duumvirate

English

From Latin duumvirātus, from duumviri + -atus (“-ate”).

duumvirate (plural duumvirates)

Synonym of diarchy: rule by two people, especially two men.
- 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 310:
  To replace the all-powerful Salan, de Gaulle appointed a duumvirate – Paul Delouvrier and General Maurice Challe.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 241:
  This was to raise the prospect of a duumvirate – ‘two heads in the same hat’, as Bernis quaintly put it.
(historical) Any of several offices of the Roman Republic held by two joint magistrates known as duumvirs.

Roman offices