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    "chunk_id": "1911:decazeville:f87b7eb05500",
    "title": "DECAZEVILLE",
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    "verified_text": "decazeville, a town of south-central france, in the department of aveyron, 34 m. n.w. of rodez by the orleans railway. pop. (1906) 9749. it possesses iron mines and is the centre of the coal-fields of the aveyron, which supply the ironworks established by the duc decazes, minister of louis xviii. a statue commemorates the founder. deccan (sans. _dakshina_, \"the south\"), a name applied, according to hindu geographers, to the whole of the territories in india situated to the south of the river nerbudda. in its more modern acceptation, however, it is sometimes understood as comprising only the country lying between that river and the kistna, the latter having for a long period formed the southern boundary of the mahommedan empire of delhi. assigning it the more extended of these limits, it comprehends the whole of the indian peninsula, and in this view the mountainous system, consisting of the eastern and western ghats, constitutes the most striking feature of the deccan. these two mountain ranges unite at their northern extremities with the vindhya chain of mountains, and thus is formed a vast triangle supporting at a considerable elevation the expanse of table-land which stretches from cape comorin to the valley of the nerbudda. the surface of this table-land slopes from west to east, as indicated by the direction of the drainage of the country,--the great rivers, the cauvery, godavari, kistna and pennar, though deriving their sources from the base of the western ghats, all finding their way into the bay of bengal through fissures in the eastern ghats. _history._--the detailed and authentic history of the deccan only begins with the 13th century a.d. of the early history the main facts established are the aryan invasion (c. 700 b.c.), the growth of the maurya empire (250 b.c.) and the invasion (a.d. 100) of the scythic tribes known as the sakas, pahlavas and yavanas, which led to the establishment of the power of the kshaharata satraps in western india. in addition to this, modern study of monuments and inscriptions has recovered the names, and to a certain extent the records, of a succession of dynasties ruling in the deccan; of these the most conspicuous are the cholas, the andhras or satavahanas, the chalukyas, the rashtrakutas and the yadavas of devagiri (deogiri). (see india: _history_; bombay; presidency: _history_; inscriptions: _indian_.) in 1294 ala-ud-din khilji, emperor of delhi, invaded the deccan, stormed devagiri, and reduced the yadava rajas of maharashtra to the position of tributary princes (see daulatabad), then proceeding southward overran telingana and carnata (1294-1300). with this event the continuous history of the deccan begins. in 1307, owing to non-payment of tribute, a fresh series of mussulman incursions began, under malik kafur, issuing in the final ruin of the yadava power; and in 1338 the reduction of the deccan was completed by mahommed ben tughlak. the imperial sway was, however, of brief duration. telingana and carnata speedily reverted to their former masters; and this defection on the part of the hindu states was followed by a general revolt of the mussulman governors, resulting in the establishment in 1347 of the independent mahommedan dynasty of bahmani, and the consequent withdrawal of the power of delhi from the territory south of the nerbudda. in the struggles which ensued, the hindu kingdom of telingana fell bit by bit to the bahmani dynasty, who advanced their frontier to golconda in 1373, to warangal in 1421, and to the bay of bengal in 1472. on the dissolution of the bahmani empire (1482), its dominions were distributed into the five mahommedan states of golconda, bijapur, ahmednagar, bidar and berar. to the south of these the great hindu state of carnata or vijayanagar still survived; but this, too, was destroyed, at the battle of talikota (1565), by a league of the mahommedan powers. these latter in their turn soon disappeared. berar had already been annexed by ahmednagar in 1572, and bidar was absorbed by bijapur in 1609. the victories of the delhi emperors, akbar, shah jahan and aurangzeb, crushed the rest. ahmednagar was incorporated in the mogul empire in 1598, bijapur in 1686, and golconda in 1688. the rule of the delhi emperors in the deccan did not, however, long survive. in 1706 the mahrattas acquired the right of levying tribute in southern india, and their principal chief, the peshwa of poona, became a practically independent sovereign. a few years later the emperor's viceroy in ahmednagar, the nizam-al-mulk, threw off his allegiance and established the seat of an independent government at hyderabad (1724). the remainder of the imperial possessions in the peninsula were held by chieftains acknowledging the supremacy of one or other of these two potentates. in the sequel, mysore became the prize of the mahommedan usurper hyder ali. during the contests for power which ensued about the middle of the 18th century between the native chiefs, the french and the english took opposite sides. after a brief course of triumph, the interests of france declined, and a new empire in india was established by the british. mysore formed one of their earliest conquests in the deccan. tanjore and the carnatic were shortly after annexed to their dominions. in 1818 the forfeited possessions of the peshwa added to their extent; and these acquisitions, with others which have more recently fallen to the paramount power by cession, conquest or failure of heirs, form a continuous territory stretching from the nerbudda to cape comorin. its length is upwards of 1000 m., and its extreme breadth exceeds 800. this vast tract comprehends the chief provinces now distributed between the presidencies of madras and bombay, together with the native states of hyderabad and mysore, and those of kolhapur, sawantwari, travancore, cochin and the petty possessions of france and portugal. see j. d. b. gribble, _history of the deccan_ (1896); prof. bhandarkar, \"early history of the dekkan\" (_bombay gazetteer_); vincent a. smith, _early history of india_ (2nd ed., oxford, 1908), chap. xv. \"the kingdoms of the deccan.