Charles Kershaw, age 16, of Missoula, Mont., for his question:

WHAT WAS THE TRIUMVIRATE

Triumvirate was a board or commission in ancient Rome that was composed of three men. The term "triumvirate" is also specifically applied to the political alliance made in 60 B.C. by Pompey the Great,

Julius Caesar and Marcus Crassus, designed to carry out their schemes of political aggrandizement against the opposition of the Senate.

The political compact, generally called the first triumvirate, was not a triumvirate in the proper sense of the term because it had no legally constituted existence.

The name triumvirate is also applied to the division of the government of Rome made in 43 B.C. between Octavian (later the emperor Augustus), Mark Anthony and Marcus Lepidus after the murder of Caesar. Their joint administration, sanctioned by the Senate, is generally known as the second triumvirate. Lapidus was excluded from it in 36 and it was finally dissolved in 32.

The word "triumvirate" means any group or set of three; a government of three officers or magistrates functioning jointly; or any association of three persons.