Decemvirates

Decemvirate refers to a commission or college of ten officials. In ancient Rome, decemvirates were employed to perform specific tasks, often legislative or religious, and their ten members were known as decemviri.

The most famous use of the term in Roman history concerned the decemvirs who were charged with drafting and overseeing laws. In 451–450 BCE, a Decemvirate (the Decemviri legibus scribundis) was appointed to codify Roman law. The group produced a written code, traditionally known as the Twelve Tables, which became the foundation of Roman private and public law. The body’s authority expanded beyond its mandate, and tensions with the plebeians and the patricians grew as the decemviri exercised considerable power.

A Second Decemvirate followed, traditionally dated to 449–448 BCE, intended to complete the codification. This second body extended its control over the magistracy, leading to abuses of power and a conservative backlash. The tyranny of the second decemvirs ended with plebeian resistance and the expulsion of the ten, restoring the normal republican system. The Twelve Tables themselves were completed and recognized as Rome’s early written law code, though not necessarily by the second decemvirate alone.

Beyond the law code, Rome also organized other ten-member commissions, including the Decemviri sacris faciundis, a religious college charged with overseeing certain rites and sacred texts such as the Sibylline Books.

Decemvirates thus appear as temporary ten-man bodies used for governance, lawmaking, or religious duties, notable for their impact on Roman constitutional development and for illustrating tensions between accountability and authority in the Roman Republic.