ĔQUĬTES

horsemen. Romulus is said to have formed three centuries of equites; and these were the same as the 300 Celeres, whom he kept about his person in peace and war. A century was taken from each of the three tribes, the Ramnes , Titienses , and Luceres . Tarquinius Priscus added three more, under the title of Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres poster i ores . These were the six patrician centuries of equites, often referred to under the name of the sex suffragia . To these Servius Tullius added twelve more centuries, for admi ion into which, property and not birth was the qualification. These twelve centuries might therefore contain plebeians, but they do not appear to have been restricted to plebeians, since we have no reason for believing that the six old centuries contained the whole body of patricians. A property qualification was apparently also nece ary by the Servian constitution for admi ion into the six centuries. We may therefore suppose that those patricians who were included in the six old centuries were allowed by the Servian constitution to continue in them, if they po e ed the requisite property; and that all other persons in the state, whether patricians or plebeians, who po e ed the requisite property, were admitted into the twelve new centuries. We are not told the amount of property nece ary to entitle a person to a place among the equites, but it was probably the same as in the latter times of the republic, that is, four times that of the first cla . [ Comitia , p. 105 .] Property, however, was not the only qualification; for in the ancient times of the republic no one was admitted among the equestrian centuries unle his character was unblemished, and his father and grandfather had been born freemen. Each of the equites received a horse from the state ( equus public us ), or money to purchase one, as well as a sum of money for its annual support; the expense of its support was defrayed by the orphans and unmarried females; since, in a military state, it could not be esteemed unjust, that the women and the children were to contribute largely for those who fought in behalf of them and of the commonwealth. The purchase-money for a knight’s horse was called aes equestre , and its annual provision aes hordearium . The former amounted, according to Livy, to 10,000 a es, and the latter to 2000.—All the equites, of whom we have been speaking, received a horse from the state, and were included in the 18 equestrian centuries of the Servian constitution; but in course of time, we read of another cla of equites in Roman history, who did not receive a horse from the state, and who were not included in the 18 centuries. This latter cla is first mentioned by Livy, in his account of the siege of Veii, B.C. 403. He says that during the siege, when the Romans had at one time suffered great disasters, all those citizens who had an equestrian fortune, and no horse allotted to them, volunteered to serve with their own horses; and he adds, that from this time equites first began to serve with their own horses. The state paid them, as a kind of compensation for serving with their own horses. The foot soldiers had received pay a few years before; and two years afterwards, B.C. 401, the pay of the equites was made three-fold that of the infantry. From the year B.C. 403, there were therefore two cla es of Roman knights: one who received horses from the state, and are therefore frequently called equites equo publico , and sometimes Flexumines or Tro uli , and another cla , who served, when they were required, with their own horses, but were not cla ed among the 18 centuries. As they served on horseback they were called equites ; and when spoken of in opposition to cavalry, which did not consist of Roman citizens, they were also called equites Romani ; but they had no legal claim to the name of equites, since in ancient times this title was strictly confined to those who received horses from the state.—The reason of this distinction of two cla es arose from the fact, that the number of equites in the 18 centuries was fixed from the time of Servius Tullius. As vacancies occurred in them, the descendants of those who were originally enrolled succeeded to their places, provided they had not di ipated their property. But in course of time, as population and wealth increased, the number of persons who po e ed an equestrian fortune, also increased greatly; and as the ancestors of these persons had not been enrolled in the 18 centuries, they could not receive horses from the state, and were therefore allowed the privilege of serving with their own horses among the cavalry, instead of the infantry, as they would otherwise have been obliged to have done.