Triumvirate

A triumvirate (Latin, triumvirātus, from trēs three + vir man) is a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals, each a triumvir (pl. triumvirs or triumviri). The arrangement can be formal or informal, and though the three are usually equal on paper, in reality this is rarely the case. The term can also be used to describe a state with three different military leaders who all claim to be the sole leader.

In the context of the Soviet Union and Russia, the term troika (Russian for "threesome") is used for "triumvirate", directly borrowed from Russian language. Eventually the word "troika" came into usage in other contexts.

Roman triumvirates

Originally, triumviri were special commissions of three men appointed for specific administrative tasks apart from the regular duties of Roman magistrates. The triumviri capitales, for instance, oversaw prisons and executions, along with other functions that, as Andrew Lintott notes, show them to have been "a mixture of police superintendents and justices of the peace."[1] The capitales were first established around 290–287 BCE.[2] They were supervised by the praetor urbanus. These triumviri, or the tresviri nocturni,[3] may also have taken some responsibility for fire control. [4] The triumviri or tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo (for the casting and striking of bronze, silver and gold) supervised the issuing of Roman coins.

Three-man commissions were also appointed for purposes such as establishing colonies (triumviri coloniae deducendae) or distributing land.[5] Triumviri mensarii served as public bankers;[6] the full range of their financial functions in 216 BCE, when the commission included two men of consular rank, has been the subject of debate.[7] Another form of three-man commission was the tresviri epulones, who were in charge of organizing public feasts on holidays. This commission was created in 196 BCE by a tribunician law on behalf of the people, and their number was later increased to seven (septemviri epulones).[8]

In the late Republic, two three-man political alliances are called triumvirates by modern scholars, though only for the second was the term triumviri used at the time to evoke constitutional precedents:

In various municipalities under the Principate, the chief magistracy was a college of three, styled triumviri.

Biblical triumvirates

In the Bible triumvirates occurred at some notable events in both the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Book of Exodus Moses, his brother Aaron and, according to some views their nephew or brother-in-law, Hur acted this way during Battle of Rephidim against the Amalekites.[Exodus 17:10][11] In the Gospels as a leading trio among the Twelve apostles at three particular occasions during public ministry of Jesus acted Peter, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were the only apostles present at the Raising of Jairus' daughter[Mark 5:37], Transfiguration of Jesus [Matthew 17:1] and Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane[Matthew 26:37]. Later, at the time of the Early Christian Church this triumvirate of the leading apostles changed slightly, as it became composed of Peter, John and James, brother of Jesus.[Galatians 2:9][12]

Old Testament and New Testament triumvirates
Moses (in the centre) along with Aaron and Hur at the Battle of Rephidim. 
Peter (sitting in the centre) along with John and his brother James, son of Zebedee (sitting L-R) at the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

Chinese triumvirates

One of the most notable triumvirates formed in the history of China was by the Han Dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) statesmen Huo Guang (d. 68 BCE), Jin Midi (d. 86 BCE), and Shangguan Jie 上官桀 (d. 80 BCE), following the death of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) and the installation of the child emperor Zhao.

Despite the Three Excellencies—including the Chancellor, Imperial Secretary, and irregularly the Grand Commandant—representing the most senior ministerial positions of state, this triumvirate was supported by the economic technocrat and Imperial Secretary Sang Hongyang (d. 80 BCE), their political lackey. The acting Chancellor Tian Qianqiu was also easily swayed by the decisions of the triumvirate.[13]

The Three Excellencies existed in Western Han (202 BCE – 9 CE) as the Chancellor, Imperial Secretary, and Grand Commandant, but the Chancellor was viewed as senior to the Imperial Secretary while the post of Grand Commandant was vacant for most of the dynasty. After Emperor Guangwu established the Eastern Han (25–220 CE), the Grand Commandant was made a permanent official while the Minister over the Masses replaced the Chancellor and the Minister of Works replaced the Imperial Secretary. Unlike the three high officials in Western Han when the Chancellor was senior to all, these new three senior officials had equal censorial and advisory powers. When a young or weak-minded emperor ascended to the throne, these Three Excellencies could dominate the affairs of state. There were also other types of triumvirates during the Eastern Han; for example, at the onset of the reign of Emperor Ling of Han (r. 168–189), the General-in-Chief Dou Wu (d. 168), the Grand Tutor Chen Fan (d. 168), and another prominent statesman Hu Guang (91–172) formed a triumvirate nominally in charge of the Privy Secretariat, when in fact it was a regent triumvirate that was overseeing the affairs of state and Emperor Ling.[14]

Hindu mythology

In Hindu mythology, the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva form the triumvirate Trimurti "in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified" respectively by those gods.."[15]

Tamil Triumvirate (in South India)

Tamil Triumvirate refers to the triumvirate of Chola, Chera, and Pandya who dominated the politics of the ancient Tamil country.

Modern triumvirates

The title was revived a few times for (short-lived) three-headed political 'magistratures' in post-feudal times.

