| 释义 |
decurion|dɪˈkjʊərɪən|
In 4–5 -ioun.
[ad. L. decurio, -ōnem, f. dec-em ten, after centurio centurion: see decury.]
1. Rom. Antiq. A cavalry officer in command of a decuria or company of ten horse. Also gen. A commander or captain of ten men.
1382Wyclif 1 Macc. iii. 55 Decuriouns, leders of ten. 1533Bellenden Livy iv. (1822) 361 Sixtus Tempanius, decurion of horsmen. 1581Styward Mart. Discipl. i. 61 He shall charge euerie decurion or Captaine of ten men vpon their othes. 1701W. Wotton Hist. Rome v. 83 He had got away, if a Decurion had not fallen upon him. 1838Arnold Hist. Rome I. 75 The poorest citizens..followed the army..acting as orderlies to the centurions and decurions.
b. transf. An overseer of ten households, a tithing-man.
1591G. Fletcher Russe Commw. (Hakluyt Soc.) 43 The constable hath certaine..decurions under him, which haue the ouersight of ten households a peece. 1689–90Temple Ess. Heroic Virtue §3 Wks. 1731 I. 207 He [Mango Capac] instituted Decurions thro' both these Colonies, that is, one over every Ten Families.
2. Rom. Hist. A member of the senate of a colony or municipal town; a town councillor.
In later times the capacity for the office became hereditary, and the decurions formed an order charged with heavy financial and other responsibilities to the imperial government.
1382Wyclif Mark xv. 43 Ioseph of Armathie, the noble decurioun [Vulg. decurio, Gr. βουλευτής]. 1606Holland Sueton. 60 A new kind of Suffrages which the decurions or elders of Colonies gave every one in their owne Towneshippe. 1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. iii. (1636) 2 Ioseph of Arimathea, that noble Decurion. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 63 The laborious offices, which could be productive only of envy and reproach, of expence and danger, were imposed on the Decurions, who formed the corporations of the cities, and whom the severity of the Imperial laws had condemned to sustain the burthens of civil society. 1872E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 37 note, The Decurio, and filius Decurionis, the Plebeius, and the Servus of the law of Constantine, answer exactly to the Noble, Free, and Servile orders of the Germanic codes.
3. A member of the Great Council in modern Italian cities and towns.
1666Lond. Gaz. No 97/1 The Colledge of the Jurists, the sixty Decurions [at Milan]. 1708Ibid. No. 4448/1 After these came eight Trumpeters..preceding the 60 Decurions, the great Chancellor, the Privy-Council, and Senate. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 343 In Genoa, whose municipality was constituted by laws of 1814 and 1815, there is a Great Council of forty decurions (half nobles, half merchants and other citizens), who were named in the first instance by the crown, but have since filled up their own vacancies. 1865Maffei Brigand Life II. 47 At one time a syndic, a decurion, profited by his post to persecute his private enemies.
4. Astrol. = decan 2.
1652Gaule Magastrom. 87 Their houses..thrones, decurions, faces, joys.
¶ Erron. for decury, a company of ten.
1555Eden Decades 23 A coompanye of armed men diuided into .xxv. decurions, that is, tenne in a company with theyr capitaynes. |