—The inspection of the equites who received horses from the state belonged to the censors, who had the power of depriving an eques of his horse, and reducing him to the condition of an aerarian, and also of giving the vacant horse to the most distinguished of the equites who had previously served at their own expense. For these purposes they made during their censorship a public inspection, in the forum, of all the knights who po e ed public horses ( equitatum recognoscere ). The tribes were taken in order, and each knight was summoned by name. Every one, as his name was called, walked past the censors, leading his horse. If the censors had no fault to find either with the character of the knight or the equipments of his horse, they ordered him to pa on ( traducere equum ); but if on the contrary they considered him unworthy of his rank, they struck him out of the list of knights, and deprived him of his horse, or ordered him to sell it, with the intention no doubt that the person thus degraded should refund to the state the money which had been advanced to him for its purchase.—This review of the equites by the censors must not be confounded with the Equitum Transvectio , which was a solemn proce ion of the body every year on the Ides of Quintilis (July). The proce ion started from the temple of Mars outside the city, and pa ed through the city over the forum, and by the temple of the Dioscuri. On this occasion the equites were always crowned with olive chaplets, and wore their state dre , the trabea, with all the honourable distinctions which they had gained in battle. According to Livy, this annual proce ion was first established by the censors Q. Fabius and P. Decius, B.C. 304; but according to Dionysius it was instituted after the defeat of the Latins near the lake Regillus, of which an account was brought to Rome by the Dioscuri.—It may be asked how long did the knight retain his public horse, and a vote in the equestrian century to which he belonged? On this subject we have no positive information; but as those equites, who served with their own horses, were only obliged to serve for ten years ( stipend i a ) under the age of 46, we may presume that the same rule extended to those who served with the public horses, provided they wished to give up the service. For it is certain that in the ancient times of the republic a knight might retain his horse as long as he pleased, even after he had entered the senate, provided he continued able to discharge the duties of a knight. Thus the two censors, M. Livius Sal in at or and C. Claudius Nero, in B.C. 204, were also equites, and L. Scipio Asiaticus, who was deprived of his horse by the censors in B.C. 185, had himself been censor in B.C. 191. But during the later times of the republic the knights were obliged to give up their horses on entering the senate, and consequently ceased to belong to the equestrian centuries. It thus naturally came to pa , that the greater number of the equites equo publico, after the exclusion of senators from the equestrian centuries, were young men.—The equestrian centuries, of which we have hitherto been treating, were only regarded as a division of the army: they did not form a distinct cla or ordo in the constitution. The community, in a political point of view, was divided only into patricians and plebeians, and the equestrian centuries were composed of both. But in the year B.C. 123, a new cla , called the Ordo Equestris , was formed in the state by the Lex Sempronia, which was introduced by C. Gracchus. By this law, or one pa ed a few years afterwards, every person who was to be chosen judex was required to be above 30 and under 60 years of age, to have either an equus public us, or to be qualified by his fortune to po e one, and not to be a senator. The number of judices, who were required yearly, was chosen from this cla by the praetor urban us. As the name of equites had been originally extended from those who po e ed the public horses to those who served with their own horses, it now came to be applied to all those persons who were qualified by their fortune to act as judices, in which sense the word is usually used by Cicero. After the reform of Sulla, which entirely deprived the equestrian order of the right of being chosen as judices, and the pa ing of the Lex Aurelia ( B.C. 70), which ordained that the judices should be chosen from the senators, equites, and tribuni aerarii, the influence of the order, says Pliny, was still maintained by the public an i , or farmers of the public taxes. We find that the public an i were almost always called equites, not because any particular rank was nece ary in order to obtain from the state the farming of the taxes, but because the state was not accustomed to let them to any one who did not po e a considerable fortune. Thus the public an i are frequently spoken of by Cicero as identical with the equestrian order. The consulship of Cicero, and the active part which the knights then took in suppre ing the conspiracy of Cat i line, tended still further to increase the power and influence of the equestrian order; and “from that time,” says Pliny, “it became a third body ( corpus ) in the state, and, to the title of Senatus Populusque Roman us , there began to be added Et Equestris Ordo .” In B.C. 63, a distinction was conferred upon them, which tended to separate them still further from the plebs. By the Lex Roscia Othonis, pa ed in that year, the first fourteen seats in the theatre behind the orchestra were given to the equites. They also po e ed the right of wearing the Clavus Angustus [ Clavus ], and subsequently obtained the privilege of wearing a gold ring, which was originally confined to the equites equo publico. The number of equites increased greatly under the early emperors, and all persons were admitted into the order, provided they po e ed the requisite property, without any inquiry into their character, or into the free birth of their father and grandfather. The order in consequence gradually began to lose all the consideration which it had acquired during the later times of the republic.