decemvir

American  

[dih-sem-ver] / dɪˈsɛm vər /

noun

decemvirs, plural decemviri plural

1. a member of a permanent board or a special commission of ten members in ancient Rome, especially the commission that drew up Rome's first code of law.

2. a member of any council or ruling body of ten.

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decemvir British  

/ dɪˈsɛmvə /

noun

1. (in ancient Rome) a member of a board of ten magistrates, esp either of the two commissions established in 451 and 450 _bc to revise the laws

2. a member of any governing body composed of ten men

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Other Word Forms

• decemviral
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of decemvir

1570–80; < Latin, originally plural decemvirī, equivalent to decem ten + virī men

Example Sentences

To them the assembly pays attention, they drown with clamour the voice of the decemvir.

From The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livius, Titus

Claudius, the instrument of Appius the decemvir for entrapping Virginia.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham

But the name of the decemvir still carries terror with it, and the commons waver at the sound.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 by Various

Beati sunt mortui: here rest, we know, the priestess Mammia, the decemvir Aricius, Libella the aedile, and a host of other citizens with whose names the student or the lover of Pompeii is familiar.

From The Naples Riviera by Vaughan, Herbert M. (Herbert Millingchamp)

For this man, formerly distinguished at home and abroad, his office of decemvir and his colleagues had so changed, that he chose rather to be like to Appius than like himself.

From The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livius, Titus