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DECEMVIRS DECIUS 751 endar the last half of Poseidion and the first half of Gamelion correspond to December. In the French revolutionary calendar December is represented by the last two thirds of Fri- maire and the first third of Nivose. As the winter solstice falls in the month of December, the average length of the days is less and of the nights greater than in any other month of the year. DECEMVIRS (Lat. decemviri, ten men), the title of several bodies of magistrates in ancient Home. The decemviri legibua scribendis, ap- pointed to digest a written code of laws, were first elected in 451 B. 0. The tribune 0. Teren- tius (or Terentillus) Arsa, after a violent exhibi- tion of the grievances of the plebeians and the usurpations of the patricians, about 460 pro- posed the appointment of ten commissioners to digest a regular body of laws which should be binding alike upon every citizen. This compro- mise between the two orders was accomplished after nine years of continued struggle. An em- bassy was sent to Greece to obtain information concerning the laws of the different states, and particularly concerning those of Solon ; and af- ter its return ten distinguished patricians were appointed for a year, with supreme power, to frame the new laws. They entered upon their work with zeal and diligence, and exercised their power with justice, impartiality, and moderation, each presiding in turn day by day, and he only using the fasces. The new laws, engraved on ten tables of brass, were placed in the forum and sanctioned by general accla- mation, as well as by the sacred rites of the augurs. But two additional tables being re- quired, a new decemvirate was elected for the next year, in which the patrician Appius Clau- dius managed to be reflected, and to introduce a few plebeian members. He thus became the favorite of the people, while aiming to become their master. The laws were completed, and afterward known under the name of "laws of the twelve tables," and were admired for their wisdom, which, according to Cicero, sur- passed that of all the books of philosophy. But now the decemvirs changed their conduct, exercised their power over all classes w.ith oppressive rigor, and by terror maintained themselves in office after the expiration of their term. The attempted rape of Virginia by Appius Claudius, under the guise of a pub- lic judgment, and the killing of the virgin by her own father to save her honor, brought about the overthrow of this decemvirate. The decem- viri litibus judicandis were a judicial magis- tracy, established at an uncertain date. Their authority extended over matters relating to persons and taxable . property,, and they had the management of the subhastationes. .Under the emperors they were the presidents of the centumviral court. The decemviri sacris'faci- undis (or more briefly sacrorum) were a college of priests for the interpretation of the Sibyl- line books, established about 368 B. C., instead of the ancient patrician duumviri; they were 253 VOL. v. 48 chosen for life, partly from the patrician, part- ly from the plebeian order, and had the man- agement of the Apollinian and secular games. At a later period their number was increased, probably by Sulla, to 15. DE CHARMS, Richard, an American clergy- man and author, born in Philadelphia, Oct. 17, 1796, died there, March 20, 1864. In 1793 his father, a physician, of Huguenot descent, emigrated from England to America, and died of yellow fever a few weeks before the birth of his son. The latter when 14 years of age supported his mother and himself by working in a printing office, until ill health compelled him to desist. Subsequently he found means to enter Yale college, at which he graduated in 1826, and at the suggestion of a female friend, to whom he was indebted for his educa- tion, commenced the study of theology in Lon- don, with a view of fitting himself for the ministry of the New Jerusalem or Swederibor- gian church. During the two years he remained in England he supported himself by his labor as a printer. He was settled successively at Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and published several collections of sermons and lectures on the fundamental doctrines of Swe- denborg. He established the " New Jerusa- lem Magazine " in Boston, the first three num- bers of which were printed by his own hands, and edited the " Precursor " and " New Church- man." His chief work is "The New Church- man Extra " (1 vol. 8vo), which is devoted to polemics and church history. DECIGRAMME. See GRAMME. DECIMAL (Lat. decem, ten), a number in a geometrical progression whose ratio is 10 ; that is, in a progression by tens, hundreds, or by tenths, hundredths, and so on. Decimal nota- tion is the system of uniting numbers in which the value of a figure increases tenfold with every remove to the left, and decreases to a tenth by every remove to the right, from a point between the units and tenths designated by a dot. Numeration by decimals was doubt- less suggested by the fingers of the hand, and therefore may be called natural; but other systems, as the binary and duodecimal, possess certain advantages over it. So long, however, as arithmetic uses a decimal ratio, it will be most convenient, for all purposes of calculation, to have money, weights, and measures divided decimally, as the first is in the United States, and all are to a great extent in France. DECIFS, Cains Messins Quintus Trajanns, empe- ror of Rome from 249 to 251, born at Bubalia in Pannonia, of unknown parentage. He be- came a Roman general and senator, and when the legions of Moesia revolted against the em- peror Philip, he spoke in the senate against submissive measures, and was sent to bring them back to their allegiance. But the re- volted army compelled him, under threats of death, to assume the purple, and to march at their head against Philip. He met and con- quered the army of the emperor at Verona,