\" decelea (gr. [greek: dekeleia]), an attic deme, on the pass which led over the east end of mt. parnes towards oropus and chalcis. from its position it has a commanding view over the athenian plain. its eponymous hero, decelus, was said to have indicated to the tyndaridae, castor and pollux, the place where theseus had hidden their sister helen at aphidnae; and hence there was a traditional friendship between the deceleans and the spartans (herodotus ix. 73). this tradition, together with the advice of alcibiades, led the spartans to fortify decelea as a basis for permanent occupation in attica during the later years of the peloponnesian war, from 413-404 b.c. its position enabled them to harass the athenians constantly, and to form a centre for fugitive slaves and other deserters. the royal palace of tatoi has been built on the site. see peloponnesian war; also judeich in pauly-wissowa, _realencyclopadie_. december (lat. _decem_, ten), the last month of the year. in the roman calendar, traditionally ascribed to romulus, the year was divided into ten months, the last of which was called december, or the _tenth_ month, and this name, though etymologically incorrect, was retained for the last or twelfth month of the year as now divided. in the romulian calendar december had thirty days; numa reduced the number to twenty-nine; julius caesar added two days to this, giving the month its present length. the _saturnalia_ occurred in december, which is therefore styled \"acceptus geniis\" by ovid (_fasti_, iii. 58); and this also explains the phrase of horace \"libertate decembri utere\" (_sat._ ii. 7). martial applies to the month the epithet _canus_ (hoary), and ovid styles it _gelidus_ (frosty) and _fumosus_ (smoky). in the reign of commodus it was temporarily styled _amazonius_, in honour of the emperor's mistress, whom he had had painted as an amazon. the saxons called it _winter-monath_, winter month, and _heligh-monath_, holy month, from the fact that christmas fell within it. thus the modern germans call it _christmonat_. the 22nd of december is the date of the winter solstice, when the sun reaches the tropic of capricorn. decemviri (\"the ten men\"), the name applied by the romans to any official commission of ten. the title was often followed by a statement of the purpose for which the commission was appointed, e.g. _xviri legibus scribundis, stlitibus judicandis, sacris faciundis_. i. apart from such qualification, it signified chiefly the temporary commission which superseded all the ordinary magistrates of the republic from 451 to 449 b.c., for the purpose of drawing up a code of laws. in 462 b.c. a tribune proposed that the appointment of a commission to draw up a code expressing the legal principles of the administration was necessary to secure for the _plebs_ a hold over magisterial caprice. continued agitation to this effect resulted in an agreement in 452 b.c. between patricians and plebeians that decemvirs should be appointed to draw up a code, that during their tenure of office all other magistracies should be in abeyance, that they should not be subject to appeal, but that they should be bound to maintain the laws which guaranteed by religious sanctions the rights of the plebs. the first board of decemvirs (apparently consisting wholly of patricians) was appointed to hold office during 451 b.c.; and the chief man among them was appius claudius. livy (iii. 32) says that only patricians were eligible. mommsen, however, held that plebeians were legally eligible, though none were actually appointed for 451. the decemvirs ruled with singular moderation, and submitted to the _comitia centuriata_ a code of laws in ten headings, which was passed. so popular were the decemvirs that another board of ten was appointed for the following year, some of whom, if the extant list of names is correct, were certainly plebeians. these added two more to the ten laws of their predecessors, thus completing the laws of the twelve tables (see roman law). but their rule then became violent and tyrannical, and they fell before the fury of the _plebs_, though for some reason, not easily understood, they continued to have the support of the patricians. they were forced to abdicate (449 b.c.), and the ordinary magistrates were restored. 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. they were originally a body of jurors which gave a verdict under the presidency of the praetor (q.v.), but eventually became annual minor magistrates of the republic, elected by the _comitia tributa_. iii. the priestly board of decemvirs (_sacris faciundis_) was an outcome of the claim of the _plebs_ to a share in the administration of the state religion. five of the decemvirs were patricians, and five plebeians. they were first appointed in 367 b.c. instead of the patrician _duumviri_ who had hitherto performed these duties. the board was increased to fifteen in the last century of the republic. its chief function was the care of the sibylline books, and the celebration of the games of apollo (livy x. 8) and the secular games (tac. _ann._ xi. 11). iv. decemvirs were also appointed from time to time to control the distribution of the public land (_agris dandis adsignandis_; see agrarian laws). bibliography.--b. g. niebuhr, _history of rome_ (eng. trans.), ii. 309 et seq. (cambridge, 1832); th. mommsen, _history of rome_, bk. ii. c. 2, vol. i. pp. 361 et seq. (eng. trans., new ed., 1894); _romisches staatsrecht_, ii. 605 et seq., 714 (leipzig, 1887); a. h. j. greenidge, _legal procedure of cicero's time_, p. 40 et seq., 263 (oxford, 1901); j. muirhead, _private law of rome_, p. 73 et seq. (london, 1899); pauly-wissowa, _realencyclopadie_, iv. 2256 et seq. (kubler). (a. m. cl.)",
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