The Collaborative International Dictionary
Decemvirate \De*cem"vi*rate\, n. [L. decemviratus.]
The office or term of office of the decemvirs in Rome.
A body of ten men in authority.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The office or term of office of the decemvirs of ancient Rome, who had absolute authority for two years. 2 A body of ten men in authority.
Usage examples of "decemvirate".
A belief, not traceable to any authoritative source, had got abroad that their conspiracy against law and justice was not for the present only, a secret and sworn agreement existed amongst them not to hold any elections, but to keep their power, now they had once obtained it, by making the decemvirate perpetual.
Although no nobility of birth, no honours, no services to the State paved the way for any man to sovereign power, still it was their consulships, their decemvirates, the honours achieved by them and their ancestors and the splendour of their families that raised the ambitions of the Claudii and the Cassii to an impious height.
At one time he formed part of that merciless decemvirate which--with Robespierre at its head--meant to govern France by laws of bloodshed and of unparalleled ferocity.