decemvir

American  

[dih-sem-ver] / dɪˈsɛm vər /

noun

plural

decemvirs, decemviri

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

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)

He was soon, however, recalled to Rome by Trajan, and appointed to the offices of decemvir stlitibus judicandis, praefectus feriarum Latinarum, and sevir turmae equitum Romanorum.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 7 "Gyantse" to "Hallel" by Various

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

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

Could he be a decemvir, he could also be a consul.

From Public Lands and Agrarian Laws of the Roman Republic by Stephenson, Andrew