—August us formed a select cla of equites, consisting of those equites who po e ed the property of a senator, and the old requirement of free birth up to the grandfather. He permitted this cla to wear the lat us clavus ; and also allowed the tribunes of the plebs to be chosen from them, as well as the senators, and gave them the option, at the termination of their office, to remain in the senate or return to the equestrian order. This cla of knights was distinguished by the special title illustres (sometimes insignes and splendid i ) equites Romani . The formation of this distinct cla tended to lower the others still more in public estimation. In the ninth year of the reign of Tiberius, an attempt was made to improve the order by requiring the old qualifications of free birth up to the grandfather, and by strictly forbidding any one to wear the gold ring unle he po e ed this qualification. This regulation, however, was of little avail, as the emperors frequently admitted freedmen into the equestrian order. When private persons were no longer appointed judices, the nece ity for a distinct cla in the community, like the equestrian order, ceased entirely; and the gold ring came at length to be worn by all free citizens. Even slaves, after their manumi ion, were allowed to wear it by special permi ion from the emperor, which appears to have been usually granted provided the patron us consented.—Having thus traced the history of the equestrian order to its final extinction as a distinct cla in the community, we must now return to the equites equo publico, who formed the 18 equestrian centuries. This cla still existed during the latter years of the republic, but had entirely ceased to serve as horse-soldiers in the army. The cavalry of the Roman legions no longer consisted, as in the time of Polybius, of Roman equites, but their place was supplied by the cavalry of the allied states. It is evident that Caesar in his Gallic wars po e ed no Roman cavalry. When he went to an interview with Ariovistus, and was obliged to take cavalry with him, we are told that he did not dare to trust his safety to the Gallic cavalry, and therefore mounted his legionary soldiers upon their horses. The Roman equites are, however, frequently mentioned in the Gallic and civil wars, but never as common soldiers; they were officers attached to the staff of the general, or commanded the cavalry of the allies, or sometimes the legions.—After the year B.C. 50, there were no censors in the state, and it would therefore follow that for some years no review of the body took place, and that the vacancies were not filled up. When August us, however, took upon himself, in B.C. 29, the praefectura morum, he frequently reviewed the troops of equites, and restored the long neglected custom of the solemn proce ion ( transvectio ). From this time these equites formed an honourable corps, from which all the higher officers in the army and the chief magistrates in the state were chosen. Admi ion into this body was equivalent to an introduction into public life, and was therefore esteemed a great privilege. If a young man was not admitted into this body, he was excluded from all civil offices of any importance, except in municipal towns; and also from all rank in the army, with the exception of centurion. All those equites, who were not employed in actual service, were obliged to reside at Rome, where they were allowed to fill the lower magistracies, which entitled a person to admi ion into the senate. They were divided into six turmae, each of which was commanded by an officer, who is frequently mentioned in inscriptions as Sevir equitum Rom. turmae I. II. , ., or commonly Sevir turmae or Sevir turmarum equitum Romanorum . From the time that the equites bestowed the title of principes juventutis upon Caius and Lucius Caesar, the grandsons of August us, it became the custom to confer this title, as well as that of sevir, upon the probable succe or to the throne, when he first entered into public life, and was presented with an equus public us. The practice of filling all the higher offices in the state from these equites appears to have continued as long as Rome was the centre of the government and the residence of the emperor. After the time of Diocletian, the equites became only a city guard, under the command of the praefect us vigilum; but they still retained, in the time of Val ent in i an us and Valens, A.D. 364, the second rank in the city, and were not subject to corporal punishment. Respecting the Magister Equitum , see Dictator .