οὐ δικαίως θάνατον ἔχθουσιν βροτοί, ὅσπερ μέγιστον ῥῦμα τῶν πολλῶν κακῶν → unjustly men hate death, which is the greatest defence against their many ills | men are not right in hating death, which is the greatest succour from our many ills
The decemviri sacris faciundis (also called the decemviri sacrorum) had religious functions and was the outcome of the claim of the plebs to equal share in the administration of the state religion (five decemviri were plebeians, five were patricians). They were first appointed in 367 BC in lieu of the patrician duumviri ("Two Men") who had had responsibility for the care and consultation of the Sibylline books and the celebration of the games of Apollo. Membership in this ecclesiastical college (collegium) was for life, and the college was increased to a quindecimvirate—that is, a college of fifteen members—and renamed accordingly (see quindecimviri sacris faciundis) in the last century of the Republic, possibly by the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla; the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar added a sixteenth member, but this precedent was not followed.
