(i.e., the Ten Men) in Antiquity, 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 the administration of justice depended upon the will and caprice of the patricians, without any written statute to direct them, and convince the people 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. The petition was complied with, and three commissioners were sent to Athens and all the other Grecian states, to collect the laws of Solon and of the other celebrated legislators of Greece. Upon the return of these commissioners, it was universally agreed that ten new magistrates, called Decemviri, should be elected from the senate, in order to carry 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, each in his turn, with the badges of the consulship, and the one so distinguished was preceded by the fasces, and had the power of assembling the senate and confirming its decrees. The first decemvirs were Appius Claudius, T. Genntius, P. Sextus, Sp. Veturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpicius, Pluritiatus, T. Romulus, and Sp. Posthumius, in the year of Rome 302 (B.C. 451). Under them the laws, which had been exposed to public view (in order that every citizen might speak his sentiments regarding them), were publicly approved as constitutional, and ratified by the priests and augurs with the most solemn religious rites. These laws were originally ten in number, and were engraved on tablets of brass; but when two were afterwards added, 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 Appius Claudius, one of their number, to ravish Virginia led to the total abolition of the office. The people were so exasperated that they demanded of the senate that the decemvirs should be burned alive. Consuls were again appointed, and tranquillity was 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 sub-hastationes, because a spear, hasta, was fixed at the door of the place where the goods were exposed to sale. They were called decemviri litibus judicandis. The officers whom Tarquin appointed to guard the Sibylline books were also called decemviri. They were originally two in number, called duumviri, till the year of Rome 388, when their number was increased to ten, five of whom were chosen from the plebeians and five from the patricians. Sylla increased their number to fifteen, so that they were called quindecimviri.