| | decemviri (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-16) |
 | | Appius Claudius is said to have made an unjust decision which would have forced a young woman named Verginia into prostitution, prompting her father to kill her, and this travesty caused an uprising against the Decemvirate; the decemviri resigned their offices in 449 BC, and the ordinary magistrates (magistratus ordinarii) were re-instituted. |
 | | This type of decemvirate (also called the decemviri litibus iudicandis) was a civil court of ancient origin (traditionally attributed to King Servius Tullius) mainly concerned with questions bearing on the status of individuals. |
 | | It originally served as a jury rendering verdict under the presidency of the praetor, but these decemviri subsequently became annual minor magistrates (magistratus minores) of the Republic, elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa and forming part of the Vigintisexviri ("Twenty-Six Men"). |
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