Rone, vol. i. pp.
consented to send three persons to Greece, to col- 250-313; Becker, Roiniisc/h. Alterthtimn. vol. ii.
lect such information respecting the laws and con- part ii. pp. 126-136.)
stitutions of the Greek states as might be useful The ten tables of the former, and the two tables
to the Romans. (Liv. iii. 31.) They were absent a of the latter decemvirs, together form the laws of
year; and on their return, after considerable dis- the Twelve Tables, of which an account is given
pute between the patricians and plebeians, ten in a separate article. [LEx DUODECIM TAB.]
commissioners of the patrician order were ap- 2. DECEAIiVIRILITIBUS or STLITIBUS JUDICANpointed with the title of " decemviri legibus scri- DIs, were magistrates forming a court of justice,
bendis," to whonm the revision of the laws was which took cognizance of civil cases. From Pomcommitted. All the other magistrates were ob- ponius (de Orig. Jutr. Dig. i. tit. 2. s. 2. ~ 29) it
liged to abdicate, and no exception was made even would appear that they were not instituted till the
in favour of the tribunes; for there is no reason to year B. c. 292, the time when the triumviri capisuppose, as Niebuhr has done, that the tribune- tales were first appointed. Livy (iii. 55) however
ship was not given up till the second decemvirate mlentioIls decemvirs as a plebeian magistracy very
(Cic. de Rep. ii. 36; Liv. iii. 32; Dionys. x. 56). soon after the legislation of the Twelve Tables
They were thus entrusted with supreme power in and while Niebuhr (Ilist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 324,
the state. &c.) refers these decemvirs to the decemviral
The decemviri entered upon their office at the magistrates, who had shortly before been abolished,
beginning of B. c. 451. They consisted of App. and thus abides by the account of Pomponius,
Claudius and T. Genucius Augurinus, the new Gittling (Gesc/7. der RMm. Staatsv. p. 241, &c.)
consuls, of the praefectus urbi, and of the two believes that the decemvirs of Livy are the dequaestores parricidii as Niebuhr conjectures, and cemviri litibus judicandis, and refers their instiof five others chosen by the centuries. They dis- tution, together with that of the centumviri, to
charged the duties of their office with diligence, Servius Tullius. [CENTUMVnRi.] But the history
and dispensed justice with impartiality. Each ad- as well as the peculiar jurisdiction of this court
ministered the government day by day in succes- during the time of the republic are involved in
sion as during an interregnum; and the fasces were inextricable obscurity. In the time of Cicero it
only carried before the one who presided for the still existed, and the proceedings in it took place
day. (Liv. iii. 33.) They drew up a body of laws, in the ancient form of the sacramentum. (Cic. pro
distributed into ten sections; which, after being Caecin. 33, pro Domn. 29.) Augustus transferred
approved of by the senate and the comitia, were to these decemvirs the presidency in the courts of