DECEMVIRI, cle-cene -vir-i. x. LEGIBUS SCRI BENDIS, te'-gl-bus seri-ben'-dis, entered on office 452 E.0 , to draw up a set of laws, on the return of the commissioners sent in 454 to collect the laws of Solon in Athens, in accordance with the Terentilia Lex. All other magistrates were suspended, and the Decemvirs were to exercise all functions, civil and military, in addition to legislating. At the end of their year of office, ten new Decemvirs (including Appius Claudius, deceinvir of the former years were appointed, and behaved very tyrannically, making common cause with the patricians against the plebeians : at the end of the year they refused to resign ; but an unjust decision of Appius regarding Virginia (q. v.) led to a secession of the plebs to the Sacer Mons and the fall of the Decemvirs, 449• The laws drawn up by the Decemvirs were the Twelve Tables, which were the foundation of all Roman law. 2. STLITIBUS (or LITIBUS) JUDICANDIS, sae tt-bus, jzi-dic-an'-a'is, a court that took cognizance of civil cases. They were placed by Augustus at the head of the Cen turnviri, but still existed as a separate and independent body down to the end of the fifth century. 3. SACRORUM, or SACRIS FACIUNDIS, sa-cre -runt, sac'-ris fd-c7-un'-dis, were an ecclesiastical corporate body (collegium) that took charge of the Sibylline books and con sulted them for information of future events when ordered by the senate ; and celebrated the games of Apollo and the secular games.
At first they were only two (Duunsviri); made ten in 367 B.C., half being patricians and half plebeians ; and they were raised by Sulla to fifteen (Quindicesnviri).
Mims M us, P. (de'-cl-us musl. 1. A celebrated Roman consul, after many glorious exploits, devoted himself to the manes foi the safety of his country, in battle with the Latins, 340 B.C. 2. The son of (i), devoted himself, when fighting against the Gauls and Samnites, at Sentinum, 295 B.C. 3. The son of (a) and grandson of (r), similarly devoted himself when fighting against Pyrrhus and the Tarentines, at Ascillum, 279 inc. 4. BRUTUS, brzr-tus, con ducted Cmsar to the senate-house the day that he was murdered. 5. CN. METIUS Q. TRA. JANUS, trei-jd-nus, a native of nonia, was sent by the emperor Philip to appease a sedition in Mcesia ; but assumed the purple, marched against Philip, and, at his death, became sole emperor, A.D. 249. He distinguished himself against the Persians. When he marched against the Goths, his horse stuck fast in a marsh, and he perished, with all his army, by the darts of the barbarians, 251. He was brave and a strict disciplinarian, and by his just life merited the title of Oflimus, bestowed on him by the servile Senate.