According to the texts, which are derived from "ab urbe condita (3.33-54)," the author is trying to state that it is Decemviri itself determining its life and burring itself to the ground. The Decemvirs, Senate, plebs and patricians defy death to defend their own interests individually (33, 37), which will indeed infer the failure of the early Republic in Rome. .
The Decemvirs are contained with ten men, who are all the prestigious people in Rome. Some of them are from the previous consuls, some are the commissioners who had gone to Athens, and the others are chosen from the aged men (33). At the very beginning, the Decemvirs have done things perfectly. Livy suggests, "The presidency of the whole body was, in accordance with the wishes of the plebs, entrusted to Appius" (33) in order to picture the best blueprint of how can the Decemvirs be. However good times don't last long. People start to think, "they should turn over each separate item in their minds, discuss the in conversations with each other, and bring forward for public debate" (34), which shows the beginning of the issue of people complaining about too much capitalized power possessed by Decemvirs. This situation is getting worse when Appius's colleagues expose the true face of Appius who is both haughty and greedy and he exhibits affability in order to prolong his presiding dates in Decemvirs (35). But how does it related to the whole Decemvirs? After this move, Appius is no longer trying to pretend himself as a good man. Conversely, he becomes increasingly violent and ruthless, like a real "Monarch." "The Forum was filled with one hundred and twenty lictors, and they bore the axes tied up in the 'fasces', "They presented the appearance of ten kings" (36). Here the word "fasces" relates a bundle of rods with a projecting ax blade, carried by a lector as a symbol of a magistrate's power, and used as an emblem of authority in Fascist Italy (OED).
