Equestrian Order

Originally the Equites were the cavalry of Rome, 300 in number, 1,800 later. By the Sempronian law they became 123 B.C. a distinct order in the State; the judges were chosen from among them for a time. After 67 B.C. the 14 front rows at the theater were a igned to them. Their insignia were a gold ring and a narrow, purple stripe on the tunic. Their wealth enabled them to undertake the farming of the public revenues. The order lost its political in portance after August us became Emperor. cluding the Horses. In the genus Equus there is one large hoof Equidæ, or SOLID UNGULA. Family of Peri odactyl a , in on the third toe, the second and fourth digits are represented merely by splints (met apo dials) covered by the skin. There is a wide diastema in the jaw, and small canines are present only in males. The first of the seven grinding teeth is early lost and never replaced. American Tertiary deposits have yielded a series of fo ils that shows all gradations from five-toed species in the earliest strata down to the one-toed modern Horse. Eohippus of the lower Eocene had three toes on the hind feet and five upon the forefeet, though only four were well developed. We next come to an animal about as large as a fox, in the upper Eocene, Orohippus ; it had three toes on the hind feet and four upon the forefeet, the third digit being most developed. Next, in the Miocene, we have forms with three toes upon all the feet; but Mesohippus has rudiments of the fourth digit as splints on the forefeet, Miohippus , about as big as a sheep, has the toes nearly equal, and Anchitherium has the middle toe largest. In the later Miocene and early Pliocene, Hipparion flourished. In this form the lateral toes do not reach the ground. In the later Pliocene was Pliohippus , with the lateral toes reduced to splints; and finally, in the Post-Pliocene, appeared our modern Horse.