Early-modern and modern France

While French Huguenots had derisively bestowed the name Triumvirate on the alliance formed in 1561 between Catholic Francis, Duke of Guise, Anne de Montmorency, and Jacques Dalbon, Seigneur de Saint Andre during the French Wars of Religion, in later years the term would be used to describe other arrangements within France.

At the end of the 1700s, when the French revolutionaries turned to several Roman Magistrature names for their new institutions, the three-headed collective Head of State was named Consulat, a term in use for two-headed magistratures since Antiquity; furthermore it included a "First Consul" who was not an equal, but the de facto solo head of state and government – a position Napoleon Bonaparte chose to convert openly into the First French Empire.

Prior to Napoleon and during the Terror Robespierre, Louis de Saint-Just, and Couthon, as members of the governing Committee of Public Safety, were purported by some to have formed an unofficial triumvirate. Although officially all members of the committee shared equal power the three men's friendship and close ideological base led their detractors to declaim them as triumvirs which was used against them in the coup of 9 Thermidor.

Triumvirate of : (L-R) Saint-Just, Robespierre, and Couthon

Modern India

In the early days of the national struggle and before Gandhi, the Indian National Congress was known to be under Lal-Bal-Pal i.e. Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and the leader of the three Balgangadhar Tilak often dubbed Lokmanya Tilak.

Modern Israel

People's Republic of China

Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De had the biggest contribution to the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and are regarded as the most influenced members of the first generation of the Chinese communist leaders. All of them died in 1976.[19]

Triumvirate of: (L-R) Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, and Zhu De during Chinese Civil War

Benin

Soviet Union

See also List of Troikas in the Soviet Union
Triumvirate of: (L-R) Nikolai Podgorny, Leonid Brezhnev, and Alexei Kosygin during October Revolution anniversary celebrations in 1973

Modern Italy

In the Roman Republic (1849), the title of two sets of three joint chiefs of state in the year 1849:

Modern Greece

The "Triumvirate of National Defence": (L-R) Admiral Kountouriotis, Venizelos, and General Danglis

The Americas

European Union

After the Lisbon Treaty came into force from 1 December 2009:

Business slang

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google has referred to himself, along with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as part of a triumvirate, stating, "This triumvirate has made an informal deal to stick together for at least 20 years".[22]

Other triumvirates

The word has been used as a term of convenience, though not an official title, for other groups of three in a similar position:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Andrew Lintott, Violence in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2nd ed.), p. 102 online.
  2. ↑ Livy, Periocha 11.
  3. ↑ Triumviri or tresviri nocturni may be another name or nickname for the capitales, because their duties often pertained to the streets at night.
  4. ↑ John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988), p. 347, note 4 online and p. 348, note 13; O.F. Robinson, Ancient Rome: City Planning and Administration (Routledge, 1994), p. 105 online.
  5. ↑ Andrew Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 12 and 95 online.
  6. ↑ Jean Andreau, Banking and Business in the Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 115 online.
  7. ↑ Rachel Feig Vishnia, State, Society, and Popular Leaders in Mid-Republican Rome, 241-167 B.C. (Routledge, 1996), p. 86ff. online.
  8. ↑ Livy 33.42.1; Vishnia, State, Society, and Popular Leaders, p. 171; Fergus Millar, Rome, the Greek World, and the East (University of North Caroline Press, 2002), p. 122 online; Lintott, Constitution, p. 184.
  9. ↑ Beck, Roger B.; Black, Linda; Krieger, Larry S.; Naylor, Phillip C.; Shabaka, Dahia Ibo (1999). World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell. ISBN 0-395-87274-X.
  10. ↑ Christopher Pelling, "The Triumviral Period," in The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge University Press, 1996, 2nd ed.), vol. 10, p. 1 online.
  11. ↑ "Dictionary of World Biography". Retrieved 2015-08-18.
  12. ↑ http://biblehub.com/galatians/2-9.htm
  13. ↑ Loewe (1986), 178.
  14. ↑ Beck (1986), 319.
  15. ↑ For quotation defining the trimurti see Matchett, Freda. "The Purāṇas", in: Flood (2003), p. 139.
  16. ↑ Ladies and gentlemen, your next government, By Amir Oren, Published: 13.01.2009, Haaretz Daily Newspaper
  17. ↑ Diplomacy: Endgame politics, By HERB KEINON, Jan 8, 2009, Jerusalem Post
  18. ↑ Israel launches PR blitz ahead of Gaza operation, Roni Sofer, Published: 12.21.2008, Ynetnews
  19. ↑ Angela P. Cheater, Department of Sociology, University of Zimbabwe (29 June 1989). "Managing Culture en Route to Socialism: The Problem of Culture 'Answering Back'" (PDF). msu.edu. Michigan State University. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  20. ↑ Decalo, Samuel (1973). "Regionalism, Politics, and the Military in Dahomey". The Journal of Developing Areas. 7 (3): 449–478.
  21. ↑ Lachman, Seymour & Polner, Robert (2006). Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse. New York : New Press.
  22. ↑ Tim Weber (2008-09-04), A decade on: Google's internet economy, BBC News, retrieved February 10, 2013

Sources and references

External links

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