| 释义 |
‖ decemvir|dɪˈsɛmvə(r)|
[L., sing. of decemvirī, originally decem virī ‘the ten men’.]
Rom. Antiq. (pl.) A body of ten men acting as a commission, council, college, or ruling authority; esp. the two bodies of magistrates appointed in 451 and 450 b.c. to draw up a code of laws (the laws of the Twelve Tables) who were, during the time, entrusted with the supreme government of Rome.
[1579North Plutarch (1612) 864 Cicero..did one day sharply reproue and inueigh against this law of the Decemuiri.] 1600Holland Livy iii. xxxii. 109 Agreed it was that there should be created Decemvirs above all appeale. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xliv, The Decemvirs, who sullied by their actions the honour of inscribing, on brass, or wood, or ivory, the Twelve Tables of the Roman Laws. 1838Arnold Hist. Rome I. 253 A commission invested with such extraordinary powers as those committed to the decemvirs. 1868Smith Sm. Dict. Rom. Antiq. 127/2 Decemviri Litibus Judicandis..Augustus transferred to these decemvirs the presidency in the courts of the centumviri.
b. transf. A council or ruling body of ten, as the Council of Ten of the Venetian Republic.
1615R. Cocks Diary 2 Aug., I had much adowe with Zanzabars desemvery. 1821Byron Two Foscari i. 188. I look Forward to be one day of the decemvirs. 1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. ix. 202 The decemvirs dared unblushingly propose to their colleagues, etc.
c. sing. A member of such a body.
1703Rowe Fair Penit. iv. i. (Jod.), He slew his only daughter To save her from the fierce Decemvir's lust. 1744tr. Livy I. 272 (Jod.) C. Julius, a decemvir, appointed him a day for taking his trial. 1849Grote Greece ii. lxxii. (1862) VI. 351 Like the Decemvir Appius Claudius at Rome.
Hence deˈcemvirship, the office of decemvir.
1600Holland Livy 115 (R.) The decemvirship, and the conditions of his colleagues together, had so greatly changed. |