ten magistrates of absolute authority among the Romans. The privileges of the patricians raised dissatisfaction among the plebeians; who, though freed from the power of the Tarquins, still saw that that the administration of justice depended upon the will and caprice of their superiors, without any written statute to direct them, and convince them that they were governed with equity and impartiality. The tribunes complained to the senate, and demanded that a code of laws might be framed for the use and benefit of the Roman people. This petition was complied with; and three ambassadors were sent to Athens and all the other Grecian states, to collect the laws of Solon and of all the other celebrated legislators of Greece. Upon the return of the commissioners it was universally agreed, that ten new magistrates called Decemviri should be elected from the senate to put the project into execution. Their power was absolute, all other offices ceased after their election, and they presided over the city with regal authority. They were invested with the badges of the consul, in the enjoyment of which they succeeded by turns, and only one was preceded by the falses, and had the power of assembling the senate and confirming decrees. The first decemvirs were Appius Claudius, T. Genutius, P. Sextus, Sp. Veturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpicius, Pluricius, T. Romulus, Sp. Posthumius, in the year of Rome 302. Under them the laws, which had been exposed to public view, that every citizen might speak his sentiments, were publicly approved of as constitutional, and ratified by the priests and augurs in the most solemn and religious manner. They were ten in number, and were engraved on tables of brass; two were afterwards added, and they were called the laws of the twelve tables, leges duodecim tabularum, and leges decemvirales. The decemviral power, which was beheld by all ranks of people with the greatest satisfaction, was continued; but in the third year after their creation the decemvirs became odious on account of their tyranny, and the attempt of Ap. Claudius to ravish Virginia totally abolished that office. The people were so exasperated against them, that they demanded them from the senate to burn them alive. Consuls were again appointed, and tranquility re-established in the state. There were other officers in Rome called decemvirs, who were originally appointed in the absence of the praetor to administer justice. Their appointment became afterwards necessary, and they generally assisted at sales, called subbataiones, because a spear, basta, was fixed at the door of the place where the goods were exposed to sale. They were called decemviri litibus judicandis. The officers whom Tarquinius appointed to guard the Sibylline books were also called decemviri. They were originally two in number, called diumviri, till the year of Rome 388, when their number was increased to ten, five of which were chosen from the plebeians and five from the patricians. Sylla increased their number to fifteen, called quindecemviri.