The decemviri stlitibus judicandis[i] was a civil court of ancient origin, traditionally attributed to Servius Tullius, which originally dealt with cases concerning whether an individual was free.[1][2]
History
Originally these decemvirs were a jury of ten men, serving under the presidency of a magistrate, but later this court became the magistratus minores, or lower judiciary of the Roman Republic, and was included among the vigintisexviri, or twenty-six magistrates elected by the comitia tributa. According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Augustus assigned the presidency of the court of the centumviri to the decemviri stlitibus judicandis. In imperial times, the decemvirs also had jurisdiction in capital crimes.[3][1]
Footnotes
^In later Latin, stlitibus would be spelled litibus. Classical Latin did not differentiate between 'i' and 'j'; although the modern orthography is judicandis, some sources use iudicandis.
References
^ abClay, Agnes Muriel (1911). "Decemviri" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 912; see para 2. II. The judicial board of decemvirs (stlitibus judicandis) formed a civil court of ancient origin concerned mainly with questions bearing on the status of individuals.
^Colognesi, Law and Power in the Making of the Roman Commonwealth.