triumvirate
In ancient Rome, usually a board of three officials who assisted higher magistrates in judicial functions, oversaw festival banquets, or ran the mint. The First Triumvirate (60
BC) of
Pompey, Julius
Caesar, and
Crassus was an informal group of three strong leaders with no sanctioned powers. The Second Triumvirate (43
BC), consisting of Mark
Antony,
Lepidus, and Octavian (later
Augustus) — formally
tresviri rei publicae constituendae ("triumvirate for organizing the state") — held absolute dictatorial